Yankees are still the team to beat

MAJOR League Baseball's defending champions will waste no time getting down to their most important business when the New York Yankees open the season against the Boston Red Sox in America's biggest sporting rivalry today.

Coming off their 27th World Series crown, the Yankees will face down their American League East foes at Boston's Fenway Park.

They still have by far the biggest payroll in all of baseball, but if they are to repeat the feat Yankees will need new acquisitions Curtis Granderson and Nick Johnson to make a quick impact in replacing the departed Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui.

Boston have made plenty of changes too, trying to improve their defence by signing Adrian Beltre to start at third base ahead of Mike Lowell, and adding veteran centrefielder Mike Cameron.

The two teams look set to lead the battle in the AL East once again, but the Tampa Bay Rays spoiled the party two years ago and have all the tools needed to do it again thanks to their ever-improving core of homegrown players.

The Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers are taking aim at the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim's supremacy in the AL West. In the National League, the Philadelphia Phillies are a class apart, not only in the East but in the entire league.