because trade deadline doesn't mean no trades afterwards, there are just different criteria that the trades must fulfill before and after and the deadline differentiates those necessary requirements. how would teams know when they could trade freely amongst one another and when a player would have to clear waivers without it?
This move makes teh Angels very dangerous and a smart move by the Rays seeing as I don't think they'll make the playoffs this year. For the Angels Kazmir owns the AL West and is 15-5 career against the Mariners, Rangers and A's but more importanly 4-0 with an ERA under 3 against the Yankees and Sox this year. I got on the Angels for not making the move to get Halladay (Aybar, Saunders and Kendrick for Halladay was rumored to be turned down by the Angels) but Kazmir is locked up for a few years. As for the Rays as long as they resign Crawford it's a good move as they wouldn't be able to keep both.
Agreed. Although, admittedly I don't know much about the talent they had to give up to get him. One thing I am curious about, though, is why he was able to fall all the way to the Angels on the waiver wire. I think the Angels might be taking a decent risk here, which might explain why other teams passed on him. Kazmir is controlled for the next few years, but hasn't been able to stay healthy, and has seen a significant drop in his velocity as his injuries have mounted. He's lost 3mph off his average fastball since he came up, and he's only 25. Still a good move (given how shitty the Angels pitching has been) and he's still a pretty good pitcher, but I wouldn't bet the farm that he's going to have a huge impact this year or next. The Angels have been outplaying their pythag by a ton (by far the luckiest team in the majors in terms of outperforming their expected W/L). I wouldn't be surprised if the Texas passes them in the AL West.
The Angels actually gave up soem pretty good prospects to get Kazmir... Torres has been nothing less than awesome in both A and Dbl A. He's a strikeout machine and has a really good ERA. Now he's only in Dbl A but has been good. he should be a member of the Rays rotation in 2 years. Matt Sweeney is a power hitting 3rd baseman who is in High A. He's still some time away from the majors and of course Evan Longoria is blocking his path at 3rd. The stuff I've heard on him is all very good and he is projecting to be a very good MLB player. The Angels have a very deep system so it's not really alot to give up but it's surprisng they gave up both Torres and Sweeney in this deal.
