Quote:March 2, 2004 -- PORT ST. LUCIE - I saw the future yesterday. And while everyone else is talking about his fastball, it was the knee-buckling changeup that was most impressive about Scott Kazmir, the Mets' Kid K.

As for those Texas scouts, whose arrival has been announced much too prematurely by those pushing for an Alfonso Soriano trade, they might as well stay home if they think they have any chance of taking Kazmir back to the Lone Star State.

"I want to stay here; I don't think I'm going anywhere," Kazmir said after an impressive inning of work in an intrasquad game at Tradition Field. "I don't have any say-so over that, so I'm not even going to worry about it."

There is nothing to worry about. Just as the Mets would be crazy to trade Jose Reyes, as I pointed out last week, they would be doubly certifiable to deal away the lefty Kazmir.

Some people just don't seem to understand. You don't trade players like Kazmir; you wait a lifetime for them. GM Jim Duquette was practically drooling after watching Kazmir throw. You can't blame him.

"He'll be in the center of every trade rumor after today," Duquette said of Kazmir. In other words, everybody is going to want this first-round pick, but the Mets aren't about to trade him.

It was the changeup that had Duquette, like me, excited. You see, we all knew Kazmir can light up the radar gun, but when you can do that and throw a devastating changeup and slider, then you really have something.

Just ask lefty first baseman Craig Brazell, who stood helpless at the plate as he took a changeup that went backdoor on him for strike three.

"He really had a lot of zip on the ball, and it gets on you quickly," Brazell said. "Then he threw that changeup that backdoored me; it was a great pitch."

All this is just the beginning for Kazmir, who just turned 20 and struck out 179 batters in 1271/3 innings last year in Single-A, the best strikeout ratio in the minors. Most of all, Duquette wants to make sure that Kazmir is brought along the right way, and he's not just talking about his ascent to the majors following that proven timetable of success.

Duquette is talking about the inner game.

"What we really need to make sure of as an organization is that he is so young that he matures as quickly off the field as he does on the field," Duquette said.

In other words, Kazmir is on the fast track with this golden arm and deliberate delivery and the Mets want to make sure that when he gets to the majors, all the other things that come with pitching in the majors in New York don't prove to a be problem.

Just look at the history of young pitchers and the Mets. There have been some ugly chapters written. The Mets are so sure of Kazmir's physical talent, they want to make sure he can handle everything as well as he handles the pitching aspect.

That is a perfect game plan.

"His stuff will tell you that he should be pitching in the big leagues tomorrow," Duquette noted. "But how does he handle adversity? How does he handle the struggles of a professional player? How does he handle the rigors of a full season? Those are all things that we have to make sure he goes through and we don't fall into the trap of some of those well-known guys who came up years ago."

Yes, when it comes to Kazmir's talent, they are thinking along the lines of Dwight Gooden. They want to make sure Kid K is ready for all that. He certainly had no problem handling those out-of-this-world trade rumors yesterday. It appears his priorities are in order.

Sit back and relax. Watching Scott Kazmir grow up into a major league star is going to be a lot of fun.

That will be in New York, not Texas.