SI.com releases preseason Power Rankings

SI.com's Joe Lemire released it's preseason MLB Power Rankings, and the Yankees finished 2nd behind the Texas Rangers. Here is what Joe had to say about the Bombers...

The Yankees had the AL's best regular-season record in 2011 and then improved two of its rotation spots with rookie All-Star Pineda and veteran Kuroda, who is fresh off a 202-inning, 3.07-ERA season for the Dodgers. Both will now have to adjust to life in the AL East but should be good enough to turn an area where New York was good-but-not-great (starting pitching) into a strength. While Montero may be a star for his career, the Yankees can surely find replacement production for 2012 by adding a free agent or cycling its veteran stars through the DH spot.

The write-up shows pretty much exactly what I thought of the Montero/Pineda trade. The Yankees had offense to spare, but needed pitching. And the pitching they received was as good as one could hope... young, very high ceiling, and under team-control for 5 more years.

In case you were wondering, and are too damn lazy to click the link and read it yourself, here is what Lemire had to say about the top ranking Rangers...

The Rangers were one strike away from a World Series title (twice), so it's hard to say they had any real holes on their club, just a few areas for mild improvement. One was first base, but they didn't match the years and dollars to get Prince Fielder and will be fine starting Mitch Moreland against righty pitchers and either Michael Young or Mike Napoli at first against lefties. The other was the rotation, and they swapped out Wilson for Darvish -- a dominant ace in Japan -- and signed Nathan to allow Neftali Feliz to try to become the third Texas pitcher in as many years, after Wilson and Alexi Ogando, to successfully go from the bullpen to the rotation.

In my opinion, the Rangers have more questions than the Yankees. There's no assurance, at all, that Darvish can replace Wilson's effectiveness from 2011 (2.94 ERA in 223.1 innings). Who's to say that Nathan will be able to finish 56 games (32 saves) in 62.1 innings, with an ERA of 2.74. And if Joe thinks the combination of Moreland/Young/Napoli will be equal to what Fielder could do then he's kidding himself.

Look, it's not a big deal at all. I don't care where any of my teams are ranked preseason, whether it's preseason college football rankings or whatever. Just pointing out that the Yankees are currently in as good a position as any other team to make a great run in 2012.

So what do you think?