Ozzie Guillen has left the building and now Chicago White Sox fans are anxious to see what happens next.  Because that what sports fans are always looking for, what's next.  Never mind how successful someone has been, we always want to see the next guy.  That's why the second string quarterback is the most popular player in the NFL---until of course he has to play.

There's a lot out there on the semi-contentious divorce between Ozzie and Kenny, but it basically comes down to this: Ozzie knew he had a place to land and if the Sox didn't want to pay him, the Florida Marlins would.  In most cases, what has gone down the last month would be consider tampering, but for the White Sox, an opportunity to "trade" Ozzie amounted to an opportunity to come away with something.

It seems that the players and coaches are all supportive of Ozzie, but you have to wonder.  No one in the club house is going to say "boy, I'm glad that loud mouth is gone."  The White Sox are famous for being able to sanitize and control the message, except of course when the message came from Ozzie. But now that he's gone, things will go back to being, at very least, mundane and at the most unexciting. And that's just how this organization rolls.

A couple of quick thought before I put forth what needs to happen from this point forward. First, Joe Cowley's column in the Sun-Times this morning realy annoyed me, not so much because it was pro-Ozzie but because Cowley really is, as Dan Spiegel on the Score has said a few times, Ozzie's mouthpiece.  Sure, Kenny has an ego.  Sure Kenny made mistakes.  But Ozzie's whole last month made Kenny and The Chairman look like sympathetic figures.  The bottom line is the GM does his job and the manager does his and they win by working with each other.  When the manager purposely runs the ship aground by playing players who aren't performing, that isn't necessarily on the GM.

Do I think Kenny shares a lot of the blame for this season? Yes.  Do I think Ozzie is blameless? No. Not at all. 

The second thought that keeps running through my head is that Ozzie will mean more to the Marlins then he will the White Sox, not in terms of his ability as a manager (although he is pretty good at that) but his ability to attract top Hispanic players to Miami. The Marlins are not a team that appeals to the white middle class as much as it is the large hodge-podge of Hispanic cultures down there.  Being able to recruit players like Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Zambrano and perhaps even Albert Pujols would be a huge deal for the Marlins as they prepare to open their new stadium.  Ozzie will help them sell tickets and bring in top flight talent to help them complete in the very talented NL East. 

Unfortunately for Ozzie, he picked one of the worst owners in baseball to go to work for.  Don't expect Jeffery Loria to have Ozzie's back if things go south.  That may be Ozzie's biggest miscalculation in thinking he had a safe place to land.

On to what happens now.  It's obvious that the choices are one of three guys: Sandy Alomar Jr, Dave Martinez and Terry Francona.  Francona would be awesome if the Sox could get him, but then again, he has a pretty good job as it is.  Alomar should come as perhaps a bench coach or third base coach.  The guy I would hire would be Martinez.  Anyone who has spent the last few years learning at the elbow of Joe Maddon is fine by me.  And if you are rolling your eyes, you can't deny the success that Mike Scioscia's former bench coaches have had: Maddon with the Rays and Ron Roenke with the Brewers. 

Kenny also needs to find a way to re-sign Mark Buehrle, even if he has to make some trades to lower the payroll to do it.  I'm fine with the Sox trading away Carlos Quentin, Gavin Floyd and John Danks, because I think all three of those players can be replaced.  I'm not so sure about Buehrle.

Let's hope that Ozzie's departure brings good things and more success on the baseball field.  The last time a Chicago icon in a managerial or coaching position got fired, it didn't work out so well.  We can only hope and pray that there is no Stuttering Dave in the White Sox future.