A-Rod and Barry

Well, this isn't what I was expecting. It looks like Alex Rodriguez has definitely come to a preliminary agreement with the Yankees on a 10-year, $275 million contract. This is basically the same offer the Yankees extended to A-Rod in the days before he opted out of his contract, except it's actually less -- the Yankees have subtracted the money they would have gotten from the Rangers as part of the old contract. So for all intents and purposes, A-Rod will be returning to the Yankees next year and will be a Yankee for the foreseeable future.
The Yankees negotiated this contract directly with A-Rod -- the Steinbrothers refused to negotiate with Scott Boras.
There are a lot of implications here, and to discuss them, I'll whip out my bullets:

Offseason news

There's a lot of news, so let's categorize.

PERFORMANCE ENHANCERS

• A new report has come out listing former Giants third baseman Matt Wiliams, among others, as having received steroids and/or other PEDs. Maybe we can finally, finally admit that the good guys used PEDs, too. And instead of throwing a sportswriter hissy-fit and sulking and pouting in public, let's just accept that our melodramatic, overwraught attempts to cast the PED scandal in black and white terms is infinitely inaccurate.
• George Mitchell has set this Saturday (tomorrow) as the deadline for any new evidence or information to include in the Mitchell Report. My guess is that this means we're going to get the report before Christmas. Ho, ho, freakin' ho.
• This brings me to my next point . . .

COLLUSION