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With the injury problems that have beset the Phillies, it is very possible that if you ranked the major league teams from 1 through 30, you might go through six American League clubs before you reached your first National League squad. See if you agree with this order: 1. Angels. 2. Yankees. 3. Rangers. 4. Tigers. 5. Rays. 6. Red Sox. 7. Phillies.

Such a sequence means an AL team that would finish out of the playoffs would be the best team in the NL. One league's non-playoff team is another league's number 1 seed. Such is the imbalance of power, particularly with stars such as Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Yu Darvish, Carlos Peña, Hiroki Kuroda and Kendrys Morales (who missed 2011 due to injury) all new to the elite AL teams this year.

What happened? The Boston-New York rivalry has caused tides to rise in the AL, especially lately with the new game-changing regional sports network money for the Angels and Rangers, the impulsiveness of Tigers owner Mike Ilitch and the pitching development acumen of the Rays. This didn't happen overnight. Check out the table at right for the best records in baseball from 2009-11:

What's so crazy about that list is that three of the four best teams in baseball over the past four years play in the same division. Poor Toronto and Baltimore. I started thinking about how the second wild card this year might benefit the Blue Jays and Orioles. Toronto has waited 18 years for a postseason game. Baltimore has waited 14 years. Only two cities are experiencing a longer drought between postseason games: Kansas City (26 years) and Pittsburgh (19 years). At least Toronto and Baltimore have the excuse of playing in baseball's toughest division.

ERaz wrote:So the Jays have to get lucky but the Rays don't? We have just as good a team as the Rays, the guys just gotta go out there and prove it. No excuses, just get it done. There is a lot of talent here. Great leaders in Bautista and Romero as well. Let's get it done this season.

ItsDanger wrote:I still feel TB is overrated as their offense stinks. Their pitching will have to carry them. Shields had a career yr and odds are that he reverts to norm. Moore might replace that production though. Its hard to predict a team like that. Timely hitting will be key. Agree on the general sentiment for NY & Boston. They're vulnerable. With the Jays, the focal pt should be the starters.

Manager Joe Girardi received a bag of grapefruit from his bosses one spring when his Marlins posted the best record in the Grapefruit League. In Arizona, handing a manager a prickly pear for winning the Cactus League would be just plain cruel.

As useless accomplishments go, finishing atop spring-training standings is right up there with a degree in medieval history and sinking a wadded-up paper ball in an office trash can from 20 feet with no one watching.

The Toronto Blue Jays are 23-5 this spring, by far the best record in Florida or Arizona. They have the best winning percentage of any team since 1997. After a 2-2 start, the Blue Jays won 10 in a row. Then they lost two split-squad games in one day before embarking on another 10-game winning streak. They got beat Friday, and the clubhouse joke is that it’s the only thing that kept them from a berth in the Final Four.

“Winning means we are prepared and playing well, not just the big-league guys but the minor-league guys who played the second half of these games,” said right fielder Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays’ best player. “But the wins don’t count. We all know that.”

The Jays’ minor-league talent is ranked No. 5 overall by Baseball America. General manager Alex Anthopoulos is beginning his third year, and he’s already restocked the farm system with solid prospects through trades and the MLB draft. Toronto’s stockpile of young pitchers is especially impressive.

The Toronto Blue Jays have a new look and plenty of optimism as they try yet again to crack the upper echelon in the tough American League East.

But while the bullpen appears to be deeper, there are still several question marks on a team that finished with a mediocre 81-81 record last season.

General manager Alex Anthopoulos made a decent off-season splash by landing closer Sergio Santos in a trade with the Chicago White Sox. However, the starting rotation remains thin and the offence has some work to do to improve on last season’s middling numbers.

Slugger Jose Bautista is the team’s anchor and has emerged as the face of the franchise after back-to-back career seasons. Ricky Romero showed last year that he’s up for the task of serving as the rock of the rotation.

While a second wild-card team has been added in each league, Toronto still needs bounce back years from several players to hang with the likes of New York, Boston and Tampa in arguably the strongest division in the majors.

"I think the biggest thing is we have to worry about ourselves and no one else," Romero said in a recent interview. "It doesn’t matter what division we’re in, who we’re playing, you’ve got to take that all out the window. Just go out there and play baseball.

"I think if we just go and do that I think this team is going to be just fine."

The Blue Jays have not reached the post-season since their last World Series victory in 1993. This year’s squad will have a similar look to the Toronto teams from yesteryear when regular-season play begins April 5 at Cleveland.

Old-school flavour has been added to the team’s logo, lettering and uniforms. Players will wear blue hats and blue shoes for all games. White uniforms will be worn at home, light grey on the road and a royal blue alternate jersey is in the mix.

Waylon Mercy wrote:One thing I think the Jays are gonna need to do hopefully no later then the trade deadline is trade for a solid number 2 starter or even an ace.

Waylon Mercy wrote:I love Henderson Alvarez but I think its to much to ask him to be a reliable number 2 starter
in his first full season in the Al East.

dagger wrote:Keep an eye on this: Andrew Bailey of the Bosox appears to need thumb surgery.