Well, that's the end of that.  Plan "A" is in California, Plan B is in Detroit.  All that's left for White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams to do is pack up his Wild Horse Saloon T-Shirts and board the Southwest Airlines flight for home.  Kenny, you are now free to move about the country.

How does this happen?  Detroit is now a whole lot better than they were twenty-four hours ago.  Minnesota is looking to deal their hole card and get better.  Even the basement dwelling Royals are better.  And for all his bluster and all his promises, Kenny Williams has a broken down relief pitcher and a .214 hitting outfielder as his solution to the Sox fourth place finish.  Nicely played, sir.  Even though you are in the third largest market in the country and even though you swear money isn't an issue, your team is being run like and you are quickly becoming the Pittsburgh Pirates.

We've learned some things in these winter meetings.  The most important thing is something everyone already knew: The Sox farm system has been so depleted and so broken during Kenny's watch that there aren't enough prospects in there to get other teams to notice.  Oh, you can blame Duane Schafer all you want, but this is on Kenny's watch and the buck stops on Kenny's desk..  Even with the ouster of Schafer, it will take the Sox new team years to build the system back up.  And by that time, the Sox could be the Royals.

That means your option becomes free agency and we know how the Sox deal with that.  They low balled Torii Hunter.  They don't want to sign Aaron Rowand for five years.  They are not interested in Andruw Jones (at least Kenny isn't.) So, congratulations Sox fans.  This Christmas, we all get a lump of coal in our stockings.

Kenny Williams promised us he'd do something.  Scott Linebrink and Carlos Quentin are not doing something.  Acquiring Orlando Cabrera but keeping Juan Uribe is not doing something. They are band-aids where a tourniquet needs to be applied.  And instead of a center fielder and perhaps a left fielder who doesn't have a bum non-throwing shoulder and can hit, maybe .275, the Sox are proud owners of three guys I'm not too confident in. 

There's still time at the winter meetings, but it almost seems to me with Miguel Cabrera gone, I envision Kenny sitting on a stage and a Carol Burnett like character is beginning to start cleaning up.  The party seems to be over and the White Sox have what they came with, a big bag of absolutely nothing.

Lightning Round

• A very nice take on the White Sox dropping the ball at the winter meetingsfrom our friend Rickhouse over at "Tremendous Upside Potential."
  
• Rex Grossman wants more no-huddle offense.  Most fans would be happy with the no-Rex offense.
• The Cardinals and Brewers have finally stopped talking about Scott Rolen (which is good because that would have sucked for the Brewers.)  Now the Dodgers are doing the talking and the Cards are doing the listening.
• Rumors are swirling that someone punked Kirk Herbstreit into believing that Les Miles was on his way to Michigan.  This is why my airstaff used to get mad at me because I made them confirm things.  Herby didn't, thus a face full of egg.
•  Tommy Tuberville signs a two-year extension with Auburn.  This includes raises for all his assistants.  Greg Robinson isn't as lucky.  To keep his job, he had to sacrifice his assistants.  Some guys drive the bus and others drive it over people.
• Some deadly accurate humor from "Kissing Suzy Kolber".