I can't see how Atlanta is more appealing...

Many Mets fans are in an up roar over this meeting Derek Lowe had with the Braves today. Of course, there's always concern when another team is interested in your primary off-season target but it will take a lot for the Braves to win Lowe. Unless Lowe has been full of it, not only will the Braves need to out bid us but they will need to compensate him for certain sacrifices he will make in coming to them. Lowe has been said to want to return to the Northeast where he can be part of the intense baseball atmosphere during a rivalry and pennant race. Especially after losing Smoltz the Braves seem more like a team in mourning and transition into rebuilding then re-emerging with the addition of one more piece.

So here's the time line of today's now infamous meeting, GM Frank Wren seeing Smoltz close to a deal with Boston and Boras meeting with Omar called Lowe yesterday requesting a meeting. Lowe who lives in Florida agreed to drive up for the meeting. Chipper Jones calls Lowe to recruit him and Bobby Cox who has a relationship with Lowe joins the meeting. Smoltz has joined the Braves so if the Lowe meeting was to show Smoltz they were dedicated to winning it didn't work and many feel they low-balled Smoltz. The meeting has been over for hours and there have been no reports as to how it went....

The Braves never give no trade clauses and have been reluctant to offer big contracts to aging pitchers but were suppose to believe that out of desperation they will make a huge play on Lowe. Chipper Jones is even worried about being traded come mid-season if the team is out of it and Lowe wants join that type of instability. Maybe they completely over bid for his services but it's hard to believe that the team looks appealing to a guy who wants to go to a winner when their star has this to say about his own team....

On Wednesday Wren arranged the meeting with Lowe, a Florida resident, and Cox. Hours later, Wren was notified that Smoltz would sign with the Red Sox. Chipper Jones called Lowe Wednesday to make a recruiting pitch, shortly before Smoltz called Jones to tell him he was leaving the Braves.

“He [Lowe] is definitely interested, but this carnage that just happened is not going to be very appealing,” Jones said, “because [Lowe] and I were talking … you throw a 200-inning guy like [Javier] Vazquez … [Lowe], Jair [Jurrjens], that’s a very, very good starting rotation. Guys who can eat innings and not overexpose, overuse the bullpen. There are possibilities there.

“Well, you just lost the major cog of that [Smoltz] and you don’t have one of the other major cogs [Lowe]. The prospects of that possibility are severely diminished when you take Smoltzy out of the equation.” source AJC