CC Ya Next Year

Sabathia had many Yankee fans worried the top
of their rotation would be headed by someone
other than the 290-pounder in 2012.

Just hours before the deadline to opt-out of his current contract, CC Sabathia and the New York Yankees came to an agreement on a contract extension that keeps the husky left-handed in pinstripes through 2016 and possibly 2017.

With four years and $92 million remaining on Sabathia's seven-year $161 million deal he signed prior to the 2009 season, New York has added an extra year to the contract worth $25 million, including a vesting option worth the same mount in '17 with a $5 million buyout.

The extension now brings the 31-year-old's deal to five-years $122 million, still the highest paid pitcher in Major League Baseball.

Sabathia, who reportedly lost 25 pounds last offseason after cutting his beloved Cap' n Crunch out of his diet, is coming off another All-Star year in the Bronx, going 19-8 with a 3.00 earned run average in 237.1 innings. Although, the 2007 Cy Young Award winner struggled in the season's final two months with a 3-3 recorded, 4.30 ERA and opponents hit at a .314 clip against him. That continued in the postseason as Sabathia allowed 6 earned runs in his 8.2 innings, accumulating to a 6.30 ERA.

Despite that, the California native has enjoyed three fantastic seasons under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium that includes being named the '09 ALCS MVP and his first World Series title.

Last season Sabathia became a 20-game winner for the first time in his career, winning 21 games in an American League leading 34 starts. His 59 wins since becoming a Yankee are the second only the Detroit Justin Verlander's 61 in that three-year span.

Sabathia recently built a home in Alpine, New Jersey and has said numerous times he loves pitching in New York, a love that ultimately meant him dawning the pinstripes for the long haul.

It's a decision that the organization and fans alike have been waiting for all season long. With their already thin starting rotation, New York could ill afford to lose an ace and workhorse like Sabathia, who has tossed plus innings each of the last five seasons.

With this deal, left-hander C.J. Wilson is thought to be the best free-agent starting pitcher on the market this winter, along with Mark Buehrle, Roy Oswalt and Japanese import Yu Darvish.

All whom could slide right into the No. 2 slot in the rotation behind Sabathia.

The five-time All-Star will be 36 when his contract expires and has an outside chance of becoming one of the next or the final 300-game winner in baseball. Sabathia currently ranks fourth on the active wins list with 176, but is the youngest of the bunch as the top three are all 34 or older.

Now, with Sabathia looking to continue etching his name in Yankee lore, their unsigned general manager can look to get his ace some help

Here We Go Again

Cruz enjoyed a record-setting ALCS, that saw
him hit six home runs.

It's hard to believe at one point the Detroit Tigers held a 2-0 lead against the Texas Rangers Saturday in Game 6 of the ALCS. After Detroit shut out the Rangers high octane offense for the first two innings, Texas bombarded the Tigers' pitching staff for 15 runs on 17 hits, closing out the ALCS, 15-5.

In a 38 minute bottom of the third inning, the Ranger sent 14 hitters to the plate, recording six hits in a nine-run outburst, setting the franchise record for most runs scored in a single postseason half inning.

Two of those six hits came off the suddenly red-hot bat of All-Star Michael Young. Young hit two, two-run doubles in the inning, driving in four of the nine runs scored. The 12-year veteran added a solo home run in the seventh, giving him a 5 RBI game and totaling 7 for the series.

His teammate, Nelson Cruz, who was honored as this year's ALCS MVP, got out his boomstick once again and continued this unbelievable postseason run. Cruz popped a two-run shot for his sixth home run of the series, driving in his 12th and 13th runs of the series, both are single series postseason records.

With his six home runs, Cruz is now the only player in postseason history to have hit six home runs in two different postseasons. In his first postseason appearance a year ago, the Monte Cristi native also hit six home runs, but that came throughout the playoffs, not one series. If that weren't enough, Cruz hit the first walk-off grand slam in postseason history and had two extra innings home runs in the ALCS, the first time that has ever been done as well.

All eight of hits during the LCS went for extra-bases, that's a lot of production for a guy that bats seventh in the lineup. But it wasn't just Cruz's bat that did the talking.

In the eighth inning of Game 4, Cruz fired a perfect game-saving dart to nail the not so fleet of foot, Miguel Cabrera, at the plate, keeping the game tied.

While Cruz continues to exemplify an October legend, the Rangers are headed to their second straight World Series. After losing to the San Francisco Giants in last year's Fall Classic in five games, they have come back with vengeance and fire in their eyes. After capturing both their two straight division title and American League Pennant, Texas is the first AL West team to accomplish that feat since the Oakland Athletics did so from 1988-'90. They did in three years in-a-row.

Those Oakland teams were led by future Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa, and with his Cardinals one win away from their eighteenth trip to the World Series, Texas could oddly enough face the last manager to do what they have achieved in 2011.

Texas accomplished all this without the power of last year's ALCS MVP, Josh Hamiltion, who didn't hit a home run in this series and has yet to hit one this postseason after hitting four in last year's LCS against the New York Yankees.

Showered in Ginger Ale for the second straight year, the Rangers hope to have one last celebration in them.