Imagine that...

The American League East is a division in Major League Baseball. It is home to the Devil Rays, Orioles, Blue Jays, Yankees, and Red Sox. Five teams, geographically they are the most eastern teams in the American League, and thus are thrown together.

Unfortunately (or fortuately for Yankee fans) this division rarely changes from the following end of the season ranking:

New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Since 98, only one year has shown us a difference in these final rankings. Sure, the wild card has come out of this division a few times since then, giving some consolation for Sox fans. But it has become something that is really hard to swallow for the rest of the teams, especially for fans of the perenial bronze medalists - the Toronto Blue Jays.

What sparked this in my mind today was looking at the most recent power rankings on ESPN.com.

2006 Power Rankings: May 12
	RK	LW RANK	TEAM	REC	COMMENT
	1	1	White Sox	23-10	Thanks to a deep starting rotation, Jose Contreras' absence shouldn't cause these Sox to slide.
	2	2	Mets	23-12	Xavier Nady (eight home runs and 18 RBI in 32 games) has been a pleasant surprise for the Mets.
	3	8	Red Sox	21-13	Kevin Youkilis isn't what you think of as a typical leadoff hitter, but his on-base percentage (.418) is excellent.
	4	3	Yankees	19-13	While the loss of Hideki Matsui could somewhat hurt the Yanks' offense, their defense will be improved with him not in left field.
	5	7	Blue Jays	19-15	Ted Lilly has been far better than his record (4-2) indicates as he hasn't allowed more than three runs in any of his last six starts.

The entire list can be found here.

Of the top 5 teams in ALL OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, three of them come out of the AL East, and not surprisingly there are those Blue Jays ranked once again in the third spot behind Boston and NY.

It has become something of a thorn in my side - especially now with the unbalanced schedule, the Blue Jays will play 19 games against each team in their division, all but eliminating the chances that the wild card team will come out of their division.

The Jays were critisized by many this offseason when they went out and spent a lot of money on their team (72 mil) trying to remain competative. Few pointed out that even with their offseason spending they still rank 4th in their division behind New York (194.6 mil), Boston (120 mil), and Baltimore (74 mil) - in fact their payroll is only 36% of the Yank's spending.

Just a rambling I guess... somewhat makes me frustrated.