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Kazmir Won't Participate In Classic

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 17, 2009

Updated: 02/18/2009 06:11 am

PORT CHARLOTTE - Scott Kazmir didn't sound surprised that his hopes of pitching in the World Baseball Classic had been rejected, but he was disappointed just the same.

"I was excited about playing for my country and I was looking forward to the experience," Kazmir said Tuesday evening.

The left-hander won't get the chance to pitch for Team USA next month, though. The Rays' petition to bar Kazmir from participating in the WBC based on the time he missed due to injury last season and their plans to reduce his workload this spring training was approved Tuesday.

After suffering an elbow injury last Feb. 26, Kazmir didn't make his first regular-season start until May 4. That time lost was compounded by a longer season as the Rays made it to the World Series, prompting the team to move to limit all of its returning pitchers' workloads early this spring. Manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday he didn't expect the regulars to start pitching in games until perhaps the weekend of March 7.

"We felt like, with the health issues that he had last year coupled with the fact that we played an extra month, the prudent thing to do would be to push him back a little bit in spring as we were doing with some of our other pitchers as well," Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman said.

Of special concern to the Rays was the inevitability that Kazmir would be amped up to full intensity for WBC games a full month before Opening Day.

"We felt like the difference between pitching competitively in early March with 'USA' on your chest as opposed to sometime in the second week of March in a Grapefruit League game differed greatly in terms of what it takes to get to that point as well as the stress on the arm," Friedman said.

With the verdict in hand, Kazmir said he would still look forward to being with his teammates throughout the spring as he prepares for the season.

"I have to look at the positives out of it," he said.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Three more position players checked in at the complex by early Tuesday afternoon, with Ben Zobrist, Morgan Ensberg and Jon Weber making the scene.

Zobrist was the most excited of anyone, as his wife Julianna gave birth to the couple's first child, Zion Benjamin, on Feb. 1.

"It was really awesome," Zobrist said of being there for the delivery. "It was definitely the best experience of my life."

Three position players had not yet been seen at the complex by the end of the business day: Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Ray Olmedo. The team is scheduled to be on the field for its first full-squad workout at 10 a.m. today.

BIG STEP FOR McGEE

LHP Jake McGee hasn't thrown a pitch from the mound since June 22, the final start he made last season before undergoing Tommy John surgery on his elbow July 8.

But McGee's rehab has progressed to the point that he said he'll be back on the hill Monday, when he is scheduled to throw 20 pitches - all fastballs - as he begins a mound program expected to last six weeks. McGee, one of the Rays' top prospects, remains on track for a return to game action in June or July.

CAMP WATCH

Maddon said the Rays will not hold an intrasquad game before Grapefruit League play begins last week.

The Rays had played a game or two among themselves in the past, but there's no need to do it this year with an expanded spring schedule already in place.

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