Another fact Sox fans need to digest: Expect Josh Fields, Chris Getz, Jerry Owens, Jeff Marquez and Brian Anderson to be counted on heavily when the team begins spring training in a little more than two months.

Meet your 2009 defending American League Central champions.

Don't like it?

Well, as the defiant Williams so infamously said last spring, ''That doesn't sound like that's a Kenny Williams problem.''

What Monday's first day of the winter meetings showed more than anything else is, yes, the Sox will remain tangled in trade rumors every day, and, yes, the club doesn't always make the popular moves. But Williams is hell-bent on sticking to a formula that has delivered two division titles and one World Series since 2005. For that, he will make no apologies.

''I'm not trying to sell it,'' Williams said when asked about the youth movement taking place this offseason. ''That's the point people are missing. The whole 'trying to sell it' point is not part of the equation. I've learned over the years that no matter what we do, there's a certain amount of the population who are not going to like it.

''We are a little bit unorthodox in what we do, but it works. We've had one year [2007] in the last how many years that was a long, suffering season. We don't want to go through one of those again. But if you don't take certain steps along these lines to get yourself to a point ... that window of poor performance is going to be a hole that's so deep. You can look at teams right now that have been in that hole for 10 or 15 years.''

Williams is insistent that the Sox won't be one of those teams. And to avoid it, he's trying to blend talented youth with proven track records. What looks like a dangerous game to some is Williams showing confidence in his scouting department to put the right players in place at the right time.

In the Sox' estimation, it now seems Dye's time is up.

''No, we have not traded Jermaine Dye to the Cincinnati Reds or anywhere else,'' Williams said in the wake of a report Sunday night that it was a done deal.

Asked if Dye would be dealt, Williams said: ''Well, we'll just have to wait and see what the meetings -- and this is in regard to everyone on our current roster -- we'll just have to wait and see what the week brings us.

''I don't have any timeframe, any timetable to do anything. We are in the fortunate position where we have good young players, we've acquired more depth. We've also not taken our eye off some of the veterans that could make themselves available to us in the marketplace. My guys are under instruction to listen to deals and potential deals whether they go along the prospect lines or the veteran lines.''

What Williams emphasized several times -- and is counting on -- is a glut of free-agent pitchers and outfielders who remain homeless. Considering the economic state around Baseball, moving Dye doesn't mean Williams is done.

In fact, trading Dye could clear the way for the Sox to go after a free agent such as Milton Bradley or Rocco Baldelli, as well as add a veteran starting pitcher on the cheap.

A major-league source told the Sun-Times not to be surprised to see Freddy Garcia back in a Sox uniform in spring training if his current ''aches'' subside. The Sox know what they get with Garcia, and he'd love to be reunited with Ozzie Guillen.

But for now, Williams was adamant that there's one way to build a team: his.

''It doesn't matter in terms of our planning what the outside world thinks,'' Williams said. ''I'm sorry, and that's putting it very bluntly, but if I reacted to all the things the public and media wanted us to do, we'd be in a much different place than we are now.''

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