It’s October 17, 2011 and instead of preparing to watch their team play in the World Series, Yankees fans have been without baseball for over a week.

During that span, a few stories about the upcoming offseason have been published and a number of them had made mention of CC Sabathia’s opt out and C.J. Wilson’s free agency.

Wilson, whose Texas Rangers just punched their ticket to the World Series for the second year in a row, will be a free agent at season’s end. In some of these stories, Wilson is “likely” to leave Texas for the brighter lights and deeper pockets of the New York Yankees. But why? If Texas wins the World Series, wouldn’t he want to stay there and continue their run?

As for Sabathia, why would he want to leave New York? Which team could offer him more money? Some articles say Texas could offer him a big contract but I honestly don’t see Sabathia leaving New York – a team he helped lead to the World Series title in 2009 and helped lead to the playoffs three consecutive seasons.

I also don’t see C.J. Wilson coming to the Yankees. He seems to enjoy being in Texas and I also don’t see the Yankee front office overpaying for him – at least I hope they won’t.

When the World Series ends, this will all be front and center leading into the Winter Meetings and Hot Stove. Until then, let’s have fun reading the speculation!!