http://www.dailysouthtown.com/sports/548844,091SPT2.article

While it remains to be seen how active the front office will be in the free-agent market, Reinsdorf expects the payroll to remain comparable to that of this season.

"Oh, yeah," Reinsdorf said. "It might be more than that. That's a question I don't know the answer to right now, because we still have to do our budget for next year. We look at all of our income and all of our expenses, and whatever is left over is our payroll.

"The fans came out to support us, so we can afford it. I've always said that whatever money we have, we'll devote to building a winning team."

Just for you extreme pessimists out there, it looks like the Sox won't be dropping back in payroll even after the crappy season.  Obviously the Sox are still going to have to unload one of Garland or Contreras (preferably both), but the money will be there to add someone.

I'm not saying, BTW, that one player (Rowand, Hunter, Jones) is going to fix the mess that the Sox are in, but I still believe it's the right move to go after Jones this winter.  That's not to say the Sox should offer him C-Lee money, but you get my drift.

This quote seemed sort of odd, too:

Despite a $109.7 million payroll at the start of the season, the fourth-highest in the major leagues and the highest in team history, the South Siders owned the second-worst record overall going into Saturday's action.

The Sox aren't actually paying anywhere near that $109.7 number, are they?  I thought what the Sox were paying was much closer to $95 million.

In any case, the Sox should have some flexibility this winter, which is good to know...