You have to love Tim Dierkes’ MLB Trade Rumors as a quick reference for all of the off the field activity around baseball, but far too many people read MLBTR’s summaries and fail to click through and read the source.  Of course we don’t have time to read the dozens or even hundreds of articles cited every day on that site, but just be careful; a secondary account isn’t always the same as the primary.

Case and point:

MLBTR’s Steve Adams:

According to Joe Cowley at the Chicago Sun-Times, the White Sox general manager has shifted his focus to Mariners lefty Erik Bedard and Houston’s long-time ace Roy Oswalt.

Joe Cowley at the Chicago Sun-Times:

He acquired reserve catcher Ramon Castro on Friday, already tried to land San Diego ace Jake Peavy last week, and is rumored to be smack dab on the trail of the likes of an Erik Bedard or Roy Oswalt.

Cowley says nothing about Chicago GM Kenny Williams “shifting his focus” to Bedard and Oswalt.  He said Williams is “rumored” to be in on those two.

I’ll tell you right now that if Cowley had an inside source that told him Williams was pursuing Bedard he would have worded it differently.  Chances are Cowley has read on sites like MLBTR all the speculation linking Bedard with the White Sox and that the Sox have been scouting the Astros– presumably for Oswalt– and that is what he is referring to, especially considering trade rumors weren’t the focus of Cowley’s bit.  He was writing about the unpredictability of Williams, and using the rumors and speculation for his intro.

This isn’t to say Williams hasn’t been in close contact with Mariner GM Jack Zduriencik because he probably has, but that’s not the point.

MLBTR’s Steve Adams, same post:

We heard earlier this week that if the Mariners move Bedard, they’ll be asking for a package similar to or greater than what was offered for Peavy.

The Jon Heyman post Adams is referring and linking to:

Interested teams wouldn’t pay like Seattle did, when it sent budding center field star Adam Jones and three talented pitchers to Baltimore for Bedard. But they’d probably have to pay more than the White Sox — who agreed to trade four pitching prospects, none of them considered great — in the deal that Peavy rejected.

All speculation.  That’s a lot different than “they’ll be asking for…”.

Usually MLBTR is better than this, but the point remains.  Don’t believe everything you read.

Note: These errors have since been fixed on the MLBTR post.  Thanks, Tim.