AL West

'Twas the top of the seventh inning in Philadelphia.

Reliever Ryan Madson has entered the game for the Phillies, replacing starter Roy Oswalt, who went a very solid six innings. The hard-throwing veteran allowed nine hits but allowed just two runs, one of them unearned, while striking out five and walking none.

The even-harder-throwing Madson strikes out Travis Ishikawa looking and Andres Torres swinging to begin the frame.

As the Texas Rangers embark upon their inaugural trip to the World Series, many have become familiar with household names like Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Vladimir Guerrero, Michael Young, and who can forget Cliff Lee. It was truly a team effort, and while the aforementioned "stars" of the team played a pivotal role in slaying the mighty Yankees, one needs to look deeper to understand how the Rangers pulled off what many have termed an upset.

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With Friday night's Game 6 win by the Texas Rangers over the New York Yankees, half of the 2010 World Series is now set.

Texas right-hander Colby Lewis threw eight dominant innings and Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz came through with clutch hits in the fifth, as the Rangers dethroned the 2009 World Series champs with a 6-1 win at the Ballpark in Arlington.

The 2010 ALCS taught us a very important lesson: Homegrown talent wins championships. The Texas Rangers are finally seeing the maximum performance expected by many of their young players when they were drafted.

Homegrown players do not even need to play for your team for a long time to have a lasting impact on your franchise's success. General managers can trade top homegrown talent for superstars at the trade deadline; that can make the difference in the post season.

Ichiro Suzuki recently proved he is the greatest hitter in Major League Baseball history. He had his 200th hit for the 10th straight year in the United States. This is a feat no hitter has ever achieved.

Pete Rose is the only other player who had 200 hits in 10 years, which took him 15 years to accomplish. All other great hitters line up behind Suzuki, including Ty Cobb, whose AL record Suzuki shared until this year.

While I knew that Cliff Lee belonged high on this list, choosing the top 10 players from both rounds of the AL playoffs was a somewhat difficult task.  What follows is one man's opinion that you may or may not agree with.

If you were sleeping last night, you may not have heard that the upstart Texas Rangers defeated the venerated New York Yankees, 6-1 to advance to their first-ever World Series since joining the league as the Washington Senators in 1961.

So, who were the top 10 players, including pitchers, in the AL playoffs? 

By Tyler Ward

The Texas Rangers are moving on to their first World Series. Their opponent, though, we are still waiting to find out if it'll be the Phillies or Giants. But, for now, it's the Rangers' time. They will be appearing in their first World Series, even though they just won their first postseason series earlier this month when they defeated the Tampa Bay Rays.

A phenom who struggled with substance abuse; a manager who endured the same problems; a pitcher who was traded for an upgrade; another pitcher that wasn't going to make it in the majors; a veteran whose career was declining.

These are just some of the players that make up the now 2010 AL Champions and have led the Texas Rangers to their first World Series in the team's history.

In their 50th season as the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise, a pennant has finally been won. The Rangers knocked off the Yankees on Friday night 6-1 to take the AL flag in their own home in front of 50,000-plus crazy fans.

The Rangers got on the board first and after the Yankees got a gift run, the Rangers put them away. Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz got the big hits they couldn't get in Game 5 and the team's young closer put the hammer down in the ninth.