The fact that some "analyst" has the Minnesota Twins winning the 2009 World Series, or the fact that Peter Gammons has Gordan Beckham winning the AL Rookie of the year, the same Beckham that is in AA Birmingham.  Does he forsee us tanking quickly and brining him up in late May?  He also has Josh Fields as his Breakout Player (as does homer Chris Singleton), so where's all of this love coming from?  (Alexei is also picked as a Breakout Player by 2 people, 1 person picked the Sox as a dark-horse team, & only 2 people picked the Sox to win the Central - ESPN Fantasy Analyst Matthew Berry & homer Chris Singleton)

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http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/02/mlb-to-lend-a-h.html

There have been rumblings that Major League Baseball, which is aware that Type A free agents like Juan Cruz and infielders Orlando Hudson and Orlando Cabrera have been hindered by the compensation rules, are willing to make it easier for teams to sign then trade those free agents. For example, Arizona could sign Cruz to a contract that the Twins are willing to take on. The Twins and Diamondbacks would then work out a trade for Cruz. The Twins could land Cruz without losing a draft pick.

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Matt Bush doing his best to rank among baseball's biggest busts

By David Brown

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[NY Daily News]

Bobby Abreu was offered a one-year deal worth $8 million from the White Sox, the Daily News has learned. Abreu made $16 million as the Bombers' starting right fielder last season. He anticipated being able to sign a three-year deal as a free agent this offseason but has mostly received only one-year offers.

[Note by The Cheat, 02/03/09 1:00 PM CST]:Redirected to original source, and promoted to the front page.

[Update by The Cheat, 02/03/09 2:51 PM CST]: Scott Gregor uses a little common sense, and a "White Sox source," to deny the rumor. Meanwhile, Jerry Crasnik seems to have more detail.

Negotiations between the Chicago White Sox and free-agent outfielder Bobby Abreu stalled early this week after the team floated the possibility of a one-year, $8 million contract, said a baseball source.

The source disputed a New York Daily News report that said the White Sox had made Abreu an $8 million offer but confirmed that the team has been in contact with Abreu's agent, Peter Greenberg, in an effort to gauge the outfielder's asking price.

"He is a great player and can help any club," said Williams via e-mail to MLB.com, not confirming or denying the Abreu offer, staying consistent with his offseason policy. "But I just have stopped responding to every blogger's post."

The always-secretive White Sox have been working hard in baseball's underground trying to obtain a top-of-the order hitter for their lineup. According to American League sources, the White Sox have had talks with the Texas Rangers about the availability of shortstop Michael Young. Young, multi-talented infielder and 5-time All-Star, is in the final year of a contract and will be a free agent at the end of the 2009 season. Texas has interest in Jermaine Dye, as a suitable replacement for Milton Bradley, who officially signed with the Cubs on January 8. Dye has one more year remaining on his contract before becoming a free agent.

In addition to Dye the Rangers have asked for former #1 pick, and Sox pitching prospect, Aaron Poreda. Poreda is considered the best young arm in the organization. And any trade involving Poreda would be a deal-breaker for White Sox. A White Sox source told me on Friday that at this time there are no legs to the proposed deal with Texas, however the Rangers are very interested in Dye and a reworking of this deal could happen sometime in the near future.

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MLBTraderumors.com was asking where Jon Garland might end up and I was wondering that as well.  Are we content with the starting 5 of Buehrle, Danks, Vazquez, Floyd, & Richard?  Could we give Garland a "hometown discount" and bring him back in and have Richard as long relief?  Are we going after another starter and not automatically inserting Richard as the #5?  I know Garland wasn't a part of the Angels' playoff plans and it seems somewhat comical with last year's trade becoming a moot point with Garland and Cabrera as free agents, but I guess we could get some draft picks out of Cabrera.  Thoughts on Garland returning to the Sox or where else he might end up?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/10/odds-and-end-15.html

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AlYtMqoK8EM8prvr8HRTsh45nYcB?slug=jp-playoffpulse090808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Playoff Pulse: Do-or-Dye play costs White Sox

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports 12 hours, 8 minutes ago

CHICAGO – He tried not to second-guess himself. Jermaine Dye believed he made the right decision, and manager Ozzie Guillen backed him up, and that was good enough for the Chicago White Sox, even though the truth wasn’t nearly that easy.

Every September, there are seminal moments that define a team, decisions that determine if a team spends October in a ballpark or on a couch...

He's listed on Milb.com as being on the Kannapolis roster:

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Gordon%20Beckham&pos=SS&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=493596

This is a great thing considering a fair amount of rookies start out in short-season rookie ball.  Kannapolis has only 17 games left, which isn't bad considering how late in the season we are and the MILB Playoffs being just around the corner.  Anyone have any idea on when he'll get his first taste of Minor League Baseball?