The FDH Lounge Labor Day MLB team UQB ratings

By Rick Morris

FantasyDrafthelp.com has long utilized our UQB, the Ultimate Quantitative Baseline, as one tool for evaluating fantasy players in a variety of different sports.  Now the sister brand The FDH Lounge is adapting the concept for team sports.  Here is our look at where the 30 MLB teams stand on Labor Day.  We unveiled our first version at the All-Star break

Teams are measured in a variety of categories: the most recent version of our power rankings, a formula based 50% on our power rankings & 50% on each team’s strength of schedule, OBP, OPS+, FIP, ERA+, Pythagorean record, SRS and Run Differential.  Obviously, the lower the cumulative number, the better.  We have broken the teams into different tiers every time that there is a 20-point gap between one team’s cumulative number and the next.  We have also noted the team’s last ranking on this stat.

		PR+
TIER 1	PR	SOS	OBP	OPS+	FIP	ERA+	Pythag	SRS	RunDiff	Total	Pr Rank	Rank
Hou	2	4	5	2	1	1	1	1	1	18	1	1T
Bos	1	2	2	1	4	3	2	2	1	18	2	1T
NYY	3	1	4	4	3	4	3	4	3	29	3	3
		PR+
TIER 2	PR	SOS	OBP	OPS+	FIP	ERA+	Pythag	SRS	RunDiff	Total	Pr Rank	Rank
LAD	10	15	9	5	2	7	5	3	5	61	4	4
Cleve	6	21	5	6	7	6	4	6	4	65	6	5
Cubs	5	9	1	14	20	5	6	5	6	71	5	6
Oak	4	2	12	3	18	11	10	9	8	77	8	7
TB	11	6	7	8	6	8	12	12	13	83	7	8
St L	7	6	12	11	9	13	9	10	8	85	17	9
Atl	14	22	10	9	11	9	7	6	7	95	9	10
Ariz	12	15	20	27	8	2	8	6	8	106	13	11
Mil	8	6	14	17	19	14	13	12	12	115	11	12
Wash	18	24	7	18	12	9	11	10	11	120	16	13
Sea	9	4	20	9	12	19	20	19	18	130	10	14
LAA	20	11	17	11	22	16	14	12	12	135	12	15
Phil	13	23	18	23	5	11	15	15	15	138	14	16
Pit	19	11	14	14	14	21	16	15	15	139	20	17
		PR+
TIER 3	PR	SOS	OBP	OPS+	FIP	ERA+	Pythag	SRS	RunDiff	Total	Pr Rank	Rank
Col	17	20	13	26	17	17	17	17	17	161	18	18T
SF	15	18	24	27	10	14	18	17	18	161	18	18T
Tor	16	10	19	6	23	26	24	25	23	172	19	20
Cin	25	13	3	13	29	27	23	21	23	177	21	21
Tex	27	14	11	21	27	21	22	21	22	185	23	22
NYM	21	25	23	17	14	2	21	20	21	187	24	23
Minn	22	27	20	20	21	18	19	23	18	190	22	24
		PR+
TIER 4	PR	SOS	OBP	OPS+	FIP	ERA+	Pythag	SRS	RunDiff	Total	Pr Rank	Rank
ChiSox	23	27	26	16	26	24	26	27	26	221	28	25
SD	24	18	30	29	16	23	25	23	25	223	25	26
Det	26	27	28	30	25	19	26	27	26	234	26	27
Mia	28	26	24	23	24	30	28	26	28	237	27	28
Balt	30	15	28	21	30	28	29	29	29	239	29	29
KC	29	30	27	25	28	28	30	30	29	256	30	30

MLB power rankings for start of September

By Rick Morris

NOTE: Rankings from start of season are in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 Boston (2-2-2-1-1-1)

SECOND TIER

2 Houston (4-1-1-2-2-4)

3 New York Yankees (1-3-3-3-3-2)

4 Oakland (14-15-12-5-4-3)

5 Chicago Cubs (6-7-6-4-5-6)

6 Cleveland (13-11-8-10-11-8)

7 St. Louis (9-14-15-20-18-14)

8 Milwaukee (5-5-7-11-9-11)

9 Seattle (3-4-4-7-7-5)

10 LA Dodgers (17-13-11-8-10-12)

11 Tampa Bay (19-18-14-13-13-15)

12 Arizona (10-8-9-9-8-7)

13 Philadelphia (12-9-10-6-6-9)

14 Atlanta (7-6-5-14-12-13)

15 San Francisco (18-19-13-15-15-17)

16 Toronto (24-21-18-16-20-23)

17 Colorado (15-16-16-12-14-10)

18 Washington (8-10-17-19-17-20)

19 Pittsburgh (16-17-20-17-16-19)

20 LA Angels (11-12-19-18-19-16)

21 New York Mets (21-25-27-24-26-21)

22 Minnesota (23-22-25-21-21-18)

23 Chicago White Sox (29-28-28-28-28-27)

24 San Diego (22-23-26-26-27-28)

25 Cincinnati (27-26-22-22-22-22)

26 Detroit (20-20-24-27-23-25)

27 Texas (25-24-21-25-24-24)

28 Miami (28-27-23-23-25-26)

THIRD TIER

29 Kansas City (26-29-29-29-29-29)

30 Baltimore (30-30-30-30-30-30)

BIGGEST RISERS: St. Louis and Toronto (7 spots), Chicago White Sox, San Diego and Tampa Bay (4 spots), Milwaukee (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Colorado (7 spots), Arizona (5 spots), LA Angels, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Seattle (4 spots), Cincinnati and Texas (3 spots)

RANKINGS BY DIVISION – 1 POINT PER RANKING SPOT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL TEAM

1 AL EAST 61

2 AL WEST 62

3 NL CENTRAL 64

4 NL WEST 78

5 NL EAST 94

6 AL CENTRAL 106

RANKINGS BY LEAGUE

1 AL 229

2 NL 236

Happy Labor Day

By Rick Morris

[NOTE: This is a column that we publish every Labor Day.]

In the world we live in today, Labor Day may seem like the most anachronistic of holidays today, certainly more so than Independence Day, Memorial Day or anything else that still seems completely relevant -- but there are still people left to remind us of the importance of the day.

As an example, I would cite my great-aunt Josephine – who passed away last September just after turning 102! – someone who worked very hard at her job for decades and who helped unionize her workplace when abusive conditions became completely rampant. Now, I'm no fan at all of what many affiliates of the modern labor movement do to workers -- taking money out of their paychecks so that they can hand it to politicians who advance causes many workers oppose -- but that doesn't change at all the heroism of those who in an earlier day and age put their own well-being on the line to help build a more humane workplace and society.  Today, this column is all the more solemn to me because of severe health problems that Aunt Josie is going through, for which I would appreciate anyone’s prayers for the family.

To my great-aunt Josie and all of the other heroes who helped to build a better America, Happy Labor Day.

2018 FDH Week 1 college football predictions

By Rick Morris

Auburn -2 ½ over Washington

Michigan -1 ½ over Notre Dame

Ohio State -40 over Oregon State

Tennessee +9 ½ over West Virginia

Texas -13 ½ over Maryland

Alabama -25 ½ over Louisville

LSU +3 ½ over Miami

Virginia Tech +7 over Florida State

Akron +24 ½ over Nebraska

Florida Atlantic +20 over Oklahoma