Diminished returns for Beckett, Kazmir

Sunday, October 12, 2008 | Feedback | Print Entry

The marquee would have read BECKETT VS. KAZMIR, if Game 2 had been a boxing match, because the starting pitchers were two guys with résumés filled with gaudy strikeout numbers: Josh Beckett, one of the greatest postseason performers of all time, and Scott Kazmir, the left-hander who will forever be lamented by the Mets as the one that got away.

But right now, in this October, Beckett and Kazmir are not what their records say they are. Rather, they are both working with greatly diminished stuff, and will likely not rebound until 2009, at the earliest; they just don't have the weapons, and the hitters are telling us that, without uttering a word. Think about this: On Saturday night, Beckett threw 93 pitches -- and of those, the Rays swung and missed at just four. Kazmir threw 98 pitches, and of those, only seven generated missed swings.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

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