Is Derek Lowe Really That Much of a Tool?

It’s no secret that the Braves have been trying to move Derek Lowe and the remaining three years of the four-year $60 million contract he signed last off-season.  Yesterday, I read that Lowe was shocked, shocked! that the Braves would try to trade him so soon after agreeing to give him too much money, and he had the gall to be quoted as saying that he never would have signed with the Braves if he had known that they actually expected to get their money’s worth out of him when they signed him.

Of course, that’s not exactly what Lowe said, but it might as well have been.  Derek Lowe’s agent is Scott Boras, and everyone who really follows the game knows that eight out of ten of his clients would sign a contract in which they agreed to stab their respective mothers in the back if it meant an extra ten percent, and the other two are likely misinformed about who they’ve hired to be their agent.

Derek Lowe felt no shame in milking or bilking the Braves for a contract that was AS MUCH MONEY AS HE COULD POSSIBLY GET, but now he is offended that the Braves realize they haven’t received their money’s worth and would like to move in a different direction.

All I can say is that I hope 2010 is a horrible year for Lowe in Atlanta.  The Braves will be hard pressed to find anyone to take Lowe and his excessive contract off their hands, at least not unless they send a lot of money along with Lowe, so the odds are great that Lowe will be back for another season at least.

I hope the Atlanta sportswriters and fans hold him to his lack-of-performance-for-the-money.  Lowe can cry himself a river running all the way to the bank.  Derek Lowe and Barry Zito and Carlos Silva can take all the abuse they have coming to them.  If they don’t like it, they can always retire, so the teams that foolishly signed them don’t have to keep paying.  As long as they have the chutzpah to keep collecting their $18 million or $15 million or $12 million per, without performing up to it, they should take the abuse until they’re willing to give up the money.

In short, if I have to pay $8.75 for beer at a Giants game, then Barry Zito can put up with my boos as long as he doesn’t perform to my satisfaction.

** In case the above is misleading, I would like to clear up one possible misconception:  beers at Giants’ games are not $8.75 because Barry Zito makes $18 million per year.  Instead, Barry Zito makes $18 million per year because beers at Giants’ games are $8.75.  Major league teams charge as much as they do solely based on market forces — i.e., they charge as much for tickets and concessions as the public is willing to pay.  Because the teams are able to charge so much for their product, they have the money to spend on talent, always with the hope that by signing better, more expensive players,the team will perform better, which will put more cans in the seats paying what the market will bear.

All of that being said, I still have no sympathy for the Barry Zito’s of the world who take their $18 million a year and don’t perform accordingly.  Unfortunately, I can’t boo the Giants’ ownership group or GM Brian Sabean directly when their decisions fall flat, but I can be fairly certain that when I and other fans boo Barry Zito, the owners and Sabean get the message.