While the date of February 17th holds no significance in my life, I can look back and know that several thoughts have crossed through my head virtually every year as if they were an ironclad tradition.

1. I’m sick of this cold weather and can’t wait until it warms up.
2. The gap between football and baseball seasons makes ESPN tedious to watch.
3. The national media is overly pessimistic about the Rangers.

Well, this is strange. One of the traditions appear to have been broken. ESPN released their Future Power Ratings this week, and it’s safe to say that I can scratch number three off of the list. For now, anyway. ESPN writers Jim Bowden, Keith Law and Buster Olney weighed in to rank the top organizations in Major League Baseball, and the Rangers ranked number one.

Teams were assessed based on their Major and Minor League talent, finances, front office, and roster mobility. The rankings are designed to reflect how well these clubs are set up for the next five years. Texas ranked at the top in terms of Major League talent and management, while their “weakest” category was roster flexibility.

According to Jim Bowden, “Perhaps the biggest issue facing the Rangers will be to figure out on which fingers their World Series rings will go”.

However, Buster Olney may have summed it up perfectly – “The Rangers are baseball’s model franchise these days”.

While I’ll take their optimism with the same grain of salt with which I view their usual pessimism, the positive outlook means there is a decent chance point number two could also be scratched off of my list.