Wade and Moehler comment

So we get some feedback as, once again, Astros.com outdoes the Chronicle.

Moehler, on his signing:
"I like it here, obviously. I like the direction it's going. Obviously, we didn't finish as strong as we would have liked, but the pieces are in place for us to have a good year, and I'd like to be part of it."

Wade, on Moehler:
"He's given us a solid, workmanlike effort both seasons I've been here. If you take away the bullpen appearances he had last year, his ERA was in the low fours. This year, take away the two starts before he went on the DL with a knee, everything since then -- although it might have gone up at the end -- was in the low four[s] as well. He goes out there and keeps you in games. He's one of those guys you have to see every five days and see what he does for the club. He has a tremendous work ethic and attitude, and that work ethic rubs off on other guys. It was a fairly apparent decision to make, and we wanted to wait until after he had the knee cleaned up to make sure everything went all right with that."

Is that true?

Subtracting Moehler's first two starts of the year, he was 8-10 with a 4.90 ERA/1.47 WHIP. Batters hit .285/.341/.474.

Let's take his last two starts of the year out, as well (and this is a pretty generous statistical evaluation, akin to saying, "Let's discount how he started and finished."):
8-8, 4.25 ERA/1.555 WHIP, and batters hit .277/.332/.458.

There's not a way really to spin this that makes the numbers come up with $3 million (as opposed to a $250,000 buyout) look like a good decision.