The Texas Rangers might have felt a little slighted heading into the season when the preseason MLB Power Rankings were released by ESPN. OK, let's be real, the Texas Rangers could probably care less what ESPN has to say. But even still, the Rangers were ranked No. 4 last week as the two-time defending AL champions, and the three teams ahead of them were all league mates.
That's not the case any longer as the Rangers have vaulted from No. 4 to the top spot in the rankings this week. The Rangers are now one spot ahead of former No. 1 Detroit Tigers with those pesky defending world champion St. Louis Cardinals checking in at No. 3, the New York Yankees at No. 4 and the upstart, red-hot Los Angeles Dodgers rounding out the top 5.
A big tumble was taken by the Tampa Bay Rays, which fell from No. 2 to No. 8. The biggest jump in the rankings was from the Chicago White Sox, which has to make the Rangers feel better as some sense of worth in their first few opponents. The White Sox appeared to have a lot of nothing in the opening series but this past week they took two of three from the Tigers and jumped all the way from No. 22 to No. 9.
The biggest tumble of all was from those beloved Los Angeles Angels, who fell from No. 5 to No. 17 while sporting a 3-6 record.
