Comebacks and good-byes

On a rainy Sunday that ends a holiday weekend without much baseball news to chew on, the Sunday column fodder is also kind of light.

Nick Cafardo chats with Derek Lowe, who sounds like he wants to come back to Boston. The Red Sox, like the Phillies, have shown interest, but I don't think either will make a strong move to sign the 36-year-old who is the only active player with at least 10 seasons who has never been on the DL.

Why, Christine asked, would D-Lowe want to come back to the Red Sox when they obviously had no interest in re-signing him after the great 2004?

"If your No. 1 goal is to win, I would say there's only a handful of teams year in and year out that have a chance to win. Now, there are no guarantees, but there are teams who have a better chance than others."

Boston?

"Yeah, all because of what I just outlined," he said. "Even if I'd never played there. And I don't look at it as coming back, I look at it as who has the best chance to win? And they clearly do." If you're looking four or five years down the line, they fit the criteria of what I'm looking for. It's not just the fact I played there - but, yeah, there were a lot of things I enjoyed - but they're definitely a franchise that has a chance to win."

{Exactly, a chance to win. So my question still stands: Why the Red Sox? They couldn't even beat the Rays. I'm allowed to talk smack like that over the next year because I've had to endure it from Greg for way too long. And I think it's dumb to publicly ask to come back to a team that has already spurned you.}

Another former Red Sox, Jay Payton, who refused to be a back-up for a consistent winner three years ago, also sounds like he wants back in.

"When I talked to my agent recently, Boston was the first team I mentioned. I don't know if it's in the cards or if I squished my chances of ever returning there. I know the circumstances of my departure from there a few years back were blown out of proportion. I've talked to Tito [Terry Francona] several times since then and we're OK. I'd love the chance to go back there because that's a winning organization and they're committed to winning. They do things the right way."

Yeah, good luck with that one Jay.

Phillies: Todd Zolecki previews the arbitration offers. Basically, they'll offer it to Jamie Moyer, but not to Pat Burrell. I won't pretend to know if this means there's more or less chance of the old man returning, although it looks like Pat's a goner. But I'd love to see Moyer go through the arbitration process to show the youngsters how a professional handles it.