I’m hitting the Friday-afternoon wall, and I’m concerned the “From the Wikipedia” post I prepped earlier might be a bit too dark for public consumption, so I’ll check out for the evening with this:

The offseason rumor mill is already churning, and nothing inspires reader e-mails as frequently as vague reports on the Internet and talk-radio that certain teams are interested in certain players.

Here’s my general rule of thumb for rumors: If it doesn’t sound feasible, it’s probably not true. If it does sound feasible, it’s probably not true.

Pay attention to the language used in so many of these reports. Know that there’s a huge difference between “could” and “will” and between “considering” and “planning.”

For example: I personally guarantee that Omar Minaya will consider trading David Wright this offseason. One day, he will just be thinking about stuff — who knows what — and he’ll think, “should I trade David Wright this offseason?”

Soon after, he’ll probably think, “nah.” Then he’ll get on with his day. But he will have considered it. Will he have seriously considered it? No. But it was considered nonetheless.

There should be many moves this offseason, as there are in every offseason, and I know as well as anyone that it’s fun to speculate on what they should or what they will be.

But the offseason hasn’t even started yet, and no GM — and certainly no writer — has his finger firmly on what the market will be for free agents or trade chips. We can speculate on both, of course, based on examples from the past. But we definitely can’t know.

So often, deals that are rumored to be in the works for weeks or months never pan out, and the ones that actually happen have never been rumored anywhere. Sometimes it’s the other way around, of course, but not often enough for me to be convinced about any scoop I read anywhere.

In other words: Enjoy the rumors, but enjoy them skeptically.

Chuck D is so cool.