One of two things happen when we discuss “best ever” topics:

1. We over-estimate the past (no one could be better than the “good old days”)
2. We’re amazed at what we’re seeing now and overvalue our eyes in favor of players we never saw

Frankly, it makes my head hurt sometimes. But, I still love the debate (and a good cartoon, to the right).

The infield of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira is one of the vital cogs in the Yankees‘ great season so far, but their impact may be much deeper, in terms of baseball history. Some believe, with apologies to the immortal Tinker to Evers to Chance, or to Connie Mack and his “$100,000 Infield” of the 1910s, that the Yankees’ “$78 Million Infield” - their combined salaries – could one day be the finest all-around group ever.

“I think arguably you could say they are the best,” says Palmer. “When you consider their offense, there can’t be a better infield. They are playing outstanding defense and when you couple that and the best offense, that’s pretty special.“

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Despite an onslaught of offense on Saturday, the Yankees bats were quiet against Ian Snell and the Mariners Sunday afternoon. Joba continued to cause concern for Yankee fans, as he got hit hard and often during his short outing. Griffey showed Seattle that he is not done yet and the Yankees fell 7-1.

Jeter started the game off with a single and Damon followed with a walk, but the next three Yankees went down in order. Joba got a quick two outs as Ichiro and Gutierrez flew out, however, they each hit the ball hard. Jose Lopez followed with a double to left and he scored when Ken Griffey Jr. doubled to center. Adrian Beltre followed with a RBI single, giving the Mariners an early 2-0 lead.

Everything fell apart for Joba in the bottom of the second. It started with back-to-back singles by Carp and Moore. They moved over on a sac bunt by Wilson, and Joba intentionally walked Ichiro to load the bases. He then unintentionally walked Gutierrez, giving up a run. Lopez drove a sac fly deep to center, scoring Moore. Griffey delivered the final blow, smacking a three-run homer into the right field stands for the 7-0 lead.

Sergio Mitre gave the Yankees five good innings in relief, but they were unable to put anything together on offense. Teixeira doubled to right in the top of the sixth. A-Rod flied out, and Matsui followed with a walk. Posada drove a double to left, scoring Teix for what would be the Yankees lone run. Seattle took the series with the 7-1, and the Yankees dressed up their rookies for the trip to Anaheim.

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Not like we didn’t see THIS coming:

The Chicago Cubs have suspended outfielder Milton Bradley for the remainder of the season, following comments he made to the Arlington Heights Daily Herald about there being too much negativity playing for the Cubs.

“Recently it’s become intolerable to hear Milton talk about our great fans the way he has,” general manger Jim Hendry told ESPNChicago.com’s Bruce Levine. “We pride ourselves on having the greatest fans in baseball, so at this time we felt it was best for him to go home for the rest of the season.”

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Seattle Mariners: 76-71, 3rd in the American League West.

Pitching match-ups:

Friday: A.J. Burnett vs. Felix Hernandez

Saturday: CC Sabathia vs. Doug Fister

Sunday: Joba Chamberlain vs. Ian Snell

Hitting:

wOBA: .311. 26th in MLB, last in the AL.

The worst offense in the American League is actually a little worse than it appears just by looking at their team wOBA. Russell Branyan is currently tied with Ichiro for the team lead in wOBA with a .368 mark. Unfortunately for the Mariners, Branyan and his thirty-one bombs have been on the disabled list since late August, and he will not return in time for this series. Beyond Branyan, Ichiro is putting up a fine year. He recently received a lot of attention for his ninth straight 200 hit year, and regardless of how you feel about base-hits as a measuring tool, it is still a great accomplishment. His value is tied to his .353 batting average, as he still does not walk and has hit only three home runs since June. He does have twenty-five steals, but having been caught eight times, making the net gain in that category marginal. Jose Lopez is the Mariners active leader in home runs and slugging percentage. Franklin Gutierrez made some strides at the plate this season, and has been a lefty masher, putting up a .331/.401/.520 slash line. Beyond those three, the Mariner offense is pretty paltry. The catching duties are split up between Rob Johnson, Kenji Johjima, and Triple- A call up Adam Moore. Johjima is the best offensive threat of three, but his .308 wOBA shouldn’t scare anyone. Shortstop Jack Wilson will miss the series with a bruised right heel.

I haven’t done my usual “Friday Video Fun” in some time. But when I came across this today, I HAD to post this, even if it’s not baseball-related.

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When I joined the Bloguin network on July 1st, I did so for a few reasons, including a better design, more professional looking, more functionality, good emerging network. All of which has been true, at least in my opinion. One of the other things was that I was able to help recruit a few other emerging blogs to the network to help fill out their baseball roster. The good news is that three of them are now online and fully operational (and hopefully more to come):

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All: Just an quick FYI that the forums (link up top, recent postings to the right) are back up and fully operational. I threw the first new topic out there to discuss:

Where does Jeter rank among all-time Yankee greats?

Have at it.

The umpiring crew from Wednesday’s Halos/RedSox matchup is mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

BOSTON — Umpires working the series between the Red Sox and Angels at Fenway Park complained Thursday that Los Angeles coaches were “unprofessional and unbecoming” after two close calls went against them at the end of Wednesday night’s loss.

“Their deportment as we left the field, going through the Angels dugout, left a lot to be desired,” plate umpire Rick Reed told the Boston Herald. “We filed a report after the game and I would think there will be a coach or two over there that would be regretting his actions today.”

Select View Full Post to view the strikezone plot analysis of the bad calls that had Angels yelling.

There have always been controversial calls aplenty in baseball, but the advantage is that these days we can check pretty conclusively to see who was right. Turns out Mark Scioscia and Brian Fuentes had a pretty legit beef with the home plate umpire, as shown in the graph below.

I’d be peeved too. Too bad Bob Watson will almost certainly hand out significant fines to both Scioscia and Fuentes. After all, why should someone complain when the home plate umpire gives away the game in the bottom of the ninth by calling a down the middle strike ball 4 to walk in a run?

Then again, it’s pretty hard to ring up a player like Nick Green, who is known for his career .307 OBP incredible batter’s eye.

Color me shocked, Pete Abraham is moving to the Boston Globe/Boston.com:

So here it is: I’m leaving The Journal News after nearly 10 years and going to work for The Boston Globe.

I’ll be covering baseball – yes, the Red Sox – and blogging for Boston.com. The Globe approached me in August, right around the time my newspaper was going through some painful restructuring that you all heard about.

That’s incredible. Not that he’s moving and not that he’s going to cover the RedSox, but that he’s doing it on the eve of the playoffs! These two teams have a pretty decent chance meeting in the ALCS and PeteAbe will be covering it for the other guys. Why did this have to happen during the stretch run?

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In my various guises about the internets, I’ve been a fairly outspoken fan of Nick Swisher from the day he was traded to the Yankees. His BABIP/LD% discrepancy flagged him as a very strong candidate for a bigtime rebound this year, and Ozzie Guillen’s mind-boggling dislike of him flagged him as someone who could probably be gotten at a discount. But Cashman couldn’t have had a clue exactly how enormous that discount would be.

Let’s rehash the story–Swisher was originally signed by Oakland in the first round of the 2002 Rule IV draft (a big plotline of Joe Morgan’s favorite book, Moneyball) using the pick that Oakland received when Johnny Damon signed with the Red Sox the previous offseason. He made it to the major league club fulltime in 2005, and really blossomed in 2006 when he jumped his walk rate from 11% to 15%, and his wOBA from .331 to .368 (he went from being Adam Kennedy to being Justin Morneau at the plate). He carried that performance into the the following year, and Billy Beane capitalized in the 07-08 offseason, sending Swisher to the White Sox for a pair of solid prospects in Ryan Sweeney and Gio Gonzalez, and youngster Fautino De Los Santos.

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After a frustrating loss to the Jays, and a couple suspensions for the brawl towards the end of the game, the Yankees looked to regroup against Toronto last night. Gaudin put together a decent outing and the Yankee bats worked their late-inning magic again to put together a 5-4 walk-off victory.

Jeter led off by working a walk and Teixeira drove a double to deep centerfield to plate the first run of the game. Hideki followed with a RBI single and the Yankees leapt out to the 2-0 lead. Gaudin kept the Jays scoreless for the first two innings, but gave up a homer to Jose Bautista to lead off the third. Travis Snider singled and then Marco Scutaro knocked one up the middle, hitting Gaudin in his throwing arm. Snider scored on Lind’s ground out to tie the game at 2-2. In the top of the sixth, Gaudin gave up a single to Vernon Wells and a double to Lyle Overbay. A ground out by Barajas gave the Jays the 3-2 lead. Toronto picked up another run in the seventh, when Brian Bruney gave up a double to Scutaro and a single to Aaron Hill. Phil Coke gave up a sac fly to Adam Lind and the Jays held the 4-2 lead in the late innings.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Yankees offense was jolted awake. After a single by Alex Rodriguez, Hideki Matsui smacked a two-run homer (will AL managers ever learn that Matsui hits lefties hard? I hope not) to tie the game and wake up the Bronx. Looking for walk-off number 14 in the bottom of the ninth, Brett Gardner battled through a great at bat and picked up a single. Gardner stole second and moved to third when Jeter grounded out. Francisco Cervelli then stepped up and drove a single to left field, bringing Gardner home for the win. After touching first, Cervelli seemed to be running away from his teammates but they caught up with him and the celebrations began.

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I really like Ken Davidoff’s work but I am struggling to understand why he brings up a question like this and then ultimately decides that the answer is “no”. Just because he read a book in which a college football player said that cocaine made him feel “more confident and nimble“?

Davidoff recounts Tim Raines’ 1982 drug-addled season and mentions other well-known users:

So should Raines and other cocaine users — say, for instance, the names of Gooden, Keith Hernandez or Darryl Strawberry come up in a future Veterans Committee ballot — be penalized for their activities? My inclination is no.

Well, duh. First of all, there are already coke users IN the HOF already, whether we know it or not. Second, talk about a slippery slope. Third, do you stop at coke or add in pot? Where does it end? So why bring it up in the first place? I don’t get this one.