Scott Kazmir, Baseball America's #7 prospect, made his first Spring appearance and departed after 1 1/3 innings. He reached his pitch count so quickly because he walked 3 batters.
This points to the most obvious flaw, and the one the removes the luster from the hype surrounding him for Roto purposes in 2005 - he can't throw strikes. As a result, his pitch counts will be high, and he will be removed early in his starts.
As his walk rate will be high (as will his K rate), his WHIP will suffer. As he pitches for a horrible team, he will not be in a position to win many games. The combination of a SP who has a high WHIP along with low wins makes him Roto ebola virus - stay away at all costs!
This is easier to say, though. The hype machine will be very difficult to ignore by the typical Roto player (as it will be for jeff Francis in Colorado), but ignored it must be.
The AL does not possess enough quality SP to offset 150 innings of 5.00/1.50 ratios. If you already have Santana, Schilling and/or Johnson, then you could gamble that Kazmir will learn how to throw strikes. If not, stay away.
A point to remember is Kazmir is a young strikeout pitcher. This mitigates his ability to let hitters put the ball in play. He will want to challenge each hitter. If he falls behind, then the batter will be at an advantage when Kazmir tries to avoid the walk.
There is nothing good happening here for 2005. (See 1997, 1998, and 1999 for Jaime Navarro.)
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