Was the 2009 Yankees Infield the Best Infield of All-Time?

The other day I was thinking about the 2009 Yankees (because that’s what you do as a Yankee fan when you can’t really remember the late 90s) and found myself marveling for the umpteenth time at how incredible their infield was: Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, and Alex Rodriguez all had good years at once. That’s two future Hall of Fame middle infielders, one guy who would be in Hall if not for… ya know, and another who’s only a step below that level. The star power in that 2009 Yankees group leads to an important question: Could that be the best infield of all time? ESPN’s Buster Olney thinks it’s up there—in 2013, he ranked that Yankees group the second-greatest infield ever, behind only the 1976 Reds. The New York Daily News explored the question back in September 2009, quoting Jim Palmer as saying the Tex-Cano-Jeter-Rodriguez quartet belonged in the conversation for best infield in history. So I decided to compare the total WARP of the four 2009 Yankees infielders with that of other notable inf