The Rangers, in my opinion, are the favorites to reach the World Series for a few reasons.

One reason is because they have the best hitting in baseball. Their lineup has power from everybody except their first and ninth hitter. Josh Hamilton is having a breakout year, hitting .347 with 22 home runs and 65 RBI, which are all in the top five in baseball.

Another player who is having a career year is Vlad Guerrero. Most people thought he was too old to do well in the majors, but he is not. This season he is hitting .325 with 20 home runs and 76 RBI, which are all in the top 10 in baseball. Vlad and Hamilton are great hitters who can hit for power and drive in runs and in a playoff series it will be hard to get BOTH of them out.

They also have speed in Elvis Andrus and Julio Borbon. They have both combined for 30 stolen bases and they do not strikeout often which works well for speedy players.

These players alone makes a great team, but do not forget about Michael Young and Ian Kinsler. Young has always been a great hitter, usually hitting over .300 and getting around 200 hits. This season Young is hitting .299 with 12 home runs and 55 RBI, which is great for a second hitter in the lineup.

Kinsler is the third hitter in the lineup who was an all-star this year and has done pretty well. This season he is hitting .305 with 4 home runs and 31 RBI, which are good numbers considering that he missed quite a long time with an injury and he is doing all of this from a second base position which usually does not hit well.

Their final players are Chris Davis and Bengie Molina. Davis has just came back from the minors after the Cliff Lee trade that sent Justin Smoak to the Mariners, and he has usually done pretty well. He hits a lot of home runs and he can drive in a few runs. He hits eighth in the lineup and their team is so good he could hit 20 home runs in a full season batting eighth.

Molina has struggled with power this year because he was with the Giants, but he is a good catcher and hitter. Recently he hit for the cycle and he has been hot lately. If he keeps this up the Rangers will be unbeatable.

The Rangers are known for having terrible pitching but their pitching has been great this year. Their rotation consists of Cliff Lee, Scott Feldman, Colby Lewis, C.J Wilson, and Tommy Hunter. They also have Rich Harden and Derek Holland, who are also great starters.

Cliff Lee has been beyond great this year with an 8-4 record, a 2.59 ERA, 121 innings pitched and six complete games along even though he missed a month of the season. He has done great and in a playoff series he will help the Rangers a lot based on what he did last year with the Phillies.

Scott Feldman has been the only pitcher in the rotation who has struggled this year, but I think he can turn it around because he did great last year. This year he is 5-8 with a 5.32 ERA and 108 innings pitched. He could be an OK third or fourth pitcher in the playoffs and maybe in the playoffs he can do better then in the regular season.

Colby Lewis has been a great and pleasant surprise for the Rangers. He has a 9-5 record, a 3.42 ERA, and 115 innings pitched. He could be a good second or maybe third starter in the playoffs and could really help the Rangers.

CJ Wilson has done great coming from the bullpen to the rotation. He has a 7-5 record, a 3.35 ERA and 113 innings pitched. He like Lewis could be a great second or third pitcher in the playoffs and help the Rangers a lot.

Tommy Hunter has been in the rotation to help the Rangers but he will probably not start in the playoffs because of Rich Harden. This season he has obviously struggled with a 3-3 record, a 5.68 ERA, and 68 innings pitched.

He is currently injured, like he usually is, but when he is healthy he does great with a career ERA of 3.57 and if 100 percent healthy he could really help the Rangers being a second or third starter. But if he is not 100 percent, he will probably be a fourth or fifth starter because of the Rangers’ depth in their rotation.

Another strength for the Rangers is their bullpen. They have a great closer in Neftali Feliz, who can hit 100 MPH with a great curveball. They also have Frank Francisco, who was the Rangers’ closer last year and has done pretty well this year after doing terribly at the beginning.

They also have Darren O’Day, who is a sinker-ball pitcher who can get ground balls. They will also probably have Derrek Holland or Tommy Hunter in their bullpen in the playoffs, who have done great this year. So the Rangers also have a good bullpen.

The Rangers are mostly evenly matched with the Yankees, but they have one thing the Yankees do not have and that is a good bullpen and bench. That is what will make the Rangers go to the World Series and not the Yankees.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com