Stove Heating Up: Phillies Reportedly Make Offer to Derek Lowe

While word of a potential five-year offer to free agent righthander A.J. Burnett (from the Braves) was beginning to circulate among some team officials, one baseball source confirmed that free agent Derek Lowe received offers from at least two teams, including the world champion Phillies. The identity of Lowe's second pursuer was unclear, though the same source indicated that the team was neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox, both of whom are expected to speak with Lowe's representative, Scott Boras, later this week.

Lowe is a certain upgrade towards the lower half of the Phils rotation but what kind of contract is he looking for? Would you simply welcome him no matter what the cost? [Boston Globe]

Comments

[Pizzi]

Lowe is a ground ball pitcher which would be awesome in CBP. I realize every dollar he gets for the rest of his life will be based on his playoff performance with the Red Sox, and I don't think I need to beat a dead horse by talking about Scott Boras.

But, come on. The Phils revenues this year were astronomical, there's not a whole lotta talent currently available to the Phils, and if a few things go right (which I finally believe they could) we could have a dominant, experienced rotation with our bats. This could back up Cole's chill-inducing words of not being satisfied after being named MVP of the WS.

Barring a major overpayment (which doesnt even exist in the MLB--it's the norm), I would have nocturnal emissions dreaming about our playoff rotation.

[DLo34]

Hamels
Myers
Lowe
Blanton (arbitration eligible)
Moyer/Happ/Carrasco/Kendrick

"I just went from six to midnight"

[Gaze]

Sort of a suprising move, but knowing how often the Phillies have been burned by picking up pitchers in their 30s who are getting paid based on past performance, I doubt their offer was very serious.

[MikeY]

Hamels
Lowe
Myers
Blanton
Moyer?...Happ?...KK?...Carrasco??

Would be nice.

[MikeY]

...didn't see DLo's post on the page when I wrote mine...

[DLo34]

@ MikeY

Haha I like where your head's at!

[Loqiel]

I like it. He's not a power pitcher, so his age doesn't come into play nearly as much, and the ground balls he throws would be more than welcome in the Bank. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll give him what he wants, which is probably way too much.

[JJ]

Concerns: is Lowe going to be another Adam Eaton or Freddie Garcia? We haven't had much luck signing big name pitchers.

[doubleh]

JJ: Eaton and Garcia were big name pitchers? What did I miss?

[stevefredericks]

lowe is in a different galaxy than garcia and eaton

[Pizzi]

Saying we haven't had luck signing old pitchers to big contracts is probably the only reason against signing Lowe that is straight up wrong.

We're talking about 2 pitchers, one (Garcia) who was a trade and another wasn't that old (Eaton). Neither were older than 32.

There's no relation.

What about signing Grampy Moyer? Trading for Blanton? But even those don't say anything about what kind of a pitcher Lowe is or how he would play for us.

Before, this is tolerable. But come now. We won the fucking world series.

[Loqiel]

I was going to say: did I fall asleep for five years or something and wake up and Eaton and Garcia had improved drastically?

[JLMiran]

Who do you think was the second team to offer?

Mets? Angels? Oakland?

http://www.predictionbrothers.com

[DLo34]

DLo wants DLowe

[eric]

The Dodgers used Lowe as their Game 1 pitcher. A lot of teams would consider him their top-of-the-rotation guy. He'd be #3/#4 for us. Gotta love that.

Still, if its a choice between Lowe and Great Uncle Moyer, I gotta go with Moyer. Purely on bias. Not stats. Not potential. Purely on just Moyer being Moyer.

[DLo34]

Admittedly, Garcia was actually a big name pitcher of DLowe's calibur before we traded for him. Apparently at the time we got him:

Garcia had a career record of 116-71 (.620) eighth among active pitchers at the time.

Was one of the nine active pitchers who averaged 15 wins a year over the past 6 seasons.

17-9 and won game 4 of the World Series in 2005.

And probably the biggest stat we were looking for at the time, which ironically enough was most likely was the death-knell for Garcia's tenure here was this:

"More important than that, though, is what Garcia potentially provides in his area. No Phillies starter pitched 200 innings this year. But Garcia has topped 200 six seasons in a row. The only current starter in the big leagues with a longer 200-inning streak is Livan Hernandez (with seven). Just two Phillies – Robin Roberts and Steve Carlton – have had streaks that long in the entire live-ball era."

I guess it was just too much on his arm.

See the following link for a flashback to futility:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/hotstove06/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2689429

[Andy]

I'd love Lowe, but I think everyone who's penciling him into rotations which include Moyer are kidding themselves. I'll be absolutely shocked if the Phillies sign more than one free agent starter to a major league deal.

[Pete D]

We did beat this guy twice in the playoffs...although Torre took him out way to early.

[DLo34]

Who owns pencils anymore?

[zachman]

I know the phillies don't have any super overpowering pitchers in terms of their velocity but in essence wouldn't having two notoriously slowball pitchers take away from each other's effectiveness? especially is they were to go back to back nights? does that make sense or isn't is relevant?

[MIke P]

For me, the main concern is whether they resign Moyer in addition to bringing in Lowe. Beyond his excellent season on the mound, he brings a voice of calm and experience to the rotation. The progression of Cole has as much to do with Moyer as it does with anybody, and I would be disappointed to see the guy who has essentially been our second pitching coach go just because the organization doesn't want to fork out a few million bucks to pay for him for 2 more years.

Plus, I'll admit, the thought of seeing a Philly guy like Moyer retire with the Fightin's pumps me up. Seeing him dig up and drag off the pitching rubber at CBP after the Series is always going to be one of my favorite memories from the celebration.

[Matt Kwasiborski]

This is awesome that we are making a play for a major FA pitcher! For once, we are a team that players would want to play for us and not use us as leverage. The biggest knock on CBP (and Coors Field) was that they were bandboxes and no pitcher would want to pitch here. And who were the NL's last two representatives in the WS? Exactly. Screw John Smoltz! (Love him though)

Lowe would be an excellent addition to this rotation. He wants to win now too. So, he wants to sign with a Northeast team and he will decide between us and Boston. I don't think the Yankees, even if they sign CC (+Derek or AJ), will be winning next year. They have too many holes.

Bring on Derek and Moyer will re-sign then take Dubee's place in 2010.

[Michael C]

@ Zachman-
Lowe is not really a slowball pitcher. he has a great sinker, but still gets up up there in the high 80's i believe, so he works much faster then grampa.

I have a hard time believing they will get Lowe and Moyer as well. Aside from cost, I think they would like to give one of the young kids- Happ, Carrasco, possibly Kendrick (though i think he is less likely) a shot at the 5th starter spot, to see what they have in those guys.

Although, I had this orgasmic thought today:

The braves are seemingly out of it on Peavy. The cubs don't have great prospects. The padres just traded Khalil Greene...

Jason Donald, Happ or Carrasco, Drabek/Savery, and maybe another player for Peavy???

I doubt it, but Mr Amaro, if you read this blog, think about it!

Which is lower, the odds of us trading for Peavy, or the odds the Ruben Amaro reads this blog?

[Justin Evans]

DO NOT COMPARE LOWE TO EATON OR GARCIA.

Situations:

Freddy Garcia: Was injured before traded and the Phillies were too lazy to give him the correct physical. He was damaged good before we acquired him. He didn't just suddenly get hurt in the offseason when he was sitting on the couch.

Adam Eaton: Always sucked. Always. There should have never have been any high expectation. And hey, we weren't even burnt the worst. Texas trade ADRIAN GONZALEZ and CHRIS YOUNG for Adam Eaton.

Lowe is great for our ballpark and though he is costly, I'd rather pay a 36 year old $14 million than a 46 year old $8-9 million. I love Moyer, but you really don't know what his future holds. It was Moyer's best season since 2003. Before that he posted ERA+ of 87, 98, 104, and 92. Without his defense his ERA may have been over 5 because he did have a fairly high WHIP.

[Justin Evans]

Honestly, I'd rather dump Dubee and give Moyer $5 million to sit on the bench and be the pitcher coach.

[Jake]

I am fairly sure either way Moyer is back. Not offering him arb is probably a way of saying they know something will get done. Jamie said he doesn't want to go anywhere else. If they bring in Lowe and assuming Moyer is back, we got one tough rotation to defend this title.

[hennessey]

Hamels
Lowe
Myers
Moyer
Happ/Kendrick/Blanton... but honestly fuck Blanton the guy sucks and don't give me that shit about him having a good record for the Phils. He pitched shitty with the exception of a few games. Phils bailed him out.