When Mike Lowell hurt his thumb awhile back, it would appear that the Sox should have taken a look at it before it got to the level that it did. Especially if you’re going to shop the guy out. This is the problem. We should have taken a look at Lowell before we started offering him for a trade. If he has a sore thumb, you look at it to make sure it isn’t a problem. Since we let the Texas Rangers check it out and release the news, it’s a bigger problem and becomes a news story. These other teams aren’t going to want to bring him in, or at the very least, they’re going to approach it all very skeptically! If he’s hurt, we need to check for that kind of thing so that the people who want to have him can say “ah, he’s hurt, but we can definitely count on him halfway through the season.” That’s how you can trade a guy like Lowell.