Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Scott Kazmir

On this date 34 years ago, Rod Barajas was born. Barajas has played 11 seasons with four different franchises, hitting .241/.286/.411. This year, he is in the final year of a two-year deal that pays him $2.5MM this season. With less than a month remaining in the season, many others will see their contracts expire and look forward to free agency. Let's take a look at what is being written in the blogosphere…

• The Hardball Times says Scott Kazmir may be injury-prone moving forward, but he still has the arm to be an Ace.
• Rays Revolutionary has no problem with trades that help the Rays budget, but are upset at the timing of the Kazmir deal.
• The Rays Party looks at what the Kazmir deal means for the Rays now and down the road.
• Jorge Says No! is not a fan of the timing of the Kazmir trade, but says the Rays got a good package, and in the end, it is Pat Burrell's fault.
• The Bottom Linewonders why the Red Sox did not claim Kazmir and block his move to the Angels, a potential playoff opponent.
• UmpBump says the Kazmir deal makes sense, but maybe the Rays should have waited until the off-season.
• The Baseball Opinion likes the Kazmir deal for the Rays noting they dumped the salary and that there is likely more wrong with his arm than we know.
• Around the Majors loves the Kazmir deal for the Rays, noting that Kazmir no longer has a fastball to live up to his reputation.

Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com. If you have a suggestion for this feature, Cork can be reached here, and followed on Twitter here.