If you believe Twitter, today is the day Gavin Floyd ceases to be a member of the Chicago White Sox.

Sometimes, as we very well know, it pays to believe Twitter. On the other hand, the source of this particular trade rumor (who claims to be Floyd's wife's cousin) defended his scoop thusly:

brBoiler2013Brad Rogers

@joeymwilson my sister told me you have down syndrome

Jan 06FavoriteRetweetReply

AaronKatesAaron Kates

@brBoiler2013 My Cousin has Down Syndrome and his I.Q. Is higher then yours. That's a fact.

Jan 06FavoriteRetweetReply

in reply to @AaronKates↑

@brBoiler2013
Brad Rogers@AaronKates I go to purdue. Ivy league of the Midwest u herpe face
Jan 06 via Twitter for iPhoneFavoriteRetweetReply

This level of discourse is more common than you think among newsbreakers, mind you. For instance, when I tweeted Ken Rosenthal asking how the White Sox could be serious about Yoennis Cespedes when they're slashing payroll, he tweeted back, "Lol fine dont trust me. Im only on ntaional tv u butthole."

At any rate, another Blue Jays blogger is going with it while everybody else is ignoring or dismissing it, so somebody's going to be wrong. This is what counts for baseball-based entertainment in the dead of winter.

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Oil-disaster-sponsored trophy aside, the pulse of the crosstown series between the White Sox and Cubs weakened considerably last year. Flatlining play by both clubs left tickets unsold, and games off the national broadcast calendar.

Now we won't even have Carlos Zambrano to look forward to, as the Cubs traded him to the Miami Marlins, along with $15 million for A Guy Who Isn't Carlos Zambrano, a.k.a. Chris Volstad.

I always anticipated Zambrano starts because Big Z was responsible for two of my favorite moments of the crosstown series. Well, more accurately, it was one moment that he repeated twice -- both times, he degenerated into a 270-pound baby, leaving his teammates to answer the questions.

Unfortunately, MLB.com highlights only go so far, but we'll cope with some embedded video below the jump.

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Of the 438.1 relief innings by White Sox pitchers in 2011, the pitchers throwing 212 of those innings will no longer be in the bullpen. The bulk of those innings were from Sergio Santos and Chris Sale, meaning the White Sox will need to replace a significant amount of high leverage innings.

Of the 2011 stalwarts, Jesse Crain, Matt Thornton and Will Ohman all appear to be returning. Addison Reed was considered a near sure bet to be in the 2012 opening day bullpen and Jason Frasor's departure only bolsters his chances. That leaves an open competition for as many as three spots (assuming a seven man bullpen).

And that competition has already begun. A number of the primary candidates, as well as the dark horses, have been pitching in various Winter Leagues. And while Spring Training performance will likely be the primary driver of roster decisions, past performance usually dictates the opportunities a player gets in Arizona. So how have the bullpen hopefuls done in their most recent past performances?

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The departure of Carlos Quentin brought back a lot of great memories, and my favorite is his performance against John Lackey on May 25, 2008.

Lackey went the distance and shut down everybody not named Carlos Quentin, but that still wasn't good enough. Quentin went 3-for-3 with a hit-by-pitch, a single, and two homers drove in all three runs in a 3-2 White Sox victory.

• Video of the first
• Video of the second

In front of a national audience, Quentin pushed his OPS over 1.000 (.304/.416/.607), and while his OPS would return to the land of triple digits for good two games later, he never came close to tailing off.

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The guy you see sliding into third is Ted Beard.

I hadn't heard of him until I saw Repoz at Baseball Think Factory post his obituary. Beard, who died at the age of 90 on Friday, was a classic minor-league star who found 100 at-bats with the White Sox from 1957 to 1958. He later served as a minor-league coach for White Sox rookie teams before retiring from baseball in 1972.

Beard was playing for the Hollywood Stars, and not the White Sox, when he slid into third during a game in August of 1953. You're probably thinking, "Those spikes are a mite high, aren't they?"

You'd be right. That slide started a brawl, which Life Magazine captures in an awesome pictorial. Beard immediately gets jumped on by the third baseman he had wronged, Murray Franklin, but later you can see him throwing a hellacious right cross.

Beard was also an army medic in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates, he became only the second player to hit a ball over the 86-foot-high right-field roof at Forbes Field on July 16, 1950. The other was Babe Ruth, and later, only Eddie Mathews and Willie Stargell would match the feat.

Beard's SABR biography says he didn't do anything nearly that interesting with the White Sox. But those photos are too incredible to ignore.

More productive

Comfortable

Not drinking too much

Regular exercise at the gym (lifting bats in the offseason)

Getting on better with your associate contemporaries

At ease

Eating well (no more Red Baron pizzas and frozen lobsters)

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Some shady contractors in the paving business see a patchy driveway as an opportunity for an unscrupulous buck. They'll stop at the house, ring a doorbell and offer some "excess materials" for a seemingly harmless but unverified cost. The homeowner, thinking it's for DIY work, agrees without set terms, only to look out the front window hours later and notice the contractor took that as consent to redo the entire driveway in a shoddy fashion, then demand far more money than was discussed.

After a productive/destructive New Year's weekend by Kenny Williams, it's easy to feel like we've been had. I can imagine a lot of White Sox fans waking up from Rockin' Eves and stepping outside only to find a pile of project pitchers strewn about in front of the house, then discovering a note on the front step that reads:

TOOK TWO DECENT MAJOR LEAGUERS AS COMPENSATION THANKS

But nobody can call the cops on Williams after seeing him trade Carlos Quentin to the San Diego Padres on Saturday and return Jason Frasor to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday, getting four undependable pitchers in return. And nobody really should, at least at this point in the game, anyway. After some stutter-steps, he has given us a more understandable picture of his 2012 gameplan. Even if he were fired, his replacement probably would have to take the same steps.

Given the way the White Sox screwed the pooch in 2011, the GM had to shed payroll and get younger. I'm guessing Williams first tried for a bold trade or two with his starters, but after the Oakland A's and friends decided to flood the market with cost-controlled starters, he lost suitors for John Danks and Gavin Floyd. The latter could still be moved, but the former isn't going anywhere right away.

Without a big deal to reshape the roster, he had to go the other route -- continuing to trim the excess. Granted, in this case, what we're calling "excess" other teams are calling "depth," but without substantial bait to reel in a major prospect haul, Williams had cut everywhere else. These are hard times on the Oregon Trail. The ration setting is "bare bones."

So Quentin goes to San Diego, and the Sox hope Dayan Viciedo can pick up his slack. Just like replacing Sergio Santos with Addison Reed, and Mark Buehrle with Chris Sale. The Sox should still have a mildly watchable roster, but everything is going to need to break their way to have a prayer at contending, because they are devoid of backup plans. Then again, considering the White Sox had no interest in seeking alternate routes when they were readily available in 2011, maybe they don't deserve them.

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Jason Frasor never seemed to fit in during his two months with the White Sox, so it makes sense that the White Sox would trade him. And given that he spent his entire year in Toronto prior to his stint on the South Side, it makes sense that the Blue Jays might want him back.

So the White Sox continued their restless New Year's weekend by sending Frasor back from whence he came, trading him to the Toronto Blue Jays for right-handed pitchers Myles Jaye and Daniel Webb.

Compared to the two pitchers the Sox received for Carlos Quentin, you're not going to see either Jaye or Webb for quite a while. Jaye, 20, was selected in the 17th round of the 2010 draft, and only has 54 innings of rookie-ball pitching to his name.

Webb, who was drafted in the 18th round of the 2009 draft by the Jays, posted a 5.59 ERA over 18 games (12 starts) at A-ball Lansing. He struck out 51 over 66 innings wit a respectable 24 walks, but gave up 80 hits (including seven homers).

But as you'll see below the jump, both players were signed for well, well, well above slot, which makes them more interesting than the typical mid-second-day draft pick:

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It seemed highly likely that the White Sox would trade Carlos Quentin.

Then it seemed like the Sox couldn't afford to compete without him.

Now it looks like the Sox just couldn't afford him. They're back to where they started, making the long-rumored move by trading Quentin to the San Diego Padres for a pair of minor-league pitchers -- righty Simon Castro and lefty Pedro Hernandez.

Salary dumpage.

It's going to be interesting to see how Kenny Williams spins this trade, because neither Castro nor Hernandez cracked John Sickels' top 25 list, merely warranting mentions in the "Others" field. Kevin Goldstein did put Castro 20th on his Top 11 list, but noted that he "has gone backwards from big prospect days, as fastball is only dependable pitch." The Padres' system is stacked, but considering the White Sox don't really have five prospects, the lack of "top" billing of any kind is going to irk people.

In terms of numbers, both pitchers appear to be projects. Castro, a 23-year-old who stands 6'5", hit a wall at Triple-A Tucson last season. Hernandez, 22 years old and 5'10", spent time at three levels, but when he reached Tucson, he proceeded to record only seven strikeouts over 18 innings.

Links below the jump.

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The New Year is almost here, so that means it's time for some good old Hall of Fame discussion. Cast your vote by clicking here, 10 votes per person and hit "none" if you don't want to put anyone in. This year features a pretty weak first year class and some veterans hoping to get in before next years barrage of talent hits the ballot. Here is my take on the candidates:

Jeff Bagwell (Astros) - This is Bagwell's second time on the ballot. Last year he received 41.7 percent of the vote. Bagwell put up some amazing numbers during his 15 year career. His career slash line is .297/.408/.540. He has 449 homers, 1529 RBIs and 202 SBs. He was the Rookie of the Year in 1991, the MVP in 1994 and has very similar career stats to Frank Thomas (including the exact birthday). His career BWar is 79.9 and his KenWar is pretty good as well. While Bagwell did put up these numbers during the steroid era, there is no direct linkage to him. He gets my vote.

Jeromy Burnitz ( Mets, Indians, Brewers, Dodgers, Rockies, Cubs, Pirates) - Burnitz put up a career slash line of .253/.345/.481. He ended his career with a surprising 315 homers while falling 19 RBI's short of 1,000. He had some big years on the Brewers teams of the late 90s and early 2000s. That being said, he's not close to a Hall of Famer as his 17.6 BWar indicates. One and done.

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