Lowell, Beckett Trade Revisited by Pete Schmuck

I ran a similar thread a few weeks ago.. this one says the particulars that I had forgotten.. (It's worse than I thought)



The Orioles could have traded Larry Bigbie, Jorge Julio and Hayden Penn for Burnett and Lowell and blunted criticism that they did nothing substantial in 2005 to upgrade the one Orioles team in the past decade that had a real chance to compete for the American League East title, but there was too much uncertainly surrounding both Marlins players for Orioles owner Peter Angelos.



peter.schmuck.RemoveThis@baltsun.com

About a week ago, Kubatko, also with the Newsletter, tried to spin the non-trade:

Yes, the Orioles could have acquired Mike Lowell during the A.J. Burnett talks when both played for the Marlins, but there were serious concerns about the guy. His health, his salary, his declining production, rumors that he could end up on the above-mentioned list. It seemed wise to avoid him. The Marlins were trying to unload him for a reason. Perhaps both sides were wrong, but it was understandable at the time.

He published my response:

Let's be honest here. The Marlins cut Lowell because they didn't want to pay him $9M in salary each of the last two years on the deal. His last contract with the Marlins was predicated on the team getting a new stadium deal, which still hasn't happened. Lowell's offensive numbers were way down in 2005, but he still won the Gold Glove his last year in Florida. His numbers in 2003 & 2004 indicated that 2005 could be a fluke, and it was.


These are the players that Peter Angelos, and make no mistake the deal died on his desk, refused to trade for Lowell and Burnett: Penn, Bigbie, Julio and possibly Kline. The Orioles were in contention for most of the first half of 2005 and a deal like this could have helped to right the ship. Instead, we swapped Bigbie for Byrnes and steroid stories were the crutch the team used to explain the collapse in the 2nd half.