"It's great to be young and a Yankee."

And the mighty have fallen. To the #2 spot. But in more intriguing news, the rest of the league is performing outside of expectations. Not necessarily good expectations, but projected performance, nonetheless, isn’t always coinciding with reality. Well, unless you’re a Baltimore fan. In which case, kudos to your team for keeping things real.

As for the A’s…well, you’d think the Oakland fanbase was loony enough as it is without throwing this bizarre monkey wrench into the mix: the Athletics are improbably hot. This time alone is fueling the whole “at what point is the ‘hot start’ no longer considered a fluke” musings.

For what it’s worth, I think the expiration date on Oakland’s momentum is somewhere around, if not prior to, the NBA conference semi-finals.

Read on for rankings...