Enjoy all the day-time Labor Day baseball!
Just as a reminder: some of the things that go into these rankings include runs scored and allowed, run distributions, wOBA, wRC, FIP, xFIP, DRS, UZR, etc., Base Runs, BABIP and HR/FB% adjustments, and our guts.
| Rank |
Team |
Wins |
Losses |
Comments |
| 1 |
Yankees |
84 |
53 |
After a down year with the White Sox in 2008, Nick Swisher has been back in form as a Yankee (3.2, 4.2, and now 4.4 fWAR). |
| 2 |
Phillies |
88 |
47 |
Ryan Howard looks like he's going to fail to get to 2 fWAR for the second year in a row. His 5 year extension starts next season. |
| 3 |
Red Sox |
84 |
54 |
This has been perhaps the worst full season of Jon Lester's career. He has a 3.05 ERA and a 2.5 K/BB ratio. |
| 4 |
Rangers |
79 |
61 |
Michael Young is getting some MVP attention? He's 5th on his own team in fWAR, though 3.6 is his best since 2006. |
| 5 |
Brewers |
83 |
57 |
Zack Greinke has missed some time this year, unfortunately, because he's leading the majors with a 2.49 xFIP. |
| 6 |
Rays |
75 |
63 |
Desmond Jennings has a decent chance at 10 HR and 20 SB this year, and is at 2.1 fWAR in only 41 games. |
| 7 |
Diamondbacks |
79 |
60 |
Paul Goldschimdt hits home runs; 6 in just 102 PA so far this year, but a 33% strike-out rate to go along with them. |
| 8 |
Cardinals |
74 |
65 |
It's a good thing they picked Corey Patterson up from the Blue Jays; .178/.196/.267 with 11 K's to 1 walk. |
| 9 |
Braves |
81 |
57 |
Jason Heyward's monthly walks rates this year; 12.4%, 12.2%, 11.7%, 8%, 5.6%, and 0% so far in September. |
| 10 |
Tigers |
77 |
62 |
Since joining the club, Delmon Young has hit .291/.292/.453, with 3 HR in 20 games after hitting 4 in 84 games with the Twins. |
| 11 |
Angels |
75 |
64 |
Mike Trout is showing some unexpected power, with 5 home runs already in only 89 PA. And only 1 stolen base. |
| 12 |
White Sox |
68 |
68 |
Adam Dunn, hitting .162/.289/.288, has to go 45 for his next 45 to get up to the .260 he hit last year in Washington. |
| 13 |
Dodgers |
68 |
70 |
They've gone 11-2 over the last couple weeks, getting close to that .500 mark (if no closer to 1st place; Arizona also went 11-2). |
| 14 |
Reds |
68 |
71 |
Fransisco Cordero's strike-out rate has plummeted to 5.5 K/9, but he's also walking batters much less often than in recent yrs. |
| 15 |
Blue Jays |
69 |
70 |
The guy who's pitched the 3rd most innings for the team this year (Jo-Jo Reyes with 110) actually got waived over a month ago. |
| 16 |
Mets |
67 |
70 |
Even having increased (!) his power output to 10 home runs, a .276 BABIP has Jason Bay at only barely above replacement level. |
| 17 |
Rockies |
66 |
73 |
For players with even 100 PA, Jason Giambi leads the NL with a .634 slugging percentage - 44 points ahead of Ryan Braun. |
| 18 |
Athletics |
63 |
76 |
David DeJesus' wRC+ by year since 2006: 110, 91, 114, 99, 124, 93. Bounce-back coming in 2012? |
| 19 |
Giants |
73 |
66 |
Buster Posey hasn't played since the end of May. He's still second on the team in position player fWAR at 1.6. |
| 20 |
Indians |
69 |
67 |
Reliever Vinnie Pestano has a 12.1 K/9 this year, as well as the highest rate of strikes swung at and missed in the majors. |
| 21 |
Royals |
58 |
82 |
KC has the same BB% (7.4), K% (15.9), and ISO (.136) as the White Sox, but 25 points of BABIP has them up on wOBA .322 to .311. |
| 22 |
Marlins |
61 |
77 |
Javier Vazquez in the second half; 3.09 ERA, 9.3 K/9, 2.0 BB/9. And his fastball velocity is back up to around 91 mph. |
| 23 |
Padres |
60 |
79 |
Orlando Hudson has a good chance of doubling his previous career high in stolen bases (10) at the age of 33. |
| 24 |
Nationals |
64 |
73 |
Danny Espinosa still leads all rookie position players with 3.2 fWAR. Will he get any awards votes given his .233 batting average? |
| 25 |
Cubs |
59 |
80 |
For pitchers with at least 1,000 career innings pitched, Kerry Wood has the second highest strike-out rate of all time (10.4 K/9). |
| 26 |
Pirates |
64 |
75 |
Derrek Lee has accumulated more fWAR in 7 games as a Pirate (0.5) than he did in 85 games as an Oriole (0.4). |
| 27 |
Mariners |
58 |
80 |
Since coming over to the M's, over a quarter of Casper Wells' hits have been homer (6 of 20), with he's hitting only .220 with his 35% K rate. |
| 28 |
Orioles |
55 |
82 |
Matt Wieters is hitting .312/.402/.642 over the last month and is up to .268/.331/.439 for the season. And with only a .290 BABIP to boot. |
| 29 |
Astros |
47 |
92 |
Former pitcher Brian Bogusevic is back as an outfielder, and is hitting .295/.360/.509 with 1.5 fWAR in 68 games. |
| 30 |
Twins |
58 |
80 |
Minnesota has the worst xFIP in the majors, and the only starter below 4 is Scott Baker (3.61) who's been out for a month. |
