By BRENDAN McGAIR

Sports writer

Baseball chatter in January. Simply can't beat it …
There would seem two schools of thought regarding prospects and how to address the rumor mill, i.e. trade possibilities.
On one end, a prospect can embrace the fact his name is attached to a heavy-duty deal and view it as a sincere compliment.
On the other side of the coin, uncertainness and questions about loyalty could lurk. There was a time that draftees probably imagined spending their careers with the clubs that inked them.
Yet when you become a piece to a significant package, mix signals potentially arise. Your mind begins to fill up with the premise of being a sacrificial lamb for the greater good of the ball club, which apparently doesn't seem to want to include you in future plans.
At Friday's mid-winter gathering that reminds all of us that another baseball season is on the horizon - better known as the PawSox Hot Stove Media Day - the caravan brought in headliners like pitchers Michael Bowden, Justin Masterson and infielder Jed Lowrie. The aforementioned are significant for one sole reason - they are the names that keep popping up in Boston's bid to peel Johan Santana away from Minnesota.
For right now, Lowrie, Masterson and Bowden are Red Sox property. They plan on heading down to spring training in a few weeks. There's a strong possibility of the trio coming to finishing school at McCoy Stadium some point this spring and summer.
But ask any of them if they are sitting on egg shells, waiting pensively for the next phase of their baseball odysseys to unravel, the overwhelming response is negative. Better to block out the things you have no control over than become glued to ESPN, waiting for your name to appear on the bottom line, followed immediately by a breaking news bulletin.
Lowrie's stance is, "You have to embrace it. It's something I don't pay attention to because it's something I have no control over."
The majority of rumors seem to die out, but for a hot-shot prospect to be mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Santana, who is one of the best at what he does, is an eye-opener. Not to mention offer up a hearty slice of humble pie.
"If you're going to get traded for one of the best, the team getting you must think very highly of you," added Lowrie, who batted .300 in 40 games with Pawtucket last season.
"It's an honor, and that's what it starts out as. Any time your name is out there, somebody must think you're halfway decent," said Masterson, the No. 4 rated prospect in the entire Red Sox organization according to Baseball America. "I'm in the Boston Red Sox organization until somebody tells me otherwise."
Masterson, who logged time with Single-A Lancaster before finishing 2007 in Double-A Portland, is cognizant of the possibility of not breaking into the majors with the team that groomed and polished you thoughout the minor-league climb.
"No matter how much you love an organization and they love you, there's a business aspect," said the 22-year-old. "They want to do the best they can in order to win championships. If myself or somebody else has to go somewhere so they can stack their lineup, it's going to happen."
There's a perfectly logical explanation why the Red Sox and Yankees are the lone two MLB franchises that can jump feet-first into the Santana derby: both feature deep pockets and promising talent to pull the trigger. To date neither side has blinked, which perhaps says more about the faith the organizations have in the up-and-comers.
Neither Boston nor New York seems fixated on literally giving up the farm for the sake of getting a leg up on the competition. That's why the rumor mill has been nothing more than pure fodder ever since Minnesota made it public that Santana's services could be had, albeit for substantial price in return.
The Red Sox just put the finishing touches on a week-and-a-half Rookie League program, hitting on a number of points from ranging from how to manage your time away from the yard to handling the pressure cooker that is the Boston media. One of the points of emphasis was how to come to grips with your name being bandied about, the "distractions" part of the winter seminar if you will.
"We told them that if you're in the Red Sox organization, chances are you are going to be thrown into trade discussions, so get ready" said Mike Hazen, Boston's Director of Player Development. 
"(GM Theo Epstein) talked about distractions and spoke directly about trade rumors being something you can't control," said Bowden. "He told us not to worry, but if you do, you shouldn't."
Before the crop of Hot Stove participants were introduced, those who were in attendance last January were read aloud, among them Kason Gabbard and David Murphy. Turns out becoming future Fenway Park fixtures wasn't in the cards, for both became centerpieces in the ill-fated Eric Gagne deal with Texas. 
It just goes to show you that not everyone reaches the top with the team that gave you professional life. Players shouldn't take it as a personal insult, for as Bob Sugar said in Jerry Maguire, "It's not 'show friends.' It's show 'business.'"