True or false: The 2002 Rangers could be one of the most dominant offense machines of all time.

It's true that the Rangers look absolutely scary on paper, with four potential Hall of Famers in the middle of the lineup. However, the 2002 Rangers are extremely unlikely to go down as one of the elite offensive teams of all time. In fact, this same question was asked last year, when Alex Rodriguez, Ken Caminiti and Andres Galarraga joined a team which already had Ivan Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro. With all that star power the team scored 890 runs last year, impressive and well above average, but only third in the American League and certainly not historically significant.

The additions of Juan Gonzalez and Carl Everett will make this team even more venerable, but if we examine the numbers, we'll see that the 1931 Yankees, 1976 Reds, and 1953 Dodgers, for example, have little to fear.

Based on average performance over the past three years, the Rangers' present roster appears likely to score about 950 runs in 2002. That's not too shabby and would have led the majors in 2001 (Seattle scored 927). However, some predictions have the Rangers scoring 1,000 runs -- or more. But if you take the statistic known as Runs Created, which effectively approximates how many runs a player accounts for (and thus how many a team will score), the 2002 Rangers fall shy of the record books:

Pos  Player            RC
C    I. Rodriguez    97.7
1B   R. Palmeiro    133.6
2B   M. Young        45.9
3B   H. Perry        41.5
SS   A. Rodriguez   133.2
LF   F. Catalanotto  58.7
CF   C. Everett      87.4
RF   J. Gonzalez    107.3
DH/bench            244.2
Total               949.5

The Indians scored 1009 runs in 1999. The White Sox scored 978 in 2000. If the Rangers do score 950 runs this season, that would place them only third in the AL in the past four years.

Stopgap players like second baseman Michael Young and third baseman Herbert Perry appear to really hurt the Rangers' chances of making it into the record books. Phenom Hank Blalock does not appear ready to play yet, but when he does, provided this team is still together in a similar form, they may be closer to making history.

Of course, if everything breaks right and everyone stays healthy, the Rangers could score 1000 runs. That said, scoring 950 runs or even 1000 is not as impressive in this era as some other team offensive feats in baseball history. Arguably the best offenses in history are the 1976 Cincinnati Reds, the 1931 New York Yankees, 1950 Boston Red Sox and the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers. They aren't the best because they scored the most runs, but because they outscored other teams in their league by such a wide margin.

The '31 Yankees scored 1067 runs. That's obviously impressive, but consider that the average team in the AL that year scored 794 runs. That means the Yankees outscored the league average by 272 runs, or by 34.3 percent. Likewise, the Reds outscored their league average by 213 runs, or 32.9 percent. The Red Sox were 31.4 percent over their league average.

Team           Runs   League Avg.  Pct. Over Avg.
'31 Yankees    1067     794          +34.3%
'76 Reds        857     645          +32.9%
'50 Red Sox    1027     782          +31.4%
'53 Dodgers     955     739          +29.2%

(Thanks to Eddie Epstein for a previous article on ESPN.com.)

And the Rangers? Last year, the average AL team scored 787 runs.

Team           Runs   League Avg.  Pct. Over Avg.
'02 Rangers     950     787          +20.7

So historically speaking, the Rangers don't look remotely special. One reason is that their stars, while great, are not so much greater than the average player of their time, at least compared to greats like Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth back in '31. Looks at a few selected players, comparing their OPS (on-base + slugging) to the league-average OPS for that year:

Player            OPS   League OPS  Pct. Diff.
'31 B. Ruth      1195      740        +61.5%
'31 L. Gehrig    1108      740        +49.7%
'50 T. Williams  1099      759        +44.8%
'53 D. Snider    1046      747        +40.0%
'53 Campanella   1006      747        +34.7%
'76 J. Morgan    1029      684        +50.4%
'76 G. Foster     899      684        +31.4%
'01 A. Rodriguez 1021      762        +34.0%
'01 J. Gonzalez   960      762        +26.0%
'01 R. Palmeiro   944      762        +23.9%

Did Alex Rodriguez (.318-52-135) have one of the better seasons in baseball history in 2001? Yes. His OPS cleared 1000, but that doesn't quite match up with Duke Snider's domination in 1953, (.336-42-126) even if Snider's numbers were comparable.

So enjoy the big numbers in Arlington next year. They'll be there for sure. But don't go securing the Rangers a place in the annals of history quite yet. To be as dominant as the Big Red Machine was 26 years ago, how many runs might the Rangers have to score next year? How about 1,050?

Hopefully the Rangers' pitching will be better this year (they allowed 968 runs last year) or they could end up like the '31 Yankees ... who finished 13½ games out of first place. The Rangers could score over 1000 runs and still have a run margin of less than 100 for the season. Scary stuff. Chan Ho to the rescue!

Bill Konigsberg is an editor at ESPN.com.