Tracking Lowe and Oliver Perez

Mets Mix has an interesting blog post about the Omar/Boras negotiations for Lowe and/or Oliver Perez.

Omar Minaya has shown the shrewd ability to let the market dictate the offer he is willing to make for any potential free agent. With the free agent closer Francisco Rodriguez, the lack of teams needing a closer for their bullpens enabled him to lower the package to offer to Boras and Rodriguez. The three year $37 million deal that lured Rodriguez to the Mets was way below the initial posturing Boras had wanted for his client before free agency began.

So the game of poker began beteen Omar and Boras. Boras will look to bluff Omar into a higher offer by creating either real or imaginary additional offers for his clients. A quote from Scott Boras "In my discussions with teams, I don't really talk about offers that I have received and not received," "I read about these things, but I don't really acknowledge them".

Meanwhile, Tigers Ground is suggesting that Boras would prefer to sign Lowe with Atlanta:

The Mets are leaning "slightly" toward right-hander Derek Lowe over lefty Oliver Perez, according to a major-league source; they are almost certain to get one of them. The Phillies, Angels and Brewers are not seriously involved with Lowe, and the market for Perez looks even thinner. The Dodgers, Brewers and Braves do not appear interested. One GM believes that Scott Boras would prefer Lowe to join the Braves so that Perez would be assured of a place with the Mets ...

That does make perfect sense to me.  If Boras can bring Perez back to the Mets, there are still buyers for Lowe, with Atlanta being the likely destination.  But, if the Mets sign Lowe, the makret for Perez could be thin, as there have been no rumors connecting Perez to any other organizations.