After a sleepy two weeks over the holidays, baseball kicked back into off-season action Monday.

• Milton Bradley will reportedly sign with the Cubs despite the fact that they still reside in the National League.

  I really wanted to include the Choi Hoon cartoon which featured Angry Milton waving the bucket of balls over his head in every cell, but I couldn't find it. A half-hour of internet searching yields results. Hoon's cartoons can be found here.

• Unlike the perpetually angry and injured Bradley, Pat Burrell will switch leagues to take on a DH role with the Rays. The two contracts combine for a total of 5/$46M (about $9M per annum), compared to the $11.5M Jermaine Dye is owed this season. Burrell and Bradley share a similar skill set with JD, the offensive minded (if a bit more OBP-driven) corner outfielder who would be better off at DH for one reason or another. It doesn't take much insight to figure out why the Sox were unable to unload Jermaine Dye for any value.
• Kenny Williams, "through a spokesman," officially shot down the seemingly ludicrous Floyd-for-Roberts rumor.
• Scott Gregor pisses on the Jon Garland To Return campfire.

  You can pretty much forget about another free agent, Jon Garland, as long as Ozzie’s in the dugout. They never got along before Garland was traded to the Angels last off-season, so that bridge has been torched.

  But he does find time to bring up the names Freddy Garcia (maybe, because I think he'll be really cheap), Carl Pavano (No), and Paul Byrd (Yes, but that's only because [Starter Candidate 5] throws about as well as Terrelle Pryor) as possible bargain free agents for the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time Sox rotation.
• One name that I would rather bring in ahead of all of those options, Pedro Martinez, is the subject of some dubiously unsubstantiated rumors regarding the Sox, which I point to only because it's about time we had a rumor on the front page that I like. In reality, Pedro is contemplating offers from 4 teams, two in each league.

Late in the season when I was upset that Ozzie Guillen's quick hook cost the Sox a game, I promised to revisit the issue at greater length over the off-season. With the holidays officially over and most of America returning to a more normal schedule Monday, it's time to get South Side Sox back on track as well. And what better place to start than examining the evolution of Ozzie Guillen's hook.

Early in Guillen's tenure as manager, it was evident that he intended to give his pitchers a bit more rope than Sox fans were used to. Guillen's '04 Sox ranked first in all of baseball in 100+ and 110+ pitch games, but fell behind a number of teams in the 115 and 120+ pitch categories.This approach, allowing a pitcher to work himself out of early (and sometimes late) jams, minimizing the use of the bad-end of the bullpen, earned Guillen praise from seemingly antithetical sources including Hawk, Pitcher Abuse Point watchers, bloggers (yours truly), and various saber-types. Guillen was given particular credit for the growth of Jon Garland as he we allowed to work deeper into games.

That trend continued in the Sox World Series run and the '06 & '07 seasons, as they led all of baseball in 100+ pitch outings, yet didn't top any of the other high-pitch count categories.

That philosophy changed in '08, however, as the Sox didn't lead any of the high-pitch count categories. (Interestingly, the club that led baseball was managed by Guillen's predecessor Jerry Manuel.)

What strikes me isn't the 20% drop in 100+ pitch outings--That can easily be explained away as a bit of a fluke, increased confidence in a bullpen which had a great first 3 months, or the desire to protect 1/5th of the rotation, namely John Danks--it's the precipitous drop in 110+ pitch games. Guillen allowed Sox pitchers to reach that mark in only about 10% of games this season. That's down from about 25-30% in his first 4 seasons.

I don't know if we can draw any conclusions from the new philosophy. Trying to discern the root of the change is a fools errand, as it's a bit of a Chicken-or-the-Egg scenario. Did Guillen change because he trusted his bullpen more than his young pitchers or did Guillen choose to protect his young pitchers because he got two new veteran bullpen arms to play with?

I'd love be able to drill down and see if there was a large difference in leverage index when Guillen made the initial call to bullpen, but I wouldn't know where to begin and it seems like it might be an arduous task. Anecdotally, purely from my own faulty memory, it seemed like the bullpen started an inning after the starter was pulled more often than in the past.

I'd like to see Ozzie return to his '04-'07 form next season, limiting the use of the replacement-level end of the bullpen in favor of his above-average starters. But with a rotation which looks to contain two young pitchers who have less experience than '08 Danks and Floyd, I'm prepared to see more of the quick-hook Guilen in '09.

After the jump is a collection of every image I uploaded with a story this season. Clicking an image will take you to the event page.

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I've taken a bit of holiday break here lately, but I thought a we could use a little discussion since the Sox aren't exactly providing us with any. I thought about running a poll for game of the year, but that would probably a run away winner.

I'd still like to look back on a few games, including those last few regular season contests that I didn't recap. So take a look at the schedule, and include a link to the game page (click "coverage") of your choice in the comments section.

For thread of the year, take a look at the archives or use the search function, then post your nominations in the comments section.

For nomination purposes, use the Recommend feature in the comments to highlight those games/threads you wish to see highlighted.