3-4 may have been a bit of an overstatement...
But it's the same teams most years.
The Yankees and Red Sox in the AL east, Rays are a contender for now but they'll fall off when the stars start wanting money.
The AL Central is a toss up, but rarely get anywhere in the playoffs.
AL west is the Angels or Rangers.
The NL East was the Braves every year for about 20 years in a row until the recent rise of the Phillies
Cubs and Cards is the Central, Reds have had a couple decent teams
West is the Dodgers and Giants.
Every year there is the rise of a small market team for a season or two, then they fall off when the youth the bring up gets recognized by the big clubs...
It's boring to me. You have it different because the Rangers are in an upswing now... much like the appeal was much stronger to me when I was younger and the Indians had some good teams. But the money will dry up, the team will need to be rebuilt because the younger underpaid players will become free agents and it all starts over again. They cycle is old boring and repetitive to me.
And as I said, I find it impossible to follow for 162 games when the significance of one game is almost non-existent. I'll turn it on if there is nothing else to watch, but I couldn't care less otherwise.
I mean Christ... my club was the first ever to trade the defending Cy Young award winners in back to back years (CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee)... why the hell would I give two shits about the sport when it's so money dependent that a team can't afford to keep the players they develop. In the past decade we've brought up some tremendous young players only to have the club be a revolving door. It's a waste of time imo.
And trust me, I LOVE the game... just hate the league. I come from a massive baseball family. My father played college baseball and is in the Greater Akron Baseball Hall of Fame, I play semi pro ball in Canton, OH during and after college (I was one of the unpaid) and my cousin was a professional player in Italy. It breaks my heart the way the league is so screw up beyond belief.
Read Bob Costas's book... he explains everything I hate about the game in there.
http://www.amazon.com/Fair-Ball-Fans-Ca ... 0767904664