Does Guillen already know he's leaving White Sox?

It was a simple question.

The answer, not so much.

Postgame Wednesday, manager Ozzie Guillen was asked whether he thought Alejandro De Aza could be a top of the lineup hitter for the White Sox in 2012.

Said Guillen: “I don't know. That's up to them what kind of ballclub they're gonna have …”

Wait. Up to them? The kind of club they're going to have?

That's at least a Freudian slip and perhaps an outright declaration that Guillen knows he's not part of “they” or “them” anymore and headed elsewhere.

Guillen shrugged his shoulders when he said it, as if to portray a man who wouldn't be here, wouldn't have any say in it and didn't much care.

Betrayed by his subconscious, Guillen quickly corrected himself after saying, “ … what kind of ballclub they're gonna have,” and after a slight pause changed it to, “ … we're gonna have.”

It's further evidence that Guillen has checked out, ready to move on to Miami.

How he intends to get there is yet unclear. Guillen is signed through 2012, and since he has let everyone see his cards with a public campaign against all the usual and imagined insults, the Sox — rather than fire Guillen — may force the Marlins to offer some form of compensation.

But it's clear that the current management situation can't survive another season and change is coming.

The organization as a whole is exhausted by the constant upheaval, and Guillen has become insufferable at times and impossible to pacify most of the time.

He wants to leave and it's hard to imagine the Sox will force him to stay.

Both parties ought to find a way to make it happen quickly.

In the meantime, let's hope White Sox fans don't have to endure an October game of chicken among Guillen, the Sox and the Marlins while they get it figured out.

Just saying

The Marlins' Logan Morrison has filed a grievance against Florida for his August demotion, a punishment from chief clowns Jeff Loria and David Samson that cost Morrison 10 days' major league pay.

The Florida owner and team president probably would like to trade Morrison, who has an active Twitter account (68,000 followers) and a higher OPS (.803) and more home runs (20) and RBI (68) than any Sox player except Paul Konerko and Carlos Quentin.

And he's been in the league a little more than a year.

Closing time

Ozzie Guillen is correct in suggesting that the White Sox have given up on the season, and usually that's an indictment of the manager.

But it's wrong to put it on Guillen. It's a normal shutdown when a season's over by a drained team that has battled psychologically as hard as the Sox have all season, fighting inside their own heads from start to finish.

Guillen's also been a bit too harsh of late with his criticism of the team.

Realistically, the season's been over since the middle of August and practically speaking since they were swept at Detroit over Labor Day weekend.

This week's series with the Tigers was irrelevant, so if Guillen needed to call them out it should have been done a month ago.

Even then, it wasn't a matter of quitting. The Tigers are just better.

The professional

As always, a calming voice in the darkness belongs to Paul Konerko, who agreed with Guillen only to an extent.

“That's what comes with the territory this time of year,” Konerko said of his club falling apart. “When it happens in September and (a pennant race) comes to an abrupt end … people are human. But everybody is playing the game right, and everybody's integrity is there.”

The bullpen

Ozzie Guillen was particularly rough on Chris Sale and Sergio Santos after they denied Dylan Axelrod his first major league win Wednesday, but the Sox' bullpen has been pretty good since the first two weeks of the season and has hardly been the problem in 2011.

The North Side

To no one's surprise, here come the emails praising the Cubs.

Since bottoming out at 23 under in late July (42-65), the Cubs have played above .500 at 23-19 going into Thursday's action.

Congratulations, for the second straight year the Cubs have played decent baseball after falling hopelessly out of the race, when it's not uncommon for losing teams with no pressure to relax and win games.

It's meaningless. All it does is move you down in the draft.

Just thinking

Nothing could match the Bears' luck of a year ago, but it's pretty encouraging when their next opponent, New Orleans, might be missing its top pass rusher (Will Smith) to suspension and top two receivers (Marques Colston and Lance Moore) to injury.

The swarm

This stat courtesy of emailer Roger McCoy: The Bears were credited with 22 assists (tackles) Sunday while Atlanta collected only 2.

Out to lunch

Why is Mike Quade still here, talking about next season and — worst of all — wasting time playing veterans?

The quote

South Carolina's Steve Spurrier: “Twenty years ago, 50 years ago, athletes got full scholarships. Television income was what, maybe $50,000? And now everybody's getting 14, 15 million bucks and (athletes are) still getting a scholarship.”

Best headline

Sportspickle.com: “Tony Romo gets vote of confidence from Eagles, Redskins and Giants.”

And finally …

Omaha World-Herald's Brad Dickson: “Al Michaels questioned whether Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis is really a genius. Davis was so upset when he heard about it, he canceled plans to take Michaels in round two of the supplement draft.”

ŸHear Barry Rozner on WSCR 670-AM and follow him @BarryRozner on Twitter.