Awww, snap! Late Thursday night, just as I was ready to tuck myself in and watch The Verdict before falling asleep, I got the news I’d been looking for: Sox ’spect, Savior, and Superman, Gordon Beckham, was called up to The Show in exchange for utility 3B Wilson Betemit. He will start at Third during today’s game. That’s right kiddies, the future is now!

Gordon Beckham (6) is not amused.

Beckham tore his way through the minors this past calendar year after being drafted eighth overall by the Sox in last June’s amateur draft, most recently hitting .464 in seven AAA games. Now granted, I don’t expect Beckham to hit .464 in the majors, that would be crazy. I’d settle for something in the low .380s. After all, it is his rookie year. One thing nobody knows, now even Ozzie, is where Beckham will play: “”He’s going to play, where, we’re going to find out. Is he going to play third base every day? I don’t think so. But he will get plenty of at-bats. To me, he has to be in the lineup every day and get a good percentage of at-bats.” Third Base has been the biggest problem for the Sox recently, even with Josh Fields’ huge improvement at the plate, but it happens to be Beckham’s weakest position. He played shortstop in college, and switched between short and second base in the minors before switching to third when the Sox realized they might need another one. To that effect, he had three errors in six games at third base in AAA. Third Base is much more of a “reaction” position that short or second, so you can’t really expect him to pick it up that quickly. We’ll see how he plays today before I get too negative about it, though.

While he’s penciled in to start at third today, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was shuffled all over the infield. Like Ozzie said, the kid is the top prospect in the entire organization. He needs at-bats, and I could envision him moving around between third, short, and second before settling into a spot for the long-haul. He might even see some time at DH, who knows? The bigger point is that Beckham is here and barring him completely slumping in the bigs, something he hasn’t done at any level of professional baseball so far, he’s going to remain here. He’s a member of the White Sox.

More good news is that Wilson Betemit is being sent down, cause that guy is all shades of bad. Unfortunately, either Chris Getz or Josh Fields are eventually going to lose their jobs to this kid. Ultimately, it’s probably going to be Getz because I don’t see Beckham as a long-term solution at third, but it might take a while to sort it out. All I expect from Beckham in the short run is poise, natural baseball ability, and hard work. It would also be nice for him to break into Matt Wieters’ house, steal his Rookie of the Year award, and bring it back to the Chi. Metaphorically speaking, of course.