Loewen speaks to Roch

[Mackus]

I have not had a chance to read every post in this thread, but did anyone else hear BRob on the Ravens pre-game show on 1300 yesterday? They asked him about it, and he said he was shocked and surprised that Loewen left to sign with Toronto. He said the way AL talked all the time about how grateful he was to the Orioles for giving him a second chance to make it, he was really surprised to hear he left. That is straight from a teammates mouth. No report. No hearsay. Nobody in a newspaper cropping snipplets of info. Roberts said he was shocked by this news.

Being shocked and surprised isn't the same as being outraged like so many seem to be. I'm very surprised as well that he left, I'm just not enraged for what, IMO, is no good reason.

[Pedro Cerrano]

If you were a Blue Jays prospect and they cut you, would you sign with the Orioles if offered a contract?

I would.

Plus, with Loewen's case, we really don't know how on board he was with the plan of releasing him and resigning. Its also not like Loewen tricked the O's into releasing him. The plan was to release him and sign him to a minimum minor league contract. Once he was offered more from the Blue Jays, that plan is gone. The Orioles aren't showing Loewen loyalty by trying him as a hitter, they are trying to get value out of him is the bottom line there, but trying to do it risk free (i.e. inexpensively). Its not disloyal of Loewen's plans to change if a better opportunity arises, seeing the it was the Orioles that allowed this opportunity to arise in the first place.

This isn't the same as the Carlos Boozer thing with the Cavs in the NBA a few years ago. That was a case of the Cavs going out of their way to not tender Boozer a contract for the express purpose of then giving him more money and a big time deal as an unrestricted FA, then him screwing them and jumping ship. The Orioles were trying to save money here and reward themselves by adding another potential prospect (even if he was a very longshot). I'm disappointed that Loewen didn't resign here, but I won't bash a guy for taking more money from his boyhood favorite team. The fact that we've invested a lot of money in him through his original deal when drafted is absolutely irrelevant to this current situation. He doesn't owe the team anything for that.

Do we even know if the O's were afforded a chance to match the Jays' offer? This whole thing happened rather quickly.

[Dipper9]

In the face of what Loewen just pulled on the Orioles, I again must pull out the classic rant of one Clark W. Griswald when his boss, Mr. Shirley, decided that Christmas bonuses would be cut out. This, Mr. Loewen, is what I think of you right now....

"He's a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, d***less, hopeless, heartless, fat-a**, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped worm-headed sack of monkey sh** he is!

Hallelujah! Holy ****! Where’s the Tylenol?"

[Big Al]

There is some silver lining to this Loewen event.

1. We lost a minor league prospect who will probably never play in the majors as a position player. Assume he had turned into the type of pitcher we all hoped he would be. What do think he would have done the moment he became a free agent?

2. We kept him around mostly as a goodwill gesture, we weren't obligated. Now we have one more roster spot for a real prospect with more upside.

Lets hope Tex and AJ feel the same affinity to their boyhood teams that Loewen supposedly does his.

[Dr. FLK]

It sure sounds like he had some sort of verbal agreement with the Os. They released him. His beloved BJays called. He took the offer, and spurned the Os. A verbal agreement isn't binding, so he had every right to do what he did. He just seems kind of sleazy. Personally, I think it's kind of snaky.

I don't hate him. But, I sure as heck don't feel the need to "wish him the best." Not only do I now wish the best for him, I don't even wish him success. He signed with a rival. So, I now hope for him to amount to nothing. We invested a lot in him, and he was a sub-mediocre pitcher with injury problems. Why on Earth would I want some other team in our division to get production out of him on the cheap?

[Mackus]

Are you advocating that the Orioles should have paid him more money for the oft chance that he MAY someday make it to the majors? That the O's took a cheap way out by cutting him with the intention that the O's and Loewen had agreed to bring him back? That's absurd!

No, I don't think the O's should have offered him more than the minimum to stay. But I also don't think Adam "owed" anything to the Orioles to take less money to make his comeback attempt here rather than take what he's worth to try somewhere else, especially if somewhere else is essentially his home.

[Mackus]

Do we even know if the O's were afforded a chance to match the Jays' offer? This whole thing happened rather quickly.

No, I guess we don't, I'm just assuming that what the Jays offered was more than what the O's offered. Even if it wasn't, the offer of playing in Toronto for his favorite team growing up and in his home nation (which I think is something that people are ignoring a bit) has an intrinsic value that goes beyond money.

My bottom line is I don't think he spurned or screwed the Orioles by doing this. If the O's didn't want to take any risk in him leaving or him having to be paid a high amount for his comeback attempt, they should've tried and sneak him through waivers rather than try this on the cheap. Once you decide to cut him, even if you are planning on bringing him back, you run the risk of someone coming in with a better offer, which the Blue Jays apparently did.

[Enjoy Terror]

Do we even know if the O's were afforded a chance to match the Jays' offer? This whole thing happened rather quickly.

Did the Jays actually give him more money? It seemed from MacPhail's comments that this was strictly a preference to play for the Jays over any monetary compensation.

[Omega]

I don't think that Loewen would or will make it as a hitter in either the minors or MB. Rick Ankle's happen very very rarely.

That said, after reading most of the posts on this thread, I go along with the idea that if Loewe had given his word to agree with the O's plans of release and re-sign, he has done a grave injustice to his teammates, coaches, manager, GM and fans who have all taken him at his word.

He will have to live with this loss of respect within the baseball community, including the Toronto organization, until or if he ever earns back the respect of his peers. Shame, and good riddance.

[Frobby]

I'm about out of steam on this subject, so this will be my final post in any of these Loewen threads. Here are my final thoughts:

1. I'm not mad at Loewen, just disappointed.

2. There never was an agreement on how many years Loewen's new contract would be for, or at what salary, so there really wasn't a "gentleman's agreement" or "handshake agreement," just a mutual assumption that they would be able to work something out.

3. I don't think either the Orioles or Loewen expected there to be other bidders for his services. I don't think there was any agreement that Loewen would sign with the Orioles even if another team was interested, just a mutual assumption that this was an unlikely scenario. When the Blue Jays came calling, that threw in a wrinkle that neither Loewen nor the Orioles had expected.

Assuming that's the way this went down, I can't fault Loewen for choosing to go to the team he grew up rooting for. Now, if he was telling the O's he expected to sign with them, while his agent was out shopping him to the Blue Jays and other teams, I would feel differently about that.

I'm done. On to other subjects.

[LookitsPuck]

Huge d-bag move by Adam Loewen. I don't think he'll ever make it as an every day player, but if he does I hope our pitchers have enough memory to throw a *bit* inside, if you know what I mean.

I normally don't actively root against someone, but Adam Loewen is making it difficult for me not to.

[BillySmith]

If this is still the accurate locations of the Jays minor league teams, AL will have the pleasure of playing in:

AA - Tennessee

A - Dunedin, FL; Charleston, SC

Not exactly Canada, Adam. But I wish you luck.

[byrdz]

If this is still the accurate locations of the Jays minor league teams, AL will have the pleasure of playing in:

AA - Tennessee

A - Dunedin, FL; Charleston, SC

Not exactly Canada, Adam. But I wish you luck.

Hahha, good point, all this quibbling that he gets to play for his homeland's MLB team and most likely the rest of his career will be spent further south than he was with the O's.

.

[Big Al]

I would be curious how Loewen would feel if the shoe were on the proverbeal other foot. Suppose we had this same agreement and Loewen cleared waivers and every other team passed. Then when he came around to re-sign with us, Andy said "Um sorry Adam, we've decided to go in another direction. You see we just signed Tex and he'll be our 1b for the next 10 years or so. We really like you and thought you had a future with us, but he's from the area and grew up an O's fan. We're sure you'd understand. No hard feelings, right buddy?"

[BaltimoreTerp]

I would be curious how Loewen would feel if the shoe were on the proverbeal other foot. Suppose we had this same agreement and Loewen cleared waivers and every other team passed. Then when he came around to re-sign we us, we said "Um sorry Adam, we've decided to go in another direction. You see we just signed Tex and he'll be our 1b for the next 10 years or so. We really like you and thought you had a future with us, but he's from the area and grew up an O's fan. We're sure you'd understand. No hard feelings, right buddy?"

The Orioles (and every other team) would do that as well, without thinking twice. Would all of us be so upset at the Orioles not showing any loyalty to a guy who gave his left arm for the franchise and was even willing to switch to a completely new position at this point in his career?