Projected by Baseball America to be the 15th pick, he fell to the Phillies at 23rd overall primarily due to coming off an unimpressive junior season with the Bulldogs in which he had a 4.63 earned run average (ERA) and allowed 110 hits in 103 innings.

[9] After a season in which he started 13 of 20 games and had a 2–6 record with a 5.12 ERA despite missing nearly four months because of a stress fracture in his right humerus, Loewer was traded along with Adam Eaton and Steve Montgomery from the Phillies to the Padres for Andy Ashby on November 10, 1999.

[10] The Padres' expectation for Loewer to become the third starter in its rotation was dashed two months after the trade when he suffered a compound fracture of his left tibia and a dislocated ankle as a result of falling out of a hunting blind in a tree near his home at the time in Eunice, Louisiana on January 2, 2000.

[11] He missed the entire season when he underwent surgery on July 18, 2000 to repair a partial rotator cuff tear which he sustained while recovering from his hunting accident injuries.

[15] Six days later in a 9–2 defeat to the Mariners at Qualcomm Stadium on June 16, he surrendered six runs, seven hits and both a double in the second inning and a triple in the third to John Olerud who completed his second MLB career cycle later in the game.