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Lowe To Join Braves

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The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2009

ATLANTA - The Braves bounced right back from the disappointment of losing John Smoltz.

Determined to rebuild a once-proud pitching staff that fell into disarray, Atlanta reached a preliminary agreement Tuesday on a $60 million, four-year contract with Derek Lowe and finalized a deal with Japanese all-star pitcher Kenshin Kawakami.

Just like that, the Braves' rotation - once the most dominant in baseball - suddenly looks a whole lot stronger with spring training just a month away.

"You've got to have pitching," Manager Bobby Cox said. "You could have the best hitting team in the history of baseball and you still may not get it done. We will feel confident now that whoever toes the mound on any particular night, we've got a good chance of winning."

The Braves would not comment on the preliminary agreement with Lowe, which was subject to the pitcher passing a physical, according a person familiar with the negotiations. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the contract had not been completed.

Last season, Smoltz, Tim Hudson and Tom Glavine all went down with season-ending surgeries, and the Braves slumped to fourth in the NL East with a 72-90 record - their worst since 1990. Glavine has yet to resume throwing off a mound, while Hudson isn't expected back until August.

The 35-year-old Lowe becomes the new ace of the staff.

He was a 21-game winner for the Red Sox in 2002 and spent the last four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Last year, the right-hander was 14-11 with a 3.24 ERA in 211 innings.

The Braves had hoped to re-sign Smoltz for a 22nd season in Atlanta, but he took a $5 million, one-year deal from the Red Sox.

In an interesting twist, Smoltz was introduced in Boston on the same day the Braves wrapped up negotiations with Lowe and held a news conference of their own at Turner Field to announce the three-year contract with Kawakami.

The 33-year-old right-hander becomes the first Japanese-born player in the franchise's history.

BREWERS: Career saves leader Trevor Hoffman and Milwaukee announced their $6 million, one-year deal after the reliever passed a physical.

The 41-year-old righty, who had pitched for San Diego since 1993, has 554 saves in 930 relief appearances over his 16-year career.

DODGERS: Free-agent reliever Guillermo Mota is returning to Los Angeles, pending a physical examination.

ORIOLES: Right-hander Koji Uehara signed a two-year contract, making him the first Japanese-born player in franchise history.

CLEMENS CASE: Brian McNamee's meeting with federal prosecutors investigating whether Roger Clemens lied to Congress has been delayed.

The pitcher's former personal trainer had been set to meet Tuesday in Washington with prosecutors preparing the grand-jury case against the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, who denied under oath last year that he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

OBITUARY: Preston Gomez, 85, the first manager in San Diego Padres history, died in Fullerton, Calif. Gomez took over the expansion Padres in 1969 and later managed the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs.

YANKEE STADIUM: A New York Assembly committee investigating the use of millions of dollars in public funding to build the new Yankee Stadium has subpoenaed the team's president.

Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, a Democrat from Westchester County, said that his committee subpoenaed Yankees president Randy Levine as well as city Industrial Development Agency Chairman Seth Pinsky.

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