Lowe and DePo

Dave · January 7, 2005 at 7:23 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

The Dodgers are on the verge of wrapping up the worst offseason of any team in baseball by guaranteeing Derek Lowe-get this-$36 million over 4 years.

This Derek Lowe. The one who posted a 5.42 ERA last year, 10 percent below league average, and a 4.47 ERA in 2003, just 5 percent above league average. Lowe wasn’t quite as bad as he pitched last year-an inordinate amount of his balls in play went for hits, which will probably come back to normal next year-but, at best, he’s a league average innings eater.

There’s really not a huge difference between Derek Lowe and Ryan Franklin. Both have rubber arms who have taken the ball every 5 days without getting hurt. Both have mediocre control and don’t miss bats, relying on their defense to get outs for them. They won’t ruin your team’s chances of contending, but they certainly are nothing more than role players who are just marginally better than what a creative GM could snag on the waiver wire.

Looking at the offseason, if the Dodgers complete this deal, they’ll have spent $36 million of their 2005 payroll on J.D. Drew, Odalis Perez, Derek Lowe, Jeff Kent, Jose Valentin, Wilson Alvarez, Elmer Dessens, and Ricky Ledee. $36 million for that collection of talent?

Or, written another way, they’ll pay Lowe and Valentin $12.5 million in 2005, basically the same as the annual average value of Adrian Beltre’s contract.

Adrian Beltre or Derek Lowe and Jose Valentin. DePo chose B.

Ouch.

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51 Responses to “Lowe and DePo”

  1. JC on January 9th, 2005 2:31 pm

    1 Did depo know something about the great year beltre had that made the dodgers not want to sign him ba ck??????Did bavasai and his crew buy something that depo and his camp new was a inflatted year by something are some needle?Things that make you think///