Sniff, sniff, you smell that? Yep, it’s the sweet smell of rosin and pine tar drifting north, as position players join their counterparts for spring training this week.

Spring training is the wonderful time of year when Carlos Zumaya finally puts away his Guitar Hero habit for at least a few hours a day, Nate Robertson and the Detroit Tigers place orders for 3,000 pounds of big league chew, and people who live in Kansas City start making counseling appointments.

In this week’s installment of my Major League preview, we’ll dive into the best hitting lineups in baseball. So get out your steroids, move in the fences and get rid of that baseball humidor Denver because it’s time to talk offense.

After carefully analyzing this years projected major league rosters, I once again came to an astonishing conclusion. I hate the Yankees. Surprise! They have the best lineup in baseball on paper- … yada, yada, yada … A-Rod will still hit .090 in clutch situations and he’ll be New York’s scapegoat for another wasted $200-plus million season. Whew, glad that’s over; now for the unveiling of the best non-Yankee lineups in baseball.

American League

Chicago White Sox: The White Sox not making the playoffs last season had very little to do with their explosive line-up, which will be back for another tour this season. The Sox have all the intangibles. With Podsednik’s speed, Thome, Konerko, and Dye’s power, and Crede and Pierzynski’s clutch abilities, the Sox really can’t go wrong on offense. I still think they sport the best three, four, five in the bigs and I expect this offense to be at least as good as it was last season.

Tampa Bay Devil Rays: The Devil Ray’s might not bear the name Devil Ray’s for much longer because they are considering dropping the Devil for the upcoming 2007 season.

Along with that consideration, they are also looking at dropping the stigma that they are a completely awful baseball team. The D-Rays take the three spot for top AL lineups with an incredibly fast and talented lineup. If the season started today they would probably line-up like this: Rocco Baldelli, Carl Crawford, Delmon Young, Jonny Gomes, Jorge Cantu, Ty Wigginton, B.J. Upton, Dioner Navarro and Ben Zobrist. Navarro and Zorbist are still developing as players and they undoubtedly are not all-stars, but the rest of this lineup is incredibly scary. Baldelli, Crawford and Young will steal more bases than any other one, two, three in baseball. Following that with Young’s superstar potential in the three slot and Gomes, Cantu and Wigginton after him, you can look for this offense to be a force in the AL this season. Too bad for Tampa these guys can’t pitch too.

Detroit Tigers: Wrapping up my AL best list is the Tigers. This lineup speaks for itself. They have incredible balance from both sides of the plate, veteran leadership and Gary Sheffield. They went to the World Series last season and only got better. It should be a fun year in the AL central.

National League

Colorado Rockies: I love this team. I don’t usually get excited about many clubs who aren’t named the Chicago Cubs, but these guys do it for me. Willy Tavares will lead off this season and have a field day at the oversized Coors Field. Its two hitter is Todd Helton, and, yes, that is unfair. Following Helton are Garrett Atkins, Matt Holiday and Brad Hawpe, a trio of young stars who get better every year in. It would not surprise me if all three of them hit 30 homers and drove in 100. Even despite all this, I believe the thing that makes Colorado the best hitting team in the NL is their seven, eight and nine spots. Most teams in the NL are extremely weak at the bottom of their lineup, but Colorado looks to be pretty solid. With players like Troy Tulowitzki, Clint Barmes, Kaz Matsui and up and coming catcher Chris Iannetta rounding out their order you can expect fireworks in Colorado this season.

New York Mets: The Mets aren’t far behind Colorado in this race. They beat the snot out of the ball last year and haven’t gotten any worse. Jose Reyes is one of my nominees for MVP this season in the lead-off spot. He’ll be followed by big guns like David Wright, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran and Moises Alou. The Mets will also run potential sluggers like Shawn Green and Jose Valentin out there on an everyday basis, making them the favorites to lead the league in homers. The only thing keeping them behind Colorado is the potential for some major injuries to the older guys like Green and Alou. They could also struggle in the strikeout category with a lot of free swingers.

Chicago Cubs: I spent a long time debating on this one. It came down to the Cubs, Cards, Astros, Marlins and Phillies for the last spot in the top three. I really think every one of these teams has about equally as good of a lineup, but I’m going to give the edge to the Cubs. Mark DeRosa, Jacques Jones and Cesar Izturis scare me, but so do at least three hitters on any of the other teams I mentioned above. I think the one thing that gives the Cubs an edge is their bench. The Cubs have some good young talent like Ronny Cedeno, Ryan Theriot and potentially Felix Pie coming off the bench in case someone isn’t pulling their weight. I think when they find out who works in what spots, the Cubs will be the third-best hitting team in the NL.

Frank Vanderwall is a senior in Communications. He can be reached at [email protected].