THURSDAY, 12:14pm: Red Sox GM Theo Epstein told Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald, "There hasn't been much trade activity, if at all," for Lowell this spring.
WEDNESDAY, 5:03pm: Bradford reports the two sides "aren’t close" to a deal and it's unlikely that Lowell is dealt before the start of the season. Meanwhile, WEEI's Alex Speier says the Mets are not interested in Lowell despite Daniel Murphy's knee injury.
4:17pm: Talks between the Rangers and Red Sox for Mike Lowell have accelerated, reports ESPN's Gordon Edes. Perhaps the Rangers' interest picked up after Lowell hit two doubles today. Just two days ago Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports wrote that the Rangers' interest in Lowell was "light," and the Sox didn't expect a suitable offer from any team.
Via WEEI's Rob Bradford, it was known that the Rangers would scout Lowell again today. However, Bradford said the Rangers' interest is "tempered by their reluctance to allocate any substantial amount of money to a player who would be filling a reserve role." Bradford says that for the Rangers to take Lowell on as a backup, the Red Sox would have to assume almost all of his $12.5MM salary. Potentially, a bigger market for Lowell could develop once teams get a better look at him.
So Theo comes out publicly and shuts down any rumors for Lowell yet the media all have sources who claim a trade is imminent.
Sometimes I think the Boston media think they are co-GM and try to help Theo out by putting out stories/rumors like that….however, I don’t think Theo appreciates it.
I mean, seriously, if the Texas Rangers decide at this late a date to pay Mike Lowell 3 million dollars of his 12 million for this season, they should have their heads examined.
Lowell has release candidate written all over him since the Red Sox need a backup IF who can play up the middle on the 25 man.
I still think Boston’s best move would be to keep Lowell and use him as a platoon DH with Ortiz. I still think Lowell has a chance to outhit Ortiz this season as DH.
I wish everyone would ignore the Boston media at all times – like I do. Life is so much better.
Releasing Lowell seems like a serious mistake.
“Red Sox GM Theo Epstein told Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald, “There hasn’t been much trade activity, if at all,” for Lowell this spring.”
Strange ambiguous comment from Theo, isn’t it? There either has been activity or there hasn’t, and if anyone should know it would be the GM.
Not that ambiguous is it? I understand it to mean “no serious talks, if any”. Clearly there have been discussions, but none that really lead anywhere.
Please… if you’re going to take such liberties and change the wording – and thus the meaning of the sentence, then you can “interpret” (or is alter a better word?) all sorts of things in all sorts of ways, I suppose. The phrase says, “not much trade activity, if any”. It’s talking about the quantity of activity, not the depth. When it comes to quantity, you either have something or you don’t. There either has been an amount of activity or there has been none, there can be no in-between. And because Epstein would have to have 100% knowledge of this activity one way or the other, he words “if any” are ridiculous.
And when you’re finished fully scrutinizing a single sentence from an interview (not a statement) and conclude it doesn’t make much sense, perhaps you’ll move on to what a GM is likely to have meant by it. “There have been talks, but few if any have been serious” is entirely plausible and would be a pretty typical thing for a GM to say. IOW, it fits the facts.
You’ve done a good job so far determining that the sentence, taking no liberties, literally does not make sense. There’s been activity or there hasn’t and he knows which it is. Time for step two in the analysis!
Initially, I was just making an observation about a curiously worded sentence. The sentence as written is ambiguous. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that Epstein didn’t intend it to come off that way. That should be obvious to anyone. And anyone with a moderate reading ability can subjectively interpret simple sentences, so don’t pat yourself on the back for doing what any 3rd grader can do. Whatever subjective meaning you can draw from it is secondary to the original intent of my comment.
And actually, your response that the sentence as written was “not ambiguous” indicates that you didn’t understand “step one” (again the only thing I was pointing out) until after I gave you a little impromptu English/logic lesson. Your welcome, by the way, no charge..this one’s a freebie.
“The sentence as written is ambiguous.”
Yep! And yet, the COMMENT — which is the word you used and is to what I responded — is not. ‘Magine that. It seems like you’re conceding this as obvious now, which is good. What were you hoping to call to attention with that first comment then I wonder? The class is curious.
Seriously though not sure what beyond prompting you to google misnomers & idioms I can do here. We third graders has such short attention spanseses. All I was doing was suggesting to you most probable meaning of his sentence and you got all srs business on me.
“I gave you a little impromptu English/logic lesson. YOUR welcome”
I capitalized it and still don’t know for sure if you’ll understand what I’m getting at here, but this is my favorite thing on the internet. I <3 u
And apparently, you are also quite proud that you know the difference between your and you’re. Good for you. You must have taken Editing 101.
Actually, that Theo didn’t quite say what he meant to say was obvious from the beginning…it’s just that most people wouldn’t bother mentioning it, as I didn’t. Like I said…just making an observation on the way the sentence was worded. You, however, try to make it seem as if it’s a magnificent insight. But, maybe you set your standards for what qualifies as insight a little lower than most. And who am I to judge you for that?
So that was good, Reverend Black, good job! You are able to add your own personal interpretations to curiously worded sentences…go ahead, keep congratulating yourself for mundane accomplishments. I’m getting quite bored with this. It’s too nice a day to be wasting my time you and YOUR quaint attempts to be clever.
“You, however, try to make it seem as if it’s a magnificent insight …keep congratulating yourself for mundane accomplishments.”
I don’t remember any of that; whole thing seemed pretty harmless & inoffensive to me. Probably the only ambiguous thing here is how your butt got hurt in the first place.
Enjoy your day!
Nice try Edes.