The American League has always been all about the Yankees. And it doesn’t matter if they are playing well or not.

But since the New York Yankees are just clicking on all cylinders this 2009 MLB season, you just know that they’re talking about them Yankees like never before. But can they really win it all?

The New York Yankees hold the best record in the league. Mark Teixeira leads the American League in RBIs, Derek Jeter is having another great season and they have a good supporting cast in Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Hideki Matsui, and Jorge Posada.

The pitching has improved, and that’s the main reason why they are where they are. CC Sabathia has 19 wins, AJ Burnett has 12, and Andy Pettitte has 13. And of course, closer Mariano Rivera continues to dominate from the mound.

So if the New York Yankees are the best team in baseball right now, who’ll challenge these guys in the conference? We have two, the Los Angeles Angels and the Boston Red Sox.

The Los Angeles Angels are six games behind the Yankees, and the second best team in the league. Angels manager Mike Scioscia says this is the deepest lineup he has taken into the playoffs since the 2002 team that won the World Series.

Let’s see if they can indeed win it all…

Yes, they paid a whopping $209 million for this team that won’t make any playoff appearances this season.

Quite sad ain’t it? The New York Yankees have struggled, to say the least, this 2008 MLB baseball season and it’s unfortunate that the last Yankees team we’ll ever get to see at Yankee Stadium this Sunday is a baseball club merely a shell of it’s former self.

And in case you haven’t heard, Yankee Stadium will be having it’s last Yankee game this Sunday when the struggling New York Yankees play host to the Baltimore Orioles. With all of it’s history, Yankee Stadium has become a staple in American baseball and the Yankees have pissed on all that this season with the kind of campaign that’ll make your stomach turn.

There was a time when the New York Yankees, although they didn’t have to be as pathetic as the 2008 team, were far from being a playoff team. It was 1993 and Yankee Stadium wasn’t selling out every single ticket available.

Mariano Rivera, arguably the best closer in baseball today, was not even playing for the Yankees then, starting for the minor leagues where he kept on honing his skills until he got the nod.

STILL, that 1993 team was still way better than what we have now. That 1993 Yankees team was feisty, unlike this year’s Yankees, who only has that whopping $209 million going for them and nothing else, ending the organization’s 13 straight…

I guess one little piggy felt left out in New York eh?

Three members of the New York Yankees are slated to play in next week’s 2008 MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium but right hand Yankee pitcher Mike Mussina won’t be in that list.

Mike Mussina was left out of the American League squad and though he admitted to be a little disappointed, he says he wasn’t upset with the American League skipper Terry Francona (who happens to be the manager of their rivals Boston Red Sox…) about his decision. Mike Mussina is just pleased to be pitching well.

”It’s OK, really,” New York Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina said, who is 11-6 with a 3.64 ERA but won’t join teammates Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera next week. ”I don’t think I could have done anything else.”

Mariano Rivera, considered to be one of the greatest closers of his generation, will be starting which is only fitting for a guy of his caliber.

The 2008 MLB All-Star Game is not your typical midsummer classic. It will be played at Yankee Stadium, marking the official farewell to the legendary ballpark which the New York Yankees are replacing with a new structure in 2009.

Mike Mussina insisted making the All-Star team wasn’t a goal of his this season.

”I think I’ve done pretty much what I’ve wanted to do this year,” Mike Mussina said. ”I got out there and proved I could…”

The stage is set for MLB baseball’s midsummer classic.

As boring as baseball has been this 2008 MLB baseball season, their midseason All-Star break will still come at you with full force whether you like it or not. After all, these guys have to do something to take our minds away from all the steroid issues surrounding their stars right?

And when the 2008 MLB All-Star Weekend gets here, those stars will be featured, with or without the use of steroids. Hopefully, stars that get the invite for the midsummer extravaganza won’t have to since this event won’t be as competitive as a regular season game anyway.

So who got the invite?

The 2008 MLB All-Stars were named last Sunday (well some of them anyway…) and it was no surprise that four of the defending champions Boston Red Sox were selected for the American League All-Stars led by team captain Manny Ramirez.

Ramirez will be joined by Red Sox teammates David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. However, as great as it would be seeing…

Yes, Jonathan Papelbon will be doing all that again.

After months and months of speculation about whether Jonathan Papelbon can return to the Boston Red Sox rotation, Red Sox general manager Terry Francona just announced that his 26-year-old pitcher will have his old job back after receiving the medical clearance that lets him do just that.

Jonathan Papelbon suffered a subluxation, a term used to describe a slippage within the joint, (OUCH!) last Sept.1. He went through a shoulder-strengthening program in the offseason and now, he will be suiting up for the Red Sox as the team’s closer again in the coming 2007 MLB Baseball season.

Papelbon, who was charged with a blown save in the 4-4 tie against the Philadelphia Phillies at Brighthouse Field after allowing one run in three innings, said that he approached Francona prior to the game to make the request to return to closing. His manager was only too happy to accommodate.

”This is something I want to do for the rest of my career. Hopefully, what (Mariano) Rivera did for the Yankees, I can do for the Red Sox,” Jonathan Papelbon said. Papelbon went 4-2 with 35 saves and scored a 0.92 ERA in 59 appearances while pitching for the Boston Red Sox last season.

Papelbon has been asking for this one since coming back from the injury. He said, ”I hadn’t been sleeping well all spring because I had this feeling that I wanted to close. In my heart, I had feelings for being a closer.”

”This kid will be checked and monitored,” Francona said. ”There’s going to be days I’m going to tell him he’s not going to pitch and he’s going to do his strength and conditioning program. The other manager won’t know and (the media) won’t know but…”

Yep, apparently, the trifecta is what Golf and MLB Baseball have in common.

First thing’s first, the New York Yankees just got unceremoniously booted out of the MLB Playoffs by a somewhat unheralded team of the Detroit Tigers. The New York Yankees have the best (and most expensive at that…) lineup in all of MLB Baseball.

Hell, the Yankees have the best lineup in the entire history of the game. And if their guys like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez, can’t instill fear on any opposing MLB Baseball team unfortunate enough to face this powerhouse, their screaming $200 million in paychecks will.

Yep, these New York Yankees sure have all the numbers, stat-wise and salary-wise.

However, when the Yankees found themselves taking an early vacation from the diamond courtesy of those Tigers from Detroit, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, team manager Joe Torre, and the rest of these knuckleheads in Yankees pinstripes found out that statistics are a dicey substitute for understanding how to win games.

Of course, if MLB Baseball has the New York Yankees, golf has the…

Why is Washington Nationals’ closer Chad Cordero on top in the Eric Karabell’s Insider "Closer Report"? And why is the Oakland A’s Huston Street so low? We’ll never understand the goofy math this guy uses, but we certainly cannot advocate putting Cordero up top, if only for the fact that he joins the ranks of Florida Marlins’ outfielder Juan Pierre and Cleveland Indians’ pitcher C.C. Sabathia in the retard hat-wearing club. But, then again, with so many top tier closers(K-Rod, Hermanson, Rivera, et al) drinking the poop shake in the last week, maybe it makes sense. Find out the rest of Karabell’s rankings after the jump. Maybe. (Rankings based on overall 5×5 value combined with projected future performance.

So, didn’t we say that something screwy would happen? Red Sox put up 4 in the first then the Yankees come back, then Ortiz gives them the lead, then Yankees tie it, then…Schilling. As soon as the bloody socked yapper strode to the mound and faced Gary Sheffield you knew something was amiss. And Alex Rodriguez made him pay for it with a two-run bomb, Mariano Rivera comes into close, game over. That -101 line wasn’t deceiving, it was pretty much dead nuts perfect. Now, today’s match-up is a completely different story, Boston is a -151 favorite with the pear-shaped booze hound, David Wells, pitching for the Red Sox.