MLB

One of the most fascinating rumors to come to life over the past few weeks has been the Adrian Beltre to the A's rumor. The normally frugal Athletics are taking a "serious look" at signing Beltre, who at just 30 years old, is one of the best free agents left on the market and by far the best free agent third baseman. As ESPN's Buster Olney writes:

It is time for the final field position to be graded for the 2009 campaign.

Ryan Hanigan, who did catch most of the games this past season, is now on the grading block. In actuality he almost caught twice as many as the “big money” catcher Ramon Hernandez managed to play only 50 games behind the plate.

As we do our annual look at the top 10 Boston sports stories of 2009, there were some that didn't make the final cut but did take up some time in our collective conscious over the past 12 months.

If you haven't figured it out yet, we care about sports here in Boston to a point that is almost scary.

A mix of Red Sox player moves and non-moves, Patriots wide receivers appearing on the national media radar for the right and wrong reasons and more, this list represents the Honorable Mentions for the Top 10 Boston Sports Stories of 2009.

Jackie Howard was a Giants' fan who grew up in Flushing. He was 10 years old when the Giants won the pennant in 1951, but the Yankees beat them in the World Series.

That's when Jackie Howard started his hate affair with the Yankees, which grew more intense during the 1962 World Series.

What the New York Yankees have done with the recent Javier Vazquez signing is strengthen their bullpen to the point that it resembles the one they had during their run in the late 1990’s.

Effectively the Yankees have five front line starters that can hang with any in the American League East.

From CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, the newly acquired Javier Vazquez, and Phil Hughes, a weak link is seemingly missing.

Missing from the rotation is reliever, turned starter, Joba Chamberlain.

Met fans have been clamoring for Omar Minaya to make a splash and sign a big name free agent. I'm not sure that this signing counts, but according to a report by Joel Sherman of the New York Post , Kelvim Escobar is on his way to becoming a New York Met :

Jhonny Peralta headed into 2009 as a player many people thought would help buoy their middle infield, providing power from a position that was generally viewed as a source of speed.  After hitting over 20 home runs in three of the previous four seasons, who could blame them?

It wasn’t only that, however.  After injuries forced Peralta to spend the majority of his time in the middle of the Indians order in 2008, he responded with career highs in RBIs (89) and runs (104).  There just wasn’t much not to like about him.

Like most Mets fans, I hate Mr. Minaya and can't wait until his reign of terror is done. I hate Omar so much, even if the Mets win the World Series in 2010 I will still hate that man. But that doesn't take away the fact that he has my dream job, being the General manager of the New York Mets.

This will be a slideshow that will focus on every position, who should start that position and what the Mets have done so far and what they need to do.

I understand that the new Cubs owners have no appetite to increase the payroll for 2010. And, if you look at it reasonably, one can understand.

Yet we all know that the way in which Cubs GM Jim Hendry has spent the money has left a huge void and right now, as currently constructed, the Cubs are not a contending team.

Although we are still months from the official Hall of Fame vote, it is never too early to take a look at the upcoming ballot, and with a less than stellar first year class headlined by Fred McGriff, Edgar Martinez, Barry Larkin, and Roberto Alomar, this may be the year for holdovers such as Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven to be enshrined.

However, I feel that Alomar may have a legitimate chance at first ballot enshrinement. Let's take a look at the statistics.