Noah Lowry (SF Giants) is a Free Agent

[trk001]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/1...ree-agent.html

According to Henry Schulman of The SF Chronicle, Giants lefthander Noah Lowry will become a free agent today after he is removed from the 40-man roster. Schulman said Lowry's agent was informed of the move today, who added that he is "completely healthy throwing three days a week on his normal offseason program without any restrictions."

If his health really isn't in question, this could be a good lefty for the Orioles to pursue.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...owryno01.shtml

2004: 3.82 ERA, 92 IP, 7.04 K/9, 2.74 BB/9, 1.29 WHIP
2005: 3.78 ERA, 204.2 IP, 7.56 K/9, 3.34 BB/9, 1.31 WHIP
2006: 4.74 ERA, 159.1 IP, 4.47 K/9, 3.16 BB/9, 1.39 WHIP
2007: 3.92 ERA, 156 IP, 5.02 K/9, 5.02 BB/9, 1.55 WHIP

Career ERA of 4.03, with 3 seasons of under 4 ERA (a disappointing 2006 drove up the average) so he's better than league average.

He hasn't pitched since '07. Throws a fastball, changeup, curveball and slider. Career batting average of .178, better than most pitchers, which could be useful in interleague play. I doubt he'd be our top of the rotation guy, but he could easily hold a middle spot. His "by inning" and "by pitch count" stats don't show much variance, so he's definitely well adapted to the starting pitcher's role and isn't particularly suited to setup or closer roles, though I wouldn't rule out a long reliever role. There's no significant difference between his vs.LHP/vs.RHP stats, so he's wasted as a LOOGY.

So the basic question is are you interested?

[BRob51]

He's like Rich Hill with better history. Give him a shot.

[Moose Milligan]

Yeah, this is someone I think we should take a look at.

[Sports Guy]

Why the sudden huge drop in K rate?

I think we should take a flyer on him depending on what else we do.

[RVAbird]

His K/BB rate in 2006 and 2007 were scary bad. I mean it was 1 in 2007. Can't get much worse than that.

I see him getting clobbered in the AL East even if he's healthy, unless he can somehow revert to how he pitched in 2005.

There's a possibility of a bounce back, so I could see taking him on the cheap, but I wouldn't hope for much.

[trk001]

Originally Posted by Sports Guy

Why the sudden huge drop in K rate?

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Injuries hampered his performance right from the beginning of the 2006 season. In his first start of 2006, Lowry was removed from the game in the second inning due to an oblique strain,[3] forcing him to miss the first month of the season. Lowry also suffered from an elbow injury in September. On an April 19, 2007, telecast, Giants announcers Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper told viewers that Lowry explained his problems in 2006 as being caused by bad habits and bad mechanics that were initially caused by the injuries.

Despite a losing season for the Giants in 2007, and a season cut short by a forearm injury, Lowry managed to win a career high 14 games, the most for any pitcher on the Giants staff.

Lowry was slated as the number three starter for the Giants in 2008, but the forearm injury that shut him down in 2007 kept him out of the 2008 season. After having trouble throwing strikes early on in spring training, Lowry was diagnosed with exertional compartment syndrome and had surgery on his left forearm.

In May 2009 Lowry had rib removal surgery to relieve the continued pain in his shoulder and neck associated with his recent diagnosis of thoracic outlet syndrome. The new diagnosis brings the original diagnosis of exertional compartment syndrome into question along with the necessity of his 2008 surgery.

So basically, forearm pain that may have been misdiagnosed along with potentially unneeded surgery in '07. If the rib removal surgery works, he won't feel the pain he did before and hopefully would get back to his normal K rate. I'd also point out that his K rate in '07 did rebound, just not to his previous levels.

Just to clarify, I'm not big on taking risky players at this stage, but I also think that every option needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. While I do think he's a risk, I consider it only a slight risk that's worth considering.

[RVAbird]

Originally Posted by trk001

So basically, forearm pain that may have been misdiagnosed along with potentially unneeded surgery in '07. If the rib removal surgery works, he won't feel the pain he did before and hopefully would get back to his normal K rate. I'd also point out that his K rate in '07 did rebound, just not to his previous levels.

I wasn't aware that his problem was lingering. Not only did his K rate drop but his BB rate went way up. If he's truly healthy he might be to take a risk on. Someone should be watching him throw.

[wildcard]

Two years without seeing time in a game at any level. Sounds like a minor league contract to me.

[QBsILLEST1]

He is most definitely someone to take a chance on. What do we have to lose? He has a very solid track record, not like Rich Hill who had 1 good year a couple years ago, and we took him on hoping that the 07 form of Hill was the real Hill, but we soon found out that it wasn't. And the drop in K rate and rise in BB rate has to be attributed to the injury he was suffering from. Worst case scenario, he never amounts to anything and in a month, Jake Arrieta takes his place in the rotation. Best case scenario, he reverts to previous form and becomes a solid #2 type SP again.......I don't see too many logical arguments against signing him unless he is a horrible clubhouse guy or if he is deemed unealthy between now and OD.

[Arthur_Bryant]

Originally Posted by QBsILLEST1

He is most definitely someone to take a chance on. What do we have to lose? He has a very solid track record, not like Rich Hill who had 1 good year a couple years ago, and we took him on hoping that the 07 form of Hill was the real Hill, but we soon found out that it wasn't. And the drop in K rate and rise in BB rate has to be attributed to the injury he was suffering from. Worst case scenario, he never amounts to anything and in a month, Jake Arrieta takes his place in the rotation. Best case scenario, he reverts to previous form and becomes a solid #2 type SP again.......I don't see too many logical arguments against signing him unless he is a horrible clubhouse guy or if he is deemed unealthy between now and OD.

This is incorrect. Hill had more going for him than just his 07 MLB season. Check his minor league stats. He was lights-out for half a season at AA in 2005 and a season and a half at AAA in 2005 and 2006, with spectacular K rates and K:BB ratios. His AAA numbers were put up while playing in the PCL. And then he was very good in half a season with the Cubs after being called up in 2006.

I have no idea what happened to that Rich Hill. I can't imagine how the pitcher I watched this season was able to put up those numbers. (BABIP and FIP don't suggest that luck was involved). But whatever happened to him, he was more than a one-season wonder.

[QBsILLEST1]

Originally Posted by Arthur_Bryant

This is incorrect. Hill had more going for him than just his 07 MLB season. Check his minor league stats. He was lights-out for half a season at AA in 2005 and a season and a half at AAA in 2005 and 2006, with spectacular K rates and K:BB ratios. His AAA numbers were put up while playing in the PCL. And then he was very good in half a season with the Cubs after being called up in 2006.

I have no idea what happened to that Rich Hill. I can't imagine how the pitcher I watched this season was able to put up those numbers. (BABIP and FIP don't suggest that luck was involved). But whatever happened to him, he was more than a one-season wonder.

Well, I guess I should have been more specific, I meant ML track record. He had 1 good year compared to I believe 3 from Lowry. I do not think Rich Hill's problems are much of a mystery at all though. In 08, he hurt his back which made him tinker with his mechanics. His Andy Pettite "back dip" was very inconsistent in how far back he would dip, and many times it would throw off his timing forcing him to basically be throwing "uphill"(no pun intended). Im sure this put extra wear and tear on his arm. He tried to come back this year and prove something, found out he had a torn labrum, tried to pitch through it to prove to himself and others that he is still capable of being a good pitcher, and it just got worse and worse. IMO he still is and can be a good pitcher, he just need to be healthy.

I also remember reading an article about him when he first pitched for us this year I believe by fangraphs and it mentioned how he never mixes in his slider anymore which apparently was at the very least a usable pitch which helped keep batters off of sitting on the curve. The labrum also sapped some velo from him, he used to sit a few MPH faster than he did this year, its the injuries....

[crowmst3k!]

he could be the STAFF ACE!!!!










Of Norfolk

[Stan P]

So you want them to sign a pitcher who didn't pitch last year, and the last 2 seasons that he did pitch in his era was 4.74 and 3.92 in the soft NL West??? That makes no sense at all.

[QBsILLEST1]

Originally Posted by Stan P

So you want them to sign a pitcher who didn't pitch last year, and the last 2 seasons that he did pitch in his era was 4.74 and 3.92 in the soft NL West??? That makes no sense at all.

Why does it make no sense? What do we honestly have to lose and what do we have to gain? That is called a low risk/high reward situation. If you read the thread, you would see that he was injured, misdiagnosed and had unnecessary surgery, so he has been out for a while. Also, he was hurt in the 2 seasons you mentioned above, so if he is completely healthy, he should pitch better. Its not like he had surgery on his arm, so his stuff shouldn't be affected as long as he is pitching pain free. Like I said earlier, best case scenario, we find ourselves another #2 SP, or worst case, he totally bombs it and we release him.......Its not like he is gonna cost us $10 million a year, so its a chance that we need to take in order to succeed. We need to start doing more stuff like this.....

[Fan4Life]

Stay away from the dumpster please... enter the store and purchase some real talent.