A pretender for the baseball crown

What's going on here? Back when I was a kiddo growing up in a section of New York City where it was required to love the New York Yankees, tolerate the New York Giants and hate the Brooklyn Dodgers, the American League pennant race traditionally involved a neck-and-neck battle between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. That is, until September rolled around and then the Yanks would sweep a series from the BoSox and go on to win the pennant easily.

When the Dodgers and Giants departed the city for the Left Coast, expansion came into being and the American and National Leagues were divided into divisions, it was still the Yanks battling Sox in the East.

That rivalry is still there, but suddenly there's a new power in the American League East and it's home is in, of all places, the Gulf Coast of Florida. The Tampa Bay Rays are not only currently leading the Yanks in the East by a game and a half, but I would rank them the best team in baseball right now. Their offense is led by 24-year-old third baseman Evan Longoria who's hitting .349 with seven homeruns and 23 RBI. Right now I would rate him the No. 1 candidate for the league MVP, although the season is only less than 20 percent complete. Left fielder Carl Crawford, 28, is batting .343.

The Ray's starting pitching rotation is stingy, young and talented: Matt Garza, 26,  (2.09 ERA, 30 SO, 43 IP); Jeff Niemann, 27, (2.23 ERA, 24 SO, 36.1 IP); David Price, 24, (2.34 ERA, 27 SO, 34.2 IP); Wade Davis, 24,  (2.79 ERA, 22 SO, 29 IP); and fireballing James Shields, 28 (3.15 ERA, 43 SO, 40 IP). Not a household name among them (at least, not outside the Bay area), but I would put rhis rotation up against any starting group in baseball right now. Closer Rafael Soriano, the old man of the pack at 30, has seven saves and a 2.25 ERA.

This is an outstanding nucleus that could make Tampa Bay MLB's next dynasty.

Here's my ranking of the Top 10 Major League baseball teams:
1.  Tampa Bay
2.  New York Yankees
3.  San Francisco
4.  Minnesota
5.  Philadelphia
6.  St. Louis
7.  San Diego
8.  Colorado
9.  Toronto
10. New York Mets

I have the Texas Rangers ranked 11th.