MLB: MAY 20 Mets at Dodgers The past few weeks, it's been pretty easy to pick out baseball's hottest teams -- we've seen ridiculously long win streaks, surges to the top of divisions, and outstanding performances catapult teams to the top of these rankings. This week, however, was a bit more difficult. Heading into Monday, no team had a win streak longer than three games. So who do you turn to in that case? How about baseball's best team to this point?

1. Los Angeles Dodgers - 35-17 Two things remain constant in LA -- the Dodgers are still hot, and Bill Plaschke is still outraged (OUTRAGED, I SAY!) that Manny Ramirez is allowed to disgrace the city...you have to wonder how he'll react if the Dodgers win the World Series with Manny's help once he returns. Will he demand that they hand the trophy back? They had a solid week, getting Clint Hurdle fired in Colorado after sweeping the Rockies and splitting a series against a Cubs team desperate to get out of a hole. The Dodgers should see an already strong pitching staff improve with the return of Hiroki Kuroda tonight against Arizona.

2. Philadelphia - 28-20 The Phillies had a bit of a rough week, losing a home series to the struggling Marlins and learning that Brett Myers will likely miss the rest of the season with a hip injury. Philly continues to slug the crap out of the ball, but pitching remains a problem -- Myers was the team leader in ERA before going down, and even he had an ERA north of 4.5. They continue to hold a slim lead over the Mets, but the division will likely come down to who can figure out their pitching first.

3. Chicago White Sox - 24-25 The ChiSox have had some pretty bad luck when it comes to trying to trade for pitching lately -- first it was Jake Peavy's very public veto, and now reports are out that Roy Oswalt likely would invoke his no-trade clause if the Astros tried to deal him there. Regardless, the White Sox have had a pretty hot week on the field, taking a road series from the Angels and sweeping the Royals in a crucial division series. They're still a game below .500, but slowly climbing up the AL Central standings.

4. New York Mets - 28-21 Sure, the Mets had an extremely easy week on the schedule, facing the Nationals and Marlins in a six-game homestand. There's still something to be said about beating the teams you're supposed to beat, however, and that's exactly what the Mets did in going 5-1. Now if they could only figure out how to beat Josh Johnson, they'd be set. They've done well for themselves recently, though, especially considering how hard the team has been hit by the injury bug. If they can stick around near the top of the division in the absence of Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, and Ryan Church (among others), they'll be in great shape to make a run -- especially if they can improve the back end of the rotation.

5. San Diego - 25-25 Adrian Gonzalez is making a serious push for the MVP award at this point, leading every major offensive category for the Padres. He may be single-handedly keeping San Diego near .500, too, as his offense has been a major factor in their recent hot streak. The win streak may be a thing of the past, dying in Arizona last Tuesday night, but the Friars are still 7-3 in their last 10 games and are looking to make some noise with a home series against the Phillies that starts tonight. Whether or not the Padres can keep up in a possible wild card race is if they can get some offense from the rest of the lineup -- the pitching has been good, but San Diego is near the bottom of every major offensive team stat.

6. Texas - 30-20 The series against the Yankees didn't go as well as they had hoped, but the Rangers still enter June with a sizable lead in the AL West. They rebounded from the series loss against the Yanks with an impressive weekend series win against division rival Oakland, including taking a double header on Friday and a 14-1 win on Saturday. For awhile it looked like the Angels were coming up quickly behind the Rangers, but the Halos have been treading water for awhile...the Rangers will get a second chance to prove that they're for real with a brutal road trip this weekend through the Northeast, when they take on the Yankees and Red Sox in back-to-back series.

7. New York Yankees - 29-21 A month ago, many fans were calling for Joe Girardi's head and wondering how the Yankees were doing so poorly when they had built such a great team on paper. A month later, and fans are likely still calling for Girardi's head, but at least they're doing it with the Yankees in first place. The Yanks are on a prolonged hot streak -- they're 15-5 in their last 20 games -- that has largely coincided with the return of Alex Rodriguez. For all the crap A-Rod gets for his recent postseason struggles, there should no longer be any doubt that he's imperative to their regular season success. They won't be able to reach October if he's out of the lineup for prolonged periods of time.

8. San Francisco - 25-24 The Giants have quietly put together a decent hot streak in the past week, sweeping Atlanta and taking two of three from a previously hot Cardinals team as part of a 5-1 homestand. The recent run of good luck has gotten them into second place in the NL West, which unfortunately still means they're nearly 9 games out of first. Still, the Giants have been surprisingly good to this point this season, although the offense has been predictably poor. Like the Padres, they'll hang around .500 for about as long as their pitching can carry them, and their offense is only slightly better overall than San Diego's, despite lacking a star player like Adrian Gonzalez.

9. Minnesota - 25-27 They likely aren't as good as they played in last weekend's sweep of Milwaukee, but the Twins have still been playing some very good baseball in the past two weeks. They managed to split a very closely contested series against Boston last week, but dropped a pair of games in Tampa Bay before salvaging the series finale yesterday afternoon. The schedule gets easier from here, though, as they start June with a series at home against Cleveland before heading out West to Seattle and Oakland. With any luck, they may find themselves back in serious contention for the AL Central by mid-June.

10. St. Louis -- 29-21 Before stumbling in San Francisco, the Cards were feeling pretty good about themselves. They were leaving Milwaukee as winners of a series against those blasphemous, disrespectful, shirt-untucking Brewers (did you hear they kick puppies into the stands to celebrate victories, too?) and leaders of the NL Central. They've still won 6 of their past 10 games, though, and face what should be an enjoyable homestand against the freshly-swept Cincinnati Reds and the Colorado Rockies, now under new management. Tony LaRussa may have failed to get his Redbirds into June as division leaders once again (he's only done it three times in St. Louis), but the Cardinals always finish better than they start, and things should be no different this year.