ESPN.com finished its look at all 30 teams in the MLB Future Rankings and came to the conclusion that the Rangers were No. 1. Texas had a score of 91.1 (on a scale of 100) to claim the top spot. The New York Yankees finished second with the Los Angeles Angels coming in seventh.

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Teams were ranked in five categories:

MAJORS (full weight): Quality of current big league roster

MINORS (full weight): Quality and quantity of prospects in their farm system

FINANCE (2/3 weight): How much money do they have to spend?

MANAGEMENT (2/3 weight): Value and stability of ownership, front office and coaching staff

MOBILITY (1/3 weight): Do they have a lot of young, cheap players, or old, immovable guys?

So how did the Rangers reach this point? They did so with some big decisions in the last five years. Here's a look at some of those.

There are some decisions that aren't on the list -- this hits some of the highlights. And some of you have already mentioned some of those in the comment section of the story. Some of those:

* Signing Adrian Beltre. It was a large financial commitment and the Rangers didn't put any stock in the notion that Beltre's best years only came in contract seasons. He was tremendous defensively and a huge part of the middle of the lineup.

* Assembling the coaching staff. Certainly, pitching coach Mike Maddux has had a huge impact on the staff. But don't forget the job the rest of that staff that helps Ron Washington. That includes bench coach Jackie Moore, bullpen coach Andy Hawkins, first base coach Gary Pettis, third base coach Dave Anderson and hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh.

* The club has made some deals that maybe have gone under the radar. Some of those: picking up Darren O'Day off waivers, trading for Mike Gonzalez at the deadline (he got some huge outs in the playoffs) and picking up Alexi Ogando in the Rule-5 draft and then staying patient with him with all the visa issues.