Worth an extra $3 million this year? You decide.

Lowe
IP 8.0
H 2
R 0
ER 0
BB 0
SO 4
HR 0
ERA 0.00

And just for poops and laughter, here's the line from Ollie's tune-up start on Saturday:

Perez
IP 0.2
H 2
R 6
ER 1
BB 4
SO 0
HR 1*
ERA 4.50

----
*grand slam

7 months ago kingcritical 30 comments 0 recs |

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Comments

I said this before the season began, hell even before we signed Ollie.

Lowe is absolutely worth 3 million a season more than Ollie for probably at least the first three years of the deal.

The fourth year would have been gravy.

"I got my pregnant wife (the Yankee fan) with me. Hoping my kid learns to kick her everytime the Mets score." -Schifftis-

by future on Apr 5, 2009 11:16 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

We already knew

Now get your Perez jersey back on and into the bunker.

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Apr 5, 2009 11:24 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

Aye, Captain.

We've got ourselves a ball club, the Mets of New York town!

by kingcritical on Apr 5, 2009 11:31 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

I want to punch a child.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Apr 5, 2009 11:28 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs

I tried so hard not to laugh.

But ultimately, I failed.

" YES! BASEBALL IS BACK! YES! "

by LOUtheMETandNATSfan on Apr 5, 2009 11:37 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

how bout a childlike pitcher?

a rich one at that.

I.M. Forme
"When you get yourself into trouble is when you feel you have to do something, and then you get yourself in trouble." --Omar Minaya

by itsmetsforme on Apr 6, 2009 1:26 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The hit on Perez (that at least I’ve been saying, but many of you have said too) is it’s just disturbing where he has these games where he can’t get anyone out at all. I’d rather hvae a bad game be 5-6 runs over 6 innings maybe. Perez can do that in the 1st, easy. It’s not a good thing come playoff time.

At the very least, he better get his fat ass in shape!!!

The 2009 NY Mets: WE GOT K-ROD! OMG, Putz, too! Sign Lowe! Lowe's a Brave. Sign Manny! Tim Redding, WTF? Sign Manny! Sheets or Perez? SHEETS! Perez?? Oh, Sheets is hurt -- good job, Minaya! WTF?! SIGN MANNY!

by ZaBlanc on Apr 5, 2009 11:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He needs to contact Heath Bell

and get on the Wii program.

" YES! BASEBALL IS BACK! YES! "

by LOUtheMETandNATSfan on Apr 5, 2009 11:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

DDR

Much preferred over Wii Fit. My Wii Fit is in the basement. Too much downtime between exercises, I wish they’d fix it in the next version (which is coming in November).

by ZaBlanc on Apr 6, 2009 10:02 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Personally, I prefer the outdoors.

" YES! BASEBALL IS BACK! YES! "

by LOUtheMETandNATSfan on Apr 6, 2009 11:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

dinosaur

by cjmulrain on Apr 6, 2009 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No use crying over spilled milk.

It’s our little blue and orange wagon now. We must pull it.

" YES! BASEBALL IS BACK! YES! "

by LOUtheMETandNATSfan on Apr 5, 2009 11:37 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The Braves got both Lowe and Vazquez

Minaya should be fired for that.

2009 Mets: maybe its the Phillies turn to have a terrible bullpen?

by Greenpoint Ian on Apr 5, 2009 11:50 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Omar had tunnel vision this offseason

He had the mindset that what he needed to do was fix the bullpen and then the rest of the team was “good enough”, and that’s exactly what he did.

by JoshNY on Apr 6, 2009 8:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was going to post the exact same thing

But then I watched Slumdog Millionaire instead and fortunately kc did the dirty work for me here. The point here isn’t about one great game from Lowe and one shitty game from Perez. This was never about one game; it was always about two vastly different bodies of work and the likelihood that one or both would continue as they have. Smart money is on Lowe posting another Top-10 season and Perez mired in ineptitude.

by Eric Simon on Apr 6, 2009 12:00 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Craptacular.

'Oh yes, I know all about that duty-of-a-citizen stuff. It doesn't go. There are exceptions to every rule, and this was one of them. When a man risks his liberty to come and root at a ball-game, you've got to hand it to him. He isn't a crook. He's a fan.'

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on Apr 6, 2009 12:14 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Perez -- the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde of Pitchers

I’m convinced it’s something in his head because he CAN pitch when he has his act together, but too often something seems to get him rattled and he stops finding the strike zone, then puts a batting-practice fastball out for someone to hit…

He can cruise along for 5 or 6 innings and then just explode like he did in the first yesterday.

by erich10031 on Apr 6, 2009 1:27 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Get over it

Moreover, it is far too soon to judge the deal when you have a significantly older pitcher on a three year deal. The Mets learned the hard way with Glavine, Martinez, and Wagner that you suffer the consequences when you pay pitchers who are several years past their prime and nearing the age of rapid decline due to injury or skill loss.

by djbutler73 on Apr 6, 2009 7:39 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Sorry I don't want to get over it yet

to let Lowe got to a divison rival is an awful move and then to sign the headcase inconsistent Perez just compounds the problem. Ideally the Mets should have signed both pitchers and made Perez their number 5 instead of Livan. The Mets simply have very littile depth in the starting rotation right now all becuase the Wilpons didn’t want to go over the luxury tax. I hope I am wrong but I fear this is a sign of bad things to come. And Lowe is the type of pircher who lasts longer and he seemed to get better each year of that Dodger contract, he shows little signs of slowing down despite his age.

by Endys Game on Apr 6, 2009 7:51 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The problem is

Even though he’s significantly older he’s also significantly better than Perez. Even if Lowe declines it’s unlikely he’ll decline so much that his contract won’t still be better value than Perez’s is.

by Gina on Apr 6, 2009 8:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Of course that being said

like Lou said earlier there’s nothing to be done about it now. So hopefully Perez gets his act together and/or Omar/the front office learns from this possible mistake.

by Gina on Apr 6, 2009 8:58 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ah, Opening Day overreactions

gotta love em. I’ll personally guarantee that Perez will have a start this season (almost) as impressive as Lowe’s last night. I’ll also personally guarantee that Lowe will have a few really crappy starts.

Look, we all know Lowe is a better pitcher than Ollie. We all also know (from much personal experience) that 4 year deals for older players is a turrible idea. Lowe will be better than Ollie this year, and probably even next year, but in 2011 and 2012, I have a feeling his contract will become an albatross. There’s no use crying over spilled milk, let’s just hope Lowe blows his arm out in his next start and Ollie has a halfway decent season.

Also, did Ben Sheets end up signing with anyone? I’d still be willing to give him a chance when he comes back from his injury.

by cjmulrain on Apr 6, 2009 9:17 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

No Sheets hasn't signed and probably won't be signed till after the draft

if he signs at all.

by Gina on Apr 6, 2009 9:26 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

well

our top four players are in their prime right now…two years from now, beltran and santana might be on the decline. so there’s an argument that 2 years of lowe now would have been better than four years of ollie at all.

by englishgrey on Apr 6, 2009 9:27 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

it's only 3 years of Ollie

I hate the “win now” mentality, though. Look where that’s gotten the Yankees. I want a team that can win now without mortgaging the future. I really wish we could have gotten Lowe on a 3 year deal, but the Braves basically bid against themselves for that 4th year (does that sound familiar at all? We did the same thing for Pedro in 2005), and I don’t think Omar was wrong not to match it.

I don’t love the Ollie signing, I would have preferred the Mets get Smoltz or Penny or Pettitte or even Vasquez on shorter term deals. But I’m not really that upset about losing out on Lowe.

by cjmulrain on Apr 6, 2009 10:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think most of us hate the win-now mentality

But it’s obviously the type our front office seems to have commited themselves too. So at least if they’re going to do that they should go through with it 100%, not try to kind of win now.

by Gina on Apr 6, 2009 10:51 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also we're likely going to have to shell out cash in that 4th year anyway to replace Ollie

Obviously that’s a long way away so who knows what could happen, but the fact that it’s only 3 years doesn’t necessarily mean we’re saving an extra 15 million. And I don’t see why we couldn’t have front loaded the contract, so we were paying him less in those last years.

Actually I’ve never understood why we don’t front load more contracts you would think a team with our resources would be able to do that to protect ourselves in a sense if we sign older players.

by Gina on Apr 6, 2009 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

right

but I guarantee that whoever we sign in 4 years for a big contract will be much better at that point than Derek Lowe (Tim Lincecum, please?) I agree with you about the front loading, but that might be a Union issue, since they probably realize that allowing teams to do that would turn MLB into the NFL, where teams release guys halfway through their contracts.

by cjmulrain on Apr 6, 2009 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

But the guy still gets paid so I'm not sure why it would matter that they end up released

I mean personally if I’m getting paid to not pay for a team I’ll be happy. And considering how teams are starting to lock up younger players, and considering how overworked some young pitchers are being I’m not sure I’m convinced we’ll sign someone better than Lowe in 4 years I am pretty certain we won’t be signing someone to a huge contract in 4 years considering the contracts we’d have that were expiring soon or had recently expired, Wright and Reyes specificall and possibly Beltran, and that’d we’ll still have Santana and possibly K-rod @ 17 million.

by Gina on Apr 6, 2009 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also IMO unless you think Perez is going to be WAY better than Lowe in that third year

Then even if Lowe declines I think he would be worth his contract just based on how much better he’d be the first two years. And like Englishgrey said our top 4 players are in their primes, and Beltran is likely near the end of his. We don’t know who our catcher or first basemen will be after this season, and hell we may still be looking for a 2nd basemen/right fielder, and we don’t know if Putz will be here next year, and he almost certainly won’t be back in 2010. Even if Lowe was only that much better the first two years of his contract those are the years we’re going to need that performance the most if we want to get to the World Series. Now it just seems like we’re in semi-win now mode which doesn’t make any sense.

by Gina on Apr 6, 2009 9:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs