It's Friday afternoon in Eye on Baseball, so you know what that means? It's time to send you all off for the weekend with another edition of This Week in (Dumb) Baseball. If you aren't familiar with what we do here, check out some of the links in a past version. The main thing to keep in mind is that this is supposed to be a fun discussion point. I know, I know ... that's too much to ask on this our Internet. Still, onward! 

1. Burning bridges

One of my credos in life -- which I admittedly stole from my brother -- is to never burn bridges because "you never know ... " You don't.

This past week in baseball, two players decided to take shots at their former ballclubs. Now-Braves outfielder Nick Markakis had some comments about the Orioles and then later apologized. Now-Marlins starting pitcher Mat Latos said some things about the Reds.

The subject of the specific words involved isn't really germane to what I want to discuss, but we'll touch on it for background.

Markakis essentially said to not believe anything the Orioles' organization says publicly but later backpedaled and apologized while also saying "but there's a reasons it came out of my mouth."

Latos did a lengthy interview with Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports and some of his comments stirred controversy in Reds camp. He said "there seems to be a trend going on there" about some Reds players coming back from injury too quickly and questioned the medical staff. He also discussed a lack of leadership on the Reds in the past two seasons after the departures of Scott Rolen and Bronson Arroyo. I found this particularly hypocritical ...

Latos:

"Come game time, I want three to four hours of accountability. No cellphones. Focus on the game."

Homer Bailey, from USA Today in 2012:

"True story. We had a rain delay to start the game, and then they told us it was starting in 30 minutes. And Mat Latos is nowhere to be found. We are looking everywhere. Finally, somebody looks through the glass windows at the Diamond Club. There he is, actually playing pool."

Do those add up? Or is Latos just making stuff up as he goes along? As Walt Jocketty mentioned after Latos' recent comments, saying negative things about his former team has happened before.

From that same USA Today article in 2012, here are some Latos comments about the Padres vs. the Reds:

"We don't want to be those cookie-cutters, those guys that sit in front of their locker and read a book or whatever. I went through that in San Diego.

"I'm not going to say I didn't rub some guys the wrong way in San Diego. But you know what, I was 21 years old and in the big leagues. If I rubbed them the wrong way, or offended guys on that team, too bad.

"All I know is that I'm in the playoffs. They're home watching me. I think things worked out pretty good."

So you aren't allowed to be clowning around, but sitting around quietly reading books is bad, too.

Mat Latos had a few negative things to say about his former team.
Mat Latos had a few negative things to say about his former team. (USATSI)

Regardless, my general issue here is talking bad about teams once moving onto a new team.

Marlon Byrd had a nice response, via C. Trent Rosecrans: "He should worry about his own damn business. He's with the Marlins now."

Or at least not say everything that's on his mind publicly.

Again, the more general point is that there's no possible good that can come from firing at former teams, just like in real life there's no good to come from trashing former employers. Seriously, think about it. I like to use Daniel Kaffee's question to always remind me: "What possible good can come from that?"

There it is. What good can come from negative comments against former teams? I can't think of a single good thing. Not one. So why make the comments?

Now, in response to stuff like this, I might hear something like: "But, Matt, you hate it when athletes don't offer up any quotes. You guys all complained about Marshawn Lynch!"

I didn't, nor have I ever complained about guys not talking. You can try to search my articles and prove me wrong. I actually thought the reporters who kicked and screamed about Lynch embarrassed themselves. And why did people keep going to him? You know he's not gonna talk. Go find another "in a can" quote.

See, we can agree on things!

[End slightly unnecessary tangent]

2. Miami? Baseball's epicenter?

From the Associated Press, here is Marlins president David Samson:

"When I look at Giancarlo Stanton as the face of our franchise, he's also the face of baseball, having him here in Miami, which is a hugely important city for MLB because the globalization of the game is important. To me we are poised to become the epicenter of baseball, and that's exciting."

Confidence is good. Delusion, though ...

Look, I love Stanton, but I'm not sure you could say he's the face of baseball over Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout or Clayton Kershaw -- or Madison Bumgarner after last postseason -- right now. That's not particularly an egregious claim, though. I could get with the argument that either Stanton or Trout would be the face of baseball two to three years from now.

On the other hand, the epicenter of baseball probably is an egregious claim.

I mean, there's LA with the Dodgers and Angels -- we could even loop in the Padres after this past offseason and call it SoCal. There's the Bay Area with the Giants and A's. It's an exciting time in Chicago and there is, of course, New York and the OMG EAST COAST BIAS if we loop in Boston.

I don't think we need to bring up attendance figures since Samson said they are "poised to become the epicenter," suggesting they aren't there yet but will be, but it seems a huge reach at this point. Let's see them make the playoffs first, then see if the attendance sticks and then see if Jeffrey Loria keeps all of his good players around Stanton.

3. Calling Josh Hamilton something like "idiot" or "moron"

Aren't we past this nonsense? Addiction is a disease. Calling an addict in any walk of life something that insinuates he or she is stupid is off-the-charts ridiculous. And yet I've seen it on various Internet platforms the past two days. Stop it.

Enough of the dumb, though. It's time to send everyone off to the weekend with some fun.

Random highlight of the Week

The context: The Cubs entered the game on a six-game winning streak but still trailed the Brewers by 7.5 games. The Brewers took a 5-0 lead in the top of the first but the Cubs clawed all the way back to win it on Aramis Ramirez's walkoff. They'd end up winning the division. Added bonus: Excellent call by Len Kasper, one of the best in the business.

Baseball card of the week: Mickey Hatcher's giant glove

Love it. For more info, check out our "Just Because" entry.

Possibly dumb pop culture rankings of the week

Get this, there's another movie from the "Rocky" franchise coming out. Here's the synopsis of "Creed," from metacritic.com:

Adonis Johnson (Michael B. Jordan) never knew his famous father, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, who died before he was born. Still, there’s no denying that boxing is in his blood, so Adonis heads to Philadelphia, the site of Apollo Creed’s legendary match with a tough upstart named Rocky Balboa. Once in the City of Brotherly Love, Adonis tracks down Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and asks him to be his trainer. Despite his insistence that he is out of the fight game for good, Rocky sees in Adonis the strength and determination he had known in Apollo—the fierce rival who became his closest friend. Agreeing to take him on, Rocky trains the young fighter, even as the former champ is battling an opponent more deadly than any he faced in the ring. With Rocky in his corner, it isn’t long before Adonis gets his own shot at the title…but can he develop not only the drive but also the heart of a true fighter, in time to get into the ring? [Warner Bros.]

You know, if there has to be another one, this seems like as good a route as possible. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Anyway, let's rank the first six "Rocky" movies!

1. Rocky IV
2. Rocky II
3. Rocky III
4. Rocky
5. Rocky Balboa
1,000,000. Rocky V

I understand that in terms of making the best movie, "Rocky" is head and shoulders above the rest, but what is the franchise at this point? It's about the training montages and seeing Rocky win. Him toppling Ivan Drago is too good to rank IV any lower than at the top. I may well be judging too much on rewatchability/entertainment than recommending which to watch to people who have never seen a single one of the "Rocky" series, but so be it. That's how I'm doing it.

And that'll do it. Have a great weekend.

Suggestions (dumb stuff, random videos, baseball cards, pop culture rankings topics, etc.) or hate mail? Feel free to hit me up: matt.snyder@cbs.com or you could always go to Twitter (@MattSnyderCBS).