Mark Teahen coming to town?

(Late-night edit since no one is confirming this trade, reported first by the New York Daily News, as being official. Also adding a bunch of Gordon Beckham thoughts at the end....and a trade rumor we're inventing in this very blog.)

So the White Sox are supposed to be trading 2B Chris Getz and 1B/DH Josh Fields to Kansas City for OF/3B Mark Teahen.

Frankly, this deal makes the White Sox the resounding AL Central favorite next year. OK, just kidding, but it does give the Sox added flexibility in the outfield and infield as Kenny Williams tries to add pieces going forward.

As some might recall, Teahen began the 2009 season as the Royals' starting 2B. He stayed there for all of 3 games before Alex Gordon got hurt, which forced him to switch to 3B. By the time Gordon came back, Alberto Callaspo was entrenched at 2B so Teahen split time between RF and 3B the rest of the way.

I don't quite understand how this deal helps the Sox with their money issues, unless we look at it is Teahen and Jermaine Dye's $1 million buyout costs less than Dye's $12 million option. Teahen made $3.575 million last year and could go to arbitration this year.

I'm also curious about the evolution of the Sox' thought process on Getz. He showed some pop in 2008 at AAA, when he batted .306 with 11 HRs and 36 extra-base hits in 457 plate appearances. He posted just 24 XBH in 415 PAs last year in the bigs, so maybe the Sox decided that was the real Getz as opposed to his 2008 showing.

All in all, the Sox now can pursue virtually any position player and Teahen can shift to accommodate him. Personally, I'd like to see Teahen at 3B, Beckham at SS and Ramirez at 2B, but that's not likely to happen.

One problem with switching Beckham to second: I believe there are studies, though I can't find one at this moment, that indicate second basemen are more injury-prone than shortstops or third basemen.

Not sure whether that's due to taking extra (and awkward) hits as the pivotman on double plays, but if it's true I wonder why the Sox would want to put their best and brightest prospect there when a lesser and older player like Ramirez would be a smaller loss to injury. Maybe Jayson Nix, whose glove seems best-suited for 2B, is a factor here.

On the other hand, Chase Utley seems to be making an acceptable full-time living at second base. Since becoming the Phillies' regular in 2005, he has played 147, 160, 132, 159 and 156 games. In all five of those years, his range factor has been higher than league-average. In each of the last three years, he also has led the NL in HBP (76 total).

While I'm throwing around Beckham's and Utley's names in the same blog, let's trot out a random comparison: Beckham cranked out 43 extra-base hits in 430 plate appearances for the White Sox -- and he turned 23 on Sept. 16.

When Utley was Beckham's age, he was cranking out 43 extra-base hits in 523 plate appearances -- for the High-A Clearwater Phillies of the Florida State League.

Now, just to show we can juggle apples and oranges and bananas without a sweat, here's Derek Jeter's Age-22 season (he didn't turn 22 until June 26 of his rookie year):
157 games
654 PAs
25 2B
6 3B
10 HR
.800 OPS (Beckham was .808)
101 OPS+ (Beckham was 106)
AL Rookie of the Year for 1996 World Series champs (Beckham might be AL ROY for 2009 also-rans).

Didn't Jeter say something in midseason about how Beckham is going to be here for a long time? The Sox should do what they can to promote that process by keeping him away from second base. In my opinion. Which doesn't count. I'm not Ozzie. Don't speak Spanish that well. I'm not Kenny. Don't look as cool with facial hair. Just wouldn't mind seeing Beckham have the best opportunity possible to deliver a career like Jeter or Utley.

One last thing: Let's start a wild trade rumor. Phillies CF Shane Victorino is arbitration-eligible. He's a solid player. Excellent fielder. Fine speed. Not great on-base percentage, but his .358 this year would look terrific atop the Sox order. Seems like a Kenny Williams-type player. Plus, the Phillies have at least two awesome OF prospects in the minors. Michael Taylor, who turns 24 next month, needs a place to play...and there's no way Werth or Ibanez move.

Can Kenny acquire Victorino? Don't the Phils owe him for taking Jim Thome off their hands so Ryan Howard could step in? Don't the Phils want to repeat this type of trade for karma's sake? What if the Sox reacquire Gio Gonzalez and include him in a deal on general principle?

Let's pretend the Phillies want a Sox pitcher to join Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton in their rotation, presuming the Phils pick up Lee's $9 million option. (We can also pretend Mark Buehrle is the pitcher they want, if only to give the Phils an absurd four lefties in their rotation...or to put him on the Moyer track and pencil him into their rotation for the next 15 years).

Anyway, so this makes the Sox' potential lineup as follows:
Victorino-CF
Beckham-SS
Quentin-LF
Thome-DH (yeah, he's back in this scenario)
Konerko-1B
Teahen-3B
Rios-RF
A.J.-C
Ramirez-2B (you're going R-L-R-L-R-L-R in the bottom 7 spots in the order)

This would be the best-fielding Sox unit since 2005...not to damn them with faint praise.

SP-Peavy
SP-Danks
SP-Floyd
SP-Garcia
SP-Hudson?

Anyway, just some random, unsubstantiated speculation that somehow works after 2 a.m. Kenny, if you're reading this, give me a shout. I'll show you how to spin some relievers' contracts into gold, too.

LW