The Atlanta Braces, as usual, have moved quickly to address a problem and improve their team.
They traded Derek Lowe to Cleveland for 23-year-old High-A lefty reliever Chris Jones. The Braves will pay 10M of Lowe's 15M 2012 salary.
Lowe at 38 is still a groundball machine (59% groundball rate in 187 innings, ranked second in all of baseball) which is critical for success in Camden Yards. He posted a line of 5.05 ERA, 6.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 0.67 HR/9. While there is no question that he is no longer a premier pitcher, those stats are probably better than what we will be able to acquire by trade or the free agent market unless we overpay in money or prospects.
In August I posted on how I would fix the Orioles(http://orioles-nation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=491). One of the trades I suggested was for Derek Lowe; however, I thought it would cost more than the Indians gave up to get him. Jones, the pitcher the Braves received, is comparable to Oliver Drake who would not make anyone's top ten prospect list.
We may never know if we lost out on Lowe because the team wasn't interested or that there was no one in charge at the Warehouse to make this trade. Regardless, I think we missed a golden opportunity to fill the rotation with an affordable ML talent.
