You didn't think the New York Yankees were going to get aced out of the playoffs and just stand pat during the offseason, did ya? Reports have surfaced that the team has signed prized free agent pitcher C.C. Sabathia to a seven-year $161 million contract.

He' the first cog in the Yankees shoring up their shaky starting rotation. Peter Gammons on ESPN said he thought Derek Lowe, who pitched for the Dodgers last season, would be next up for New York.

When Gammons was asked if he thought that the American League East would be a race between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox, he said, "No." Meaning, the Yankees would be very much in the thick of it, because they'll spend whatever they nee to be there.

Meanwhile, the Rays have had dinner meetings with free agents Milton Bradley and Jason Giambi.

This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...