MLB

It’s officially the new year. With 2009 in the rearview mirror and 2010 upon us, it’s time to take a look at the Houston Astros probable bench for this coming season.

Stopping to read the Jim Hendry outfield foibles over the last few seasons reads like the tale of a man who just doesn't get it. Corey Patterson, Jacque Jones, Jeromy Burnitz, Matt Lawton, Cliff Floyd, Juan Pierre, Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome, and Milton Bradley, just to name a few.

In pretty much every case, the Cubs have either failed to get the production that they hoped for, and/or wildly overpaid for it. I'll let you figure out which is which.

A recent study from the New York Times concluded that air traffic controllers suffer the most stress than any other job. I beg to differ. Without a doubt, I confidently believe that being a Seattle Mariners fan is the most stressful "occupation" known to man.

Alright, my thoughts on the moves so far this offseason are late. At any rate, hate them or love them, here they are.

It would be an understatement to simply say that the Detroit Tigers have entered a rebuilding phase.

It has become a reality that we are all dealing with in our own ways. Common solutions include denial, rage, optimism, sadness, and/or the bottle of your choice.

Our offseason activity thus far has done everything but confirm that a fire sale would not be taking place.

So the Bay era is over in Boston. Probably a lot sooner than many Red Sox fans, myself included, had hoped.

Jason Bay, while no Manny Ramirez with the bat, provided the Red Sox with a very solid power stroke in a very walk-happy lineup (second in the AL with 659), hitting 36 home runs, and providing a very nice line of .267/.384/.537.

It will be interesting to see how Bay's style plays at Citi Field, as it is a very young ballpark, and while Fenway Park is noted as a hitter's park, it also can depress HR totals. Particularly for a right handed hitter.

It seems hard to believe, but we are already in the year 2010. And with any new decade, it seems only fair to look back on the best of the previous 10 years.

So with that, I present my top 10 picks from each position between the years 2000-2009: Hot Corner time!

As with any ranking, there will always be snubs. I welcome any comments suggesting players that may have been left off this list.

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As with the rest of the articles in this series, I started out intending to list the Top Ten games of the last decade; but then realized I would have to leave too many great games off the list if I limited it to just ten games.

So, as a result, I hereby present you with my Top 20 Sox games of the last 10 years.

Part I of the list contains Games 11-20:

Game #20. Big Innings Abound - June 27, 2003 and May 7, 2009

These were the BIG-inning games from the decade…both occurred at Fenway Park.

Well, it's January 1st, and as always, people around the world are resolving to better themselves in the year ahead.

Some people will resolve to lose weight, some people will resolve to think more about others, and some people will resolve to read my articles more often (I hope).

The principle doesn't apply very well to baseball; if executives thought about improving their teams only once a year, they'd be fired pretty quickly.

Nevertheless, here are my suggestions for how Larry Dolan, Manny Acta, and Mark Shapiro could better the Cleveland Indians in the year ahead.

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