Lowe on move from bullpen to rotation: 'Anybody could do it'

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- The first year after Derek Lowe moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation, he won 21 games for the Red Sox.

"I had my best year ever," Lowe said Monday.

And in this spring where Daniel Bard, Neftali Feliz and Chris Sale are all trying to do what Lowe did a decade ago, Lowe said it's really not that hard a transition.

"I think anybody could do it," he said.

Lowe was a starter in the minor leagues, but so were Bard and Feliz. Sale never started in the minors, but the White Sox drafted him as a starter.

"I think people make too much of a big deal of it," Lowe said. "You have the whole offseason to get ready for it. You have four months. It would be different if you had to do it in the middle of a season."

Lowe is also transitioning this spring, but only from the National League back to the American League. He joked that it will cost him strikeouts, because "I normally struck out the pitcher."

The Indians will be more interested to see Lowe prove that what happened in September (when Lowe lost all five starts and had an 8.75 ERA) was an aberration, and not an indication that age has caught up with Lowe. He'll be 39 in June.

"I got in a serious mechanical funk," he said. "[Braves pitching coach] Roger McDowell saw on video what I was doing, but I just couldn't stop it."

When the season ended, the Braves jumped at the chance to trade Lowe, even paying $10 million of the $15 million left on his contract. The Indians figured they were getting a veteran starter for $5 million, although Lowe now slots in higher than fifth in their rotation.

Lowe wonders what might have happened if his bad month last year had been June rather than September, or if the Braves had made the playoffs.

He said he believes the Braves will be fine, despite the collapse and despite their difficult spring.

"They're good enough," he said. "They're definitely good enough. Their talent is exceptional."