The Philadelphia Phillies are one of the best teams in baseball.

Sorry if you disagree because a.) you don't like the Phillies, b.) you wrote off Gabe Kapler after five games of a 162-game season, or c.) you don't watch baseball, but there's not a whole lot of information to dispute that right now.

As CBS Sports' own Matt Snyder so often says in prefacing his weekly MLB power rankings, small sample sizes are dangerous. That's because, well, they are what they are: small ... sample sizes. They aren't the full picture. And that's precisely why the argument here isn't that the Phillies, a team that's been desperate for rebuild progress for the better part of a decade, are shoo-ins to rival their 2008-2009 predecessors after two months of ball.

But what is clearer by the day is that these Phillies also aren't the pushover projects that so often ate up ballpark space pre-Kapler. They probably aren't even just National League East sleepers with a chance to up their 66-win 2017 campaign.

They're better.

Since mid-April, in fact, you can make the argument that Philadelphia, the same team mocked for its quirky new manager, decried for its 1-4 start and considered nothing more than wild-card material at best, has been more formidable than just about any team in all of MLB outside of the New York Yankees. And in a league that's lacked middle ground in 2018, mostly touting true contenders vs. pitiful cellar dwellers, that's saying something, because nothing suggests the Phils aren't squarely in that first category.

As of Friday, of course, the Phillies weren't even atop their own division, trailing the similarly youth-injected Atlanta Braves by a half game. But a fluid and ambiguous first-place standing isn't stopping anyone from talking up the Boston Red Sox over in the American League. And while, in the big picture, Philadelphia may very well be inferior to the World Series-caliber lineup of the Sox, the numbers don't lie when they paint the Fightin's as owning some of the best marks of the majors over their last month of action.

Outside of the Yankees, the consensus title favorites at 28-12, no team except these three have better records over their last 30:

Phillies: 19-11 (+37 run differential)

Braves: 19-11 (+33 run differential)

Brewers: 19-11 (+27 run differential)

Where the Phillies stand to improve is games against teams above .500, of which they'll get plenty over their next 13 series, but even in that category, their record (11-13) isn't far removed from clubs that elicit pennant discussions, like the Red Sox (12-9), the Houston Astros (13-10) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (11-11).

And the promise of their last 30 games, which, again, have been more bottom-line productive than any team aside from the Yanks, isn't the only thing the Phillies have going for them. Not by a long shot.

Let's start with the fact that they have legitimate candidates for the NL Cy Young and NL MVP awards.

Aaron Nola (6-1) has more wins than everyone in the NL but three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer, his earned run average (1.99) is sixth best in the majors and it's obvious to anyone who's seen him this year that the term "ace" is here to stay. Odubel Herrera, meanwhile, has been churning out career-best strikeout rates at a time when more players are striking out than ever before, he's reached base safely in every game this year, he's on pace for close to 100 RBIs, and his .361 batting average, 53 hits and .431 on-base percentage all rank either first or second in the NL.

And guess what? Nola and Herrera aren't the only good players on this good (with a capital "G") team. Consider:

Jake Arrieta (3-1, 2.59 ERA) has been throwing No. 1-caliber stuff behind Nola

As a team, the Phillies' ERA (3.34) is the third best in MLB, and their total of earned runs allowed is second only to the Astros

The Phillies are the only team to have three different batters in the top 15 of NL OBP leaders

Only the Braves and Los Angeles Angels also have three different batters in the top 20 of MLB's OBP leaders

In simpler terms, the Phillies have a winning formula, and they don't lack balance. Whereas Nola may have the hottest arm of the rotation, Kapler isn't lacking for options as Nick Pivetta, Vince Velasquez and Zach Eflin show promise, all while Jerad Eickhoff returns from injury. Whereas Herrera may be driving the offense, even amid slumps for stars like Rhys Hoskins, veterans are picking up the slack, with Maikel Franco leading the club in RBIs and Carlos Santana slamming six home runs in his last 11 games.

In the long haul of the MLB season, it may still be early. But let's stop pretending the Phillies, right now, aren't exactly what they are.

One of the best teams in baseball.