Master Of Deception

By MARC LANCASTER The Tampa Tribune Published: July 13, 2008 CLEVELAND - As someone who has never stood in the batter's box against Scott Kazmir, it took Dioner Navarro some time to fully grasp how miserable an experience trying to hit the lefty can be. He knew Kazmir was throwing harder than average, but not triple-digits hard, and the pitcher didn't roll out a particularly nasty breaking ball or effective changeup. "I'd be catching back there and I'd be, 'How the heck do these guys keep missing those pitches,' because he just throws fastball after fastball," Navarro said. "I started talking with other guys around the league - 'What do you see?' - and they said that ball gets there so fast, like sneaky fast." A pitch traveling 95 mph gets to home plate in about four-tenths of a second, and a decision on whether (and where)... [read full story]