Yankees reach agreemant with Teixeira on 8-year, $180M deal

Furcal agrees to terms with Braves

Yankees Set to Sign Sabathia

LAS VEGAS -- Free-agent pitcher CC Sabathia is about to sign with the Yankees, SI.com has confirmed. The deal being finalized now is expected to pay Sabathia about $160 million over seven years.

The two sides are on the verge of an agreement after three days of face-to-face talks between the Yankees and superstar Sabathia, who led the Milwaukee Brewers to the playoffs after a midseason trade by going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA. He won the 2007 Cy Young Award with the Cleveland Indians.

Sabathia apparently became convinced after extensive meetings with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman that he and his family of five could be happy living in New York. Cashman flew to the Bay Area to meet with Sabathia on Tuesday and finalize the deal, which makes Sabathia the highest-paid pitcher in baseball history, eclipsing the contracts of the Mets' Johan Santana and the Giants' Barry Zito.

The Yankees more than a month ago made an initial market-setting $140 million, six-year offer to Sabathia, and no other team stepped forward to challenge that figure. The Brewers, Angels and Red Sox are all believed to have made offers. The Giants also were starting to consider whether to step into the fray. But no team was willing to come close to matching the Yankees' money.

Sabathia expressed some concerns in the first two talks with Cashman about coming to New York after starring for six seasons in Cleveland and Milwaukee and dreaming of going home to pitch in California. Sabathia's clear preference was to play in the National League, as well, and he is said to prefer the idea of spending spring training in Arizona. So the Yankees clearly had some hurdles to clear to land him. That it is why they were intent on standing out monetarily, and they did that.

The Yankees are intent on making the playoffs in 2009 after their streak of 13 consecutive postseason berths ended last season. The Yankees are moving into a new ballpark and have $88 million in contracts coming off the books. While they aren't insulated from the economic crash in the country, they are somewhat less affected than the other 29 teams.

The Yankees' new rotation is starting to take shape, as they are also in serious negotiations with free-agent Derek Lowe. An agreement with Lowe appears likely to be finalized in the coming days, as well. The sides were discussing a contract for four years and about $66 million late Tuesday.

The Yankees, though, are intent on adding three starters and are also talking with A.J. Burnett and Ben Sheets. They are hopeful of adding one of those two pitchers to round out their rotation.

Burnett is talking to the Braves, as well, and there is a feeling that Atlanta is the favorite to lock him up. If Burnett does go to Atlanta, Sheets looks like the next pitcher the Yankees will target. The New York Post first mentioned Sabathia was set to sign on its Web site on Wednesday morning.

Source: Sports Illustrated

For this Thanksgiving week, my family and I have been staying with my dad in Beaumont, Texas(He works for Small Business Association).  Earlier today today, we took a trip through some of the towns devastated by the hurricanes earlier this year.  The last city we drove through was Port Arthur, Texas.  Now, I have been through some "rough" towns in my 20 years of existence, but this place tops them all and then some.

It was understandable going through the other cities because you can easily tell that it was because of the storm damage, but in Port Arthur that excuse only goes so far.  Easily 85-90% of the damage in Port Arthur has been decades in the making.  It seriously made me think I was in the Capital Wastelands in Fallout 3.  It looks like it was a bustling port city 30 or 40 years ago, but suddenly everybody just left and let it decay.  It is that bad.  Buildings collapsing and boarded up, windows broken, streets unkempt.  It is definitely the most depressed I have ever been driving through a city/town.  I only saw about one or two businesses open and running.  The only buildings that were respectable were the city government office building and the local junior college, which begs the questions of who exactly attends the college and where do they go after graduating(well, this question not so perplexing).  The nicest residential areas were the public housing, which definitely tells you the shape the city is in.

I wish I had my camera with me so I could show you guys pictures, because words don't to it justice.  For those of you who have also had the displeasure of being in or around Port Arthur recently, you know what I mean.  Needless to say, it is one town that I can scratch off my list of cities where I will never live.  Ever.

Between class and work today I walked across the street to the mall to get my hair cut and to pick up a new USB flash drive at the Best Buy.  This is seriously at least thr 4th flash drive I have had this year and the second in just the past few weeks.  The others either malfunctioned or I simply lost them.  I can't remember having this much trouble holding on to a particular electronic device, or any device for that matter.  Good thing they have come down in price and got a Geek Squad 4GB for $22.  Hopefully this one will last me a while before I lose it or it breaks down.

I was in line for about 3 hours.  It was really fun.  The people at the Gamestop set up some TVs where we got turns to play Halo 2 and watch some Red v. Blue episodes.  All-in-all, it was a great time

And 7 of those hours were straight(with time in between for lunch, though).  The game is absolutely amazing.  I'll post a review once I finish the campaign and play some MP.

It's between Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2.  I don't know if I can choose between the two.  Obviously Fallout 3 will take up more of my time due to it being an open-ended action RPG.  Gears of War 2 keeps getting me more and more hyped about it every time I see a new gameplay clip or trailer.

I'm just glad that I have the only system that both of these amazing games are on.