Commentary

MLB Future Power Rankings (10-1)

Putting the next five years in perspective for every big league franchise

Updated: February 16, 2012, 12:48 PM ET
By Jim Bowden, Keith Law and Buster Olney | ESPN Insider

If you're a fan of the Chicago Cubs, you're familiar with the phrase "Wait 'til next year!" But what about the year after, and the year after that? That's where ESPN Insider comes in.

While the baseball world gears up for spring training, we've decided to take the long view and asked our three top baseball analysts -- Jim Bowden, Keith Law and Buster Olney -- to rank all 30 teams in five different categories (see table) in an attempt to measure how well each team is set up for sustained success over the next five years.

The better your rank in a given category, the more points you get, and the average point scores from the three voters are available in the bar graphs accompanying each team's section, rounded to the nearest integer. We weighted the categories and then gave each team a score on a scale of 1 to 100, with the score representing a team's percentage of total possible points. (For a detailed breakdown of the methodology used for the Future Power Rankings, click here.)

In the past two days we revealed teams No. 30 (Baltimore Orioles) to 11 (Kansas City Royals). And today we finally get to the top 10. Here you'll find the usual suspects, such as the Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers, as well as the rest of the AL East (tough break, Baltimore).

But who's No. 1? Which team did our team of experts think is best equipped for success over the next half-decade? It's time to find out.

FPR: No. 30-21 Insider | 20-11 Insider | 10-1 Insider

To see which teams came out on top of the rankings -- and get access to the full series and the rest of ESPN Insider's MLB content -- become an Insider today.

Buster Olney

ESPN Insider
  • Senior writer ESPN Magazine/ESPN.com
  • Reporter for ESPN Sunday Night Baseball
  • Author of "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty"

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