But I think it’s a long shot..

you know my first thought is it’s a case of yet another GM feeding Heyman misdirection to print, but when I really think about, it’s would make some sense.

Either way, I don’t hate the idea. At all.

This would make our offseason much better. He’d be a good 4th starter for this team

In this instance? In the body of the article, I don’t see any mention of the Cubs expressing interest. I know the Cubs would love to have him — so would any team I bet. But other than that, how can this make any sense in the context given by Heyman? Sure, they might cost the same, but Peavy is younger and better (presuming both stay healthy, and even though Lowe has been a workhorse who always takes his turn, he is 8 years older, so that’s what I’d consider a wash.)

That being said, of course Lowe would be a great addition to the Cubs. Winner, playoff veteran, always takes the ball, and from what I remember, a good teammate. A 4 year deal scares me a little, but Lowe probably isn’t one of those pitchers who will “lose it” in the next few years. This might also mean we’d have to dump Marquis and trade for a lefty outfielder. Or stand pat. OR blow a bunch of money and happily surprise everyone.

But this smells to me like Heyman’s speculation.

But he seems like the type that could be effective to that age

But if somehow it was true, this would not make me very happy. Hendry so far doesn’t seem to have a very solid game plan going into this offseason. He wasted a lot of time with the Peavy stuff, when he should have been looking at creative ways to trade for a LH power bat.

Now that I say that, it has me thinking. Why do we need another power bat? Is it just me, but it didn’t seem like we were missing power last season. Why can’t we get a LHB with a high OBP, that plays good defense and who could be plugged into the number two hole?

I know the whole Roberts thing isn’t going to happen, but someone like him could work. Leave Sori in leadoff, put the LHB second to help break up the rightities.

Opening day lineup could look like:
1 Sori LF RHB
2 LHB
3 Lee 1b RHB
4 Ramirez 3b RHB
5 DeRosa 2b RHB
6 Soto C RHB
7 Fukudome CF LHB
8 Theriot SS RHB
9 Z P

but Derek Lowe is a quality pitcher who gives us fits. He’s also an incredible workhorse. I don’t think he’s ever been on the DL and has at least 32 starts a year every year since Boston moved him into the rotation in 2002. He’s also only had one bad year (2004) in his whole career, too. He’s going to be 36, but he’s shown no signs of slowing down. He’s not as good as Peavy, but he’s very good.

Still, giving any 36 year old pitcher a four or five year contract is nuts. And he’d again fall in the realm of “luxury” rather than “necessity” for next year’s team. Unless he really wants to play for the Cubs and would be willing to accept a two year deal with an option, I can’t see us being the winning bid on him.

Say Harden for Yunel Escobar, then sign Lowe…

The entire Peavy scenario was based on dumping most of Marquis’ contract, and Hendry was trying to leverage Towers into helping him out either by taking Marquis and trying to flip him later, or just keeping him knowing that it was only a one year commitment. Towers would not do it, so Hendry walked away.

Now, there is no guarantee that Hendry will be able to unload more than half of Marquis’ salary, and he has no leverage until the glut of third-tier pitchers dries up.

Lowe wants a big payday, says MLBTR:

Braves Not Interested In Lowe, Peavy?
By Tim Dierkes [December 15, 2008 at 3:23pm CST]
According to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com, the Braves aren’t interested in available starters Jake Peavy and Derek Lowe. The market for Lowe seems to be shrinking, as Scott Boras sticks to demands for four or five years at $16.5MM per (similar to A.J. Burnett’s deal). Knobler says there’s still bad blood between the Braves and Padres over the Peavy talks. It sounds like the Braves have turned to Kenshin Kawakami to complement their Javier Vazquez acquistion.

To afford $16.5M for Lowe while unloading only $5M of Marquis’ contract means that the Cubs’ payroll would be somewhere in the $141M range without having added a LHB. The Cubs would have to unload DeRo without replacing him (i.e., with Figgins) and get a cheap LHB via trade — probably Kubel — just to make their payroll figure.

That sounds like a pretty steep price to pay for a #3 or #4 SP.

I love D-Lee but he is not a 3 hitter

Lowe signs with the Cubs, I will give all of my GM stock, and my holdings from Bernard Madoff if Lowe signs with the Cubs.
 Freaking sign Abreu.

SWL and I just spent 40 minutes discussing the finer points of the lumberjack, and we think we need ’em.

Dan

1. Sign Bradley
2. Get a lead off hitter preferably at SS, or actually keeping Theriot would be fine
3. Sign Randy Johnson
4. Get Some sleep
5. No more snow
6. No more hurting pinkie toe
7. Need some more sleep

but how about this.
Forget about Lowe.
Let’s trade with the Dodgers.

They need pitching badly and possibly a SS if Furcal signs with the Braves.

So, we give the Dodgers Marquis, Marshall, Pie and their choice of Ronny or TheRiot for Ethier. Plug him into RF.
Sign Randy Johnson for one year and call it an offseason.
Ink Mike Maroth to a low dollar decent incentive deal for a lefty long man out of the pen.

You have Z, Demp, Lilly, Harden and Johnson for your rotation and the lineup of

Soriano
Reed/Dome
Ethier
ARam
Soto
Lee
DeRo
Theriot/Cedeno
Pitcher

but it would be fun because Lowe’s "personal " pitching coach is Greg Maddux who with the agreement of
Rick Honeycutt pretty much took over handling Lowe this year and did the same when he was with the Dodgers in 2006. In both of Maddux’s brief stints with the Dodgers Lowe’s ERA dropped IN HALF.

This article is pure speculation. I just don’t see this happening at all.