I clicked the link. Low 90’s… still sounds too low.

Sorry, guys!

Lowe is not your normal 36 year old pitcher. Derek Lowe spent years in the bullpen, and then became a starter later in his career. Despite being 9 years older, Lowe’s only pitched about 5 or 6 more years worth of innings than Ollie. His average fastball velocity has increased almost every single year since he became a starter, had his best year last year and is on track to best 2008 so far this year. All in all, signing Derek Lowe to an extra year over Perez was not unintelligent at all, especially when our other pitchers were all under 30.

This also brings up the subject of unnecessary risk, which Omar took. We had, prior to signing anyone in the offseason: one of the best pitchers in the game who had just had surgery (Santana), a mid to late 20s #3ish righty coming off surgery (Maine), and a 25 year old ground ball pitcher with potential entering a year in which he would be a candidate for the Verducci effect. The last thing we needed was to take a risk, and that’s what we did. Oliver Perez is not a safe signing. Or a good one, for that matter. But even if you sign him to a small amount of money, you do not sign him to be your #3 pitcher and consider your rotation “fixed”. You just don’t, and I said all of this before the season began. All of it, and I KNEW this would happen: the rotation wouldn’t hold up, and we would regret not signing Lowe.

Some people (Matt Cerrone) say that the window for this team is closing. I do not agree with this at all. However, this is a team that can and should be winning now, and hopefully for the forseeable future. That can’t happen if we spend money foolishly, and that means that sometimes you have to disregard age and potential and just focus on the most important question: who is the better pitcher, and who fits better into this team? Ollie had three distinct advantages over Lowe: age, one year less on the contract, and his left-handedness. That is not enough to give him the edge, and Omar should have known that.

And “untapped potential”? Perez’s velocity has dropped, his changeup was 5 mph off from his fastball (which is shitty as all hell), and I also disagree with you on the fact that his one vice is walks. He walks too much, for sure. His BB/9 is consistently significantly above the average, and even last year, his K/BB was only 1.71, which is not very good at all. But additionally, his HR/9 is bad as well, consitently below (or above, depending on your viewpoint) average. He hasn’t had an FIP below 4.30 since 2004. This is all doable and overcomable as a #4 pitcher, but not as someone with the “potential” to be a #2.

I agree with you on one point: we shouldn’t be mad at Ollie. He just got the best deal available for him. However, almost all Met fans that really looked at both sides would have absolutely argued that Lowe was a much better, and even safer, investment.