DE Dad, there is nothing prohibiting a team from making a verbal offer this early, and nothing preventing the player from giving his handshake in acceptance.
Nothing is official or enforceable until they sign their NLI's next November (2008), so things can change. But that is very rare. Usually the NLI's are merely the formal confirmations of deals struck long before.
There are more restrictions on communications prior to next July 1 than after, but there are still lots of ways to communicate prior to July 1, also. Baseball is going the way of basketball and other sports in the sense that deals are being struck earlier and earlier these days. You can debate whether that's a good thing or not (and lots of threads on this site have hashed through that debate), but there's no denying that it's happening.
Just FYI, even prior to next July 1, a current 2009 player can communicate with coaches as follows:
1. He can call them (though they cannot call back if he leaves a message), and if he gets them on the phone, they can talk to their hearts' content.
2. He can e-mail with them, and they with him, to their mutual hearts' content.
3. If a player goes to their campus (and absorbs the travel expenses himself), when he's standing on their soil they can talk to each other to their hearts' content. This includes camps, "unofficial" visits, etc.
Any or all of the above can, and many times do, involve discussions of the terms of an offer.