After last night's heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Detroit last night, one would assume that the Chicago White Sox have picked up the White Flag from the dry cleaners and are about to fly it over U.S. Comiskey Park.

Rumors of a possible trade have already surfaced, but the good news is the two players leaving would be Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen.  That's fine. There's also talk that Carlos Quentin is a hot property and may be sent to the Phillies.  I hope that one doesn't happen, but at this point, Kenny Williams prime objective is to slash payroll any way he can.

Joe Cowley wrote a terrific column in the Sun-Times that echoed what we've all said for some time: Even if Kenny traded all of the impending free agents and some of the fringe players, he's still stuck paying $82 million through 2014 for the two biggest disappointments on this team, Adam Dunn and Alex Rios. Add to that Jake Peavy's massive contract through 2013 and the Sox are stuck in contract hell.  Unless the three of them step up their game, the Sox may be doomed to third or fourth place for the next couple of years while all of the quality pitching they've developed and acquired gets traded away for magic beans.

In any case, the future looks cloudy.  What you probably will see are more Brett Morels and Cuban Sandwiches and less players with track records.  And while this doesn't sound so bad, realize that the Sox organization is not necessarily known for developing great players. Gordon Beckham and Chris Sale spent little if no time in the minors, but the Sox system is full of players who might have promise, but not for a few years.

In addition to the player upheaval, the Sox could make changes in the dugout.  While ditching Greg Walker would make some Sox fans smile, would you really like life without Don Cooper or Joey Cora?  Or worse, if the Sox fire Ozzie or he gets mad and bolts to Florida, would the Sox find another Jeff Torborg who can make huge batches of lemonade or another Terry Bevington who is totally clueless (or for you middle aged fans another Don Gutteridge.)

Buckle up Sox fans.  It's about to become a bumpy ride.