Jeff Luhnow had been part of the St. Louis Cardinals organization since 2003 when he was hired as Vice President of baseball operations.  In three years, he had been promoted to vice president of scouting and player development where he helped establish a baseball academy in the Dominican Republic and extend scouting in Venezuela.

In December of 2011, Luhnow left the Cardinals to become the General Manager of the Houston Astros who remained in the National League(NL) Central through 2012 and then joined the American League(AL) West as a realignment was made so an inter-league game would be played every day.

Hacking Begins

The first hacking by Chris Correa began in 2013 from his own home nonetheless, when he just happened to be trying old passwords from the master-list Luhnow gave all the employees while he was VP of scouting and player development. Why Correa was trying his old passwords is a big question, but why Luhnow was still using the same passwords is a bigger question. Correa claims, he only accessed the Astros database to ensure they weren’t using any Cardinals information. However, he looked through at least 188 pages of confidential information ranging from player evaluations to trade discussions. Obviously, this was happened repeatedly costing the Astros upwards of 1.7 million dollars. Correa downloaded an Excel spreadsheet the Astros created for the 2013 MLB Draft which held pages of scouting reports on almost everyone eligible to be selected.

FBI Gets Involved

This is the only time the FBI has become this involved with anything closely related to MLB which caused them to investigate the whole Cardinals organization for two years and ultimately deciding Chris Correa was the main guy involved in hacking the Astros. The top of the command chain apparently knew nothing about what was happening and in my opinion pushed Correa as a fall guy to help preserve the “Cardinal Way” which I’ll discuss later. Correa received a 46-month prison sentence which can be effectively cut to 39 months with “good behavior.”

MLB Punishment Given Out This Week

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced Monday:  The Cards lose this year picks of 56th(2nd) and 75th(3rd) in addition to $2 million dollars to the Astros. A lot of the owners are upset because this type of punishment seems too light. The Cardinals maintain it was just a rogue employee acting on his own, which is hard to believe at this point. They would’ve lost their first-round pick mostly likely; however, that is headed to the Cubs as they signed Dexter Fowler to a 5-year $85 million contract. In the words of GM John Mozeliak, “People want to us get kicked.” He could be hinting at the recent success they’ve had an organization as being the lead dog in the NL Central. Everyone wants to see the lead dog get knocked down and this was a way to hinder the prospects of the Cardinals for the next few years. Just when we thought it was finally over, Correa maintains the Astros stole information first.

My Opinion

The espionage committed by the Cardinals is a terrible thing for baseball given the recent bounce back baseball had with the two longest world championship drought teams in the World Series. I would never expect to see something like an FBI investigation into a baseball team again, but you just never know.  The Cardinals reputation takes a big hit with how this all went down, and I think it will cause people to scoff at the “Cardinal Way.” I haven’t read the book on their way, but the main perceived one is, if you hit our guy regardless of intent, one of your guys will be hit or thrown at back. I saw it a couple of times this past season watching the Cubs-Cardinals series. Yes, it’s baseball and you stand up for your guys, I just don’t see how intentionally hitting a guy improves a situation. I believe the biggest outrage was when Matt Holliday got injured by a Cubs pitcher, late in the season with an arm injury that held him out quite a while.  The Cardinals retaliated and hit Rizzo back, Rizzo just chuckled and headed down to first. I would never wish for a player to get injured, but it a risk of playing the game.

The post MLB Hands Cardinals Punishment, Was It Enough? appeared first on KRUI Radio.

“Dynasty” is term loosely tossed around to describe successful teams after championship runs. In most modern sports, the talent pool has proven too deep to have a classic, 20^th-century, dynasty such as the 50s Yankees, 60s Celtics or 90s Cowboys. Those squads dominated and left little question as to which team was the best in their respective eras. While that same scenario may not exist in all major United States sports, we can garner at least a debate.

In this piece we will dive into the top dynasties since the first season post-2000 started of each major sport between the college and professional levels and decide which recent squad has had dominated its respective sport the most. There are rules that will be followed.

1. There will be a qualified team picked out of each individual sport before jumping to a final debate on who is the king of kings.
2. One team must be chosen out of each major sport – college football, men’s/women’s basketball, baseball, wrestling, volleyball, MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL.
3. Seasons that are currently in progress (2014-15 college hoops, NBA, NHL) are not included. For example, Kentucky’s current undefeated record in college hoops cannot be applied to their opportunity to be considered college basketball’s top dynasty on the men’s side.
4. Dynasty is a term used far too often. Are the Seahawks a dynasty because of how great their defense is in the past two years? No, because Seattle struggled through a lot of down seasons beforehand. In this piece, a dynasty will be defined as “Dominating a respective sport, while simultaneously competing for championships to the tune of being the greatest team in the discussed era.”
5. A team must consistently be in championship contention, but in order to be a dynasty in this span – a team must have won at least a single title.
6. I cannot compare teams between sports, as that will happen in the follow up article, where I will rank the selections from each league.

Let the games begin.

NBA

The NBA has always had a lack of parity.  We may no longer be limited to just the Lakers and Celtics, but the situation is still heavily lopsided.

Starting in the 2000-01 season, just three out of 14 Western Conference champions haven’t been named either the Los Angeles Lakers or the San Antonio Spurs. The Dallas Mavericks made two Finals appearances, and the Oklahoma City Thunder briefly showed up before being ousted in five by the LeBron James-led Miami Heat.

The Eastern Conference has been more diverse, but less successful. Seven teams (Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Detroit, Miami, Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando) have won the conference, but just three (Detroit, Miami, Boston) have managed to end the postseason with a victory.

The Heat have an impressive five title appearances and three championships to make a case for a potential top-NBA dynasty in the last 14 seasons. However, they fall well short of the Western Conference rivals from California and Texas.

The Spurs have a cumulative regular season record of 804-328 (.710), a postseason tally of 129-80 (.617), and four championships in five appearances since 2000. Their worst record in that span is 50-32 in 2009, and yet they still made it to the Western Conference Semifinals. Gregg Popovich has led this team to being easily the most consistent of all NBA squads in this era.

Los Angeles, albeit currently in its lowest moment in franchise history, also has an argument to be the representative for professional hoops. While their 690-442 (.610) overall regular season mark is well below San Antonio’s, their post season record of 108-66 trumps the Spurs. In six Finals appearances, the Lakers have taken home four titles – equal to the Spurs. If the 1999-2000 season and the first third of the Shaq-Kobe three-peat were included, my final decision may not have been…

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs, led by a long-time coach and familiar players, have (somehow quietly) been one of the most consistent teams in all of American athletics. Their YMCA-style of play may not captivate casual audiences with oohs and awes, but their record says all that is needed. The Lakers have missed the playoffs as many times (two) as the Spurs have missed the second round. The ability to avoid down years is what makes the difference. San Antonio and Los Angeles have the same highs, but the Spurs have yet to hit a low this century.

Honorable mention: Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat

NFL

Baltimore, New England, Pittsburgh and the New York Giants have all won multiple titles since Super Bowl XXXV, thus obviously deserving of recognition in this analysis. Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Green Bay and Seattle will also be included as to compare all Super Bowl victors.

Looking based simply off of this, the answer is penciled in. Let’s engrave it in stone with this next chart. I gave every team a point total for each category – the top team receiving nine points and the bottom receiving one – (regular season win percentage, total postseason wins, postseason win percentage, division titles and Super Bowls). The point total depended on where a team finished in each respective section.

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: New England Patriots. New England swept the board in each measurable category. It’s hard to tell if they’re farther ahead of the pack than Tampa Bay is behind. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have created a dynasty and are two absurd catches from having six Super Bowls in this span, including the Brady-Randy Moss 2007 combination that was the best team in NFL history to not win it all.

NHL

The NHL has experienced more parity than its professional counterparts this century. Ten teams have won a Stanley Cup in the last 13 occurrences (plus the 2005 lockout season). The Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, Carolina Hurricanes, Tampa Bay Lightning, New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche have all taken home one championship, while the Los Angeles Kings, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings all have a pair of titles. To avoid confusion in the following chart, the NHL did away with ties during this span and therefore the records will be Win-Loss-Overtime Losses-Ties.

  We have seven categories (Stanley Cups, playoff appearances, playoff series victories, postseason wins, postseason win percentage and regular season win percentage and points). The best team in each category will receive 10 points and the worst will pick up just one. In order to put a stronger emphasis on advancing in the postseason, playoff series victories will count as a point for each accumulated. This should counteract disciplining teams for advancing on to tougher rounds just to be swept.

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: Detroit Red Wings. Outside of postseason win percentage, Detroit swept the board since 2000. Its 17 postseason series victories is even more impressive when factoring in the lockout season and the fact that no other franchise has more than a dozen. Despite parity among Stanley Cup victors, Detroit has easily been the most consistently dominant in all of professional hockey. Not much of an argument can be made for any other squad from this chart, and therefore none are honorable mention worthy.

Men’s college basketball:

After a relatively easy start, we reach what might be the most complicated of all sports we list. College basketball is about as random as they come (see odds of making a perfect bracket). Of course, Kentucky seems like an obvious choice after winning a national title in 2013-14 and going undefeated so far in 2014-15 (void). Don’t let fresh tastes discount distant memories.

Recent impressions can’t influence this decision, but the Wildcats have enough beyond that to make a pretty decisive statement. A 369-124 overall record is tough to argue with. What’s even harder? Twelve NCAA Tournament appearances, eight Sweet Sixteens, three Final Fours and a 1-1 record in the championship. Take away the two seasons Billy Gillispie coached Kentucky to a 40-27 overall record with zero NCAA Tournament victories and an NIT berth, and the Wildcats may blow the competition out of the water.

One team has been so remarkably consistent in its conference that it’s impossible to leave off this list: The Kansas Jayhawks.

After transitioning from a Hall of Fame coach, Kansas found a fate much simpler than Kentucky. Bill Self took over Roy Williams’ squad and didn’t miss a beat.

Williams’ last three seasons resulted in a 42-6 conference record that was overshadowed by a Sweet Sixteen, Final Four and a championship appearance. Since? Self has given the Jayhawks a 325-69 mark with a 151-31 stretch in the Big 12.

Self’s initial tournament resume left much to be desired with two first round exits sandwiched between a pair of Elite Eight showings. That turned around quickly with Kansas’ lone national title during this span in 2008.

Kansas boasts similar marks to Kentucky, with one extra championship loss thrown in, and its down years were first round exits over being completely left out.

So how about ex-Jayhawk coach Williams’ new squad – North Carolina? The Tar Heels have two national titles and another Final Four on their record and they may not even be the best dynasty in their own state.

Recent 1,000 game winner Mike Kryzewski’s Duke Blue Devils are.

Duke has a pair of national titles, has appeared in the tournament in each covered year, and has lost in their opening matchup just three times. Their conference dominance may not be as high as a team such as Kansas, but the competition is relatively stellar each season.

The Blue Devils hold an absurd 412-87 (.826) record in this span. So it has to be them, right?111

Let’s head over to Big Ten country where Tom Izzo is standing by for a quick lecture on postseason play. Michigan State, although missing its 1999-2000 national championship by just one season, has made nine Sweet Sixteens, five Elite Eights, four Final Fours, and has won one title. They haven’t missed the tournament a single time, and have been eliminated before the Round of 32 just four times.

What about UConn’s three title runs? Florida’s star-studded squads? Kentucky’s heated-rival Louisville? We need a way to rank these teams accordingly as to put all bias aside and assign an overall score. Postseason play in college basketball has always taken precedence over any other measurement of success. Here is the scoring chart to decide the top NCAA Tournament team since 2001’s tournament when solely considering those whom have a title to their name in this span:

Round of 64 loss: 0 points
Round of 32 loss: 1 point
Sweet 16 loss: 2 points
Elite Eight loss: 4 points
Final Four Loss: 8 points
Championship loss: 12 points
Championship: 16 points

NCAA Tournament champions results since 2000-01 March Madness: Kansas 68, UConn 67, Duke 59, North Carolina 56, Florida 55, Kentucky 55, Michigan State 51, Louisville 44, Syracuse 37, Maryland 30.

Shockingly, outside of its three titles runs, UConn only scored 19 points on this scale. The Huskies fell just a point shy of claiming this all important statistic in pushing forward to choosing men’s college hoops’ most dominant dynasty of the 21^st century. Despite just one title, consistency overcame roller coaster levels of postseason success and your winner is…

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: Kansas Jayhawks. Not only has Kansas (almost surprisingly) performed as the top overall team in March Madness, but it also has the most eye-popping accomplishment. I’m going to type this out to make it even more drastic: Kansas has won at least a share of (ahem) back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back to back regular season Big 12 championships. That’s 10. Read that out loud and you’re likely to need to catch your breath. This isn’t Kansas playing in the Summit League or intramural athletics – this is a major conference with a tough road to the top every season. Ten?! In a row? And just for the record, it’s also 12 of 13, but who’s counting? The Huskies have a legitimate argument when it comes to this discussion due to three incredible runs to the championship, but Kansas has been a more consistently feared team. Welcome to a new postseason tournament, Jayhawks. Let’s see who else is joining you.

Honorable mention: Duke, UConn

Women’s College Basketball

I went from one of the more difficult sports to choose to what might be the easiest. UConn women’s hoops is out of this world. Seven championships since the turn of the century. Average margin of victory in those title-winning contests? 15.4 points. That’s 15 points better than the second best team in the country. Talk about a talent gap. I can’t put into words how unbelievably incredible the Huskies’ overall record has been, so I’ll leave two simple numbers on its own.

486-38.

That’s a .927 winning percentage.

I could play myself in checkers and not win 93 percent of the time.

Connecticut has missed out on the Sweet Sixteen in this span only…well, they haven’t. And just once were they limited to that. On top of the Sweet Sixteen and seven titles, the Huskies have made two Elite Eight appearances along with four Final Fours. Therefore, your clear cut winner without any hesitation is…

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: Connecticut Huskies.

College Wrestling

If the 70s, 80s and 90s were included, this wouldn’t even be a competition. The Iowa Hawkeyes took home 20 titles from 1975-2000. Despite those all being out of the picture, Iowa is still in contention for the 21^st century title post-Dan Gable. The Hawkeyes have three titles to their name, which comes shy of Penn State and Oklahoma State, who put together four each. With the overall team title competition so close, our answer comes from individual championships. The Nittany Lions have nine, Hawkeyes 13 and Cowboys 18.

Oklahoma State’s 2005 season was the best of the era, fielding five individual champions in 10 weight classes, and scoring 153 points – best since the 1997 Hawkeyes scored 170. Therefore the winner is…

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys are tied for the lead in titles, have the best overall team of the era and can claim having the most individual titles. They may be fortunate to wrestle outside the Big Ten, but national titles don’t lie.

Honorable Mention: Iowa Hawkeyes, Penn State Nittany Lions

MLB

Four teams have won multiple titles since 2000 – the Red Sox (three), Giants (three), Yankees (two) and Cardinals (two) – to give a clear starting point when trying to declare the top 21^st century dynasty of professional baseball.

It’s clearly visible that this is a dead heat. You know the drill. In order to decide, I assigned a point total to each stat category. The top finisher in each category – World Series victories, division titles, regular season winning percentage, playoff appearances, total playoff wins and postseason playoff winning percentage – receives four points, followed by three for second place and so on. I also gave teams an extra point for each playoff series they won. The final tally came out as followed:

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: St. Louis Cardinals. Any fan of one the final four teams can state a statistic on how their team deserved to be the one represented. New York dominated the AL East. Boston and San Francisco won a third World Series and were more efficient in the postseason when they did make it. None of that jumped out the way this did:

The Cardinals took the cake with 16 postseason series victories.

That’s out of this world consistent. The Yankees came close, carried by consistently owning the division crown, whereas the two teams that take advantage of playoff appearances the most, Boston and San Francisco, found themselves looking up.

Honorable Mention: Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants

College Volleyball

Some of these don’t take much time. Penn State has six championships, including two 38-0 seasons. USC, Stanford, Nebraska, Texas and UCLA have had strong programs, but none have approached the dominance by the Nittany Lions. Let’s just get to the point. Without a hint of doubt, your winner is…

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: Penn State Nittany Lions.

College Baseball

Unlike most of the other sports in the discussion, the full 2000 season is included since it began post-millennium. Texas, South Carolina and Oregon State all have a pair of titles, with nobody else claiming more than one. Naturally, only those three are in consideration. However, the Beavers have only made four CWS appearances compared to six for South Carolina and eight for Texas. Typically that would lead one to believe that the answer is obviously the Longhorns.

Take a look at overall winning percentage: Texas is 661-294 (.664) in this millennium, lagging considerably behind the Gamecocks at 713-289 (.712). So what do we value? Winning more regular season games against what is typically stronger competition, or taking overall postseason play? The latter carries more weight. Here is how each team fared in NCAA Tournament play with its overall statistics tallied at the bottom.

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: Texas Longhorns. In what ended up being the closest contest of any sport so far, Texas prevailed because of one statistic: CWS appearances. South Carolina may hold a relatively significant advantage in regular season record and have a slim lead in postseason record, but they couldn’t get the job done in enough Super Regionals. One could argue that Texas’ lows were below South Carolina’s, but they consistently made the trip to Omaha and that familiarity with getting to the final eight put them over the edge.

College Football

Alabama, Ohio State, LSU, and Florida all have multiple FBS championships to their names, while Appalachian State and North Dakota State have dominated the FCS level well enough to be included in the discussion. USC vacated one of its two national championships and will not be considered. As we’ve come to find out, tables can be really useful when measuring statistics of multiple teams. Unfortunately, college football has more variables than most so let’s compare like it is 2000 (and we’re using WordPad).

Alabama: The Crimson Tide are the only team in this span with three FBS national title victories. Their overall record takes a hit because of 21 vacated wins, but stands at 116-57, including a 6-5 bowl mark – which is also hindered by one vacated victory and two seasons in which ‘Bama was ineligible for the postseason. They have garnered three SEC titles and five SEC West crowns – most of which have come under Nick Saban. The pre-Saban era was somewhat dark for Alabama, which had a (now shocking) 3-8 season in 2000. The loss of 21 victories could really come back to bite the team that is likely the first one on everybody’s college football power shortlist.

Florida: Florida boasts two national titles (thanks, Tebow) complemented by a 137-56 overall record. If Alabama had kept its wins, Florida would be one game ahead in the loss column and tied with the Tide for overall victories. In bowl play, Florida has a lackadaisical 7-6 mark. They have picked up three SEC Titles and have headed the SEC East four times.

LSU: Consistency in a more than tough conference is what could separate LSU from the group. Like every team on this list besides Alabama, the Tigers have a pair of national championships. Their overall record of 151-45 is only topped by Ohio State. They’ve won nine bowl games compared to six losses and have not missed out on the postseason. They’ve picked up four conference titles and five SEC West titles along the way to top both Florida and Alabama in those areas.

Ohio State: Surprised to see a Big Ten team here? You shouldn’t be. Despite a negative stigma built around the conference in recent years, Ohio State has been among the most dominant teams lately. The Buckeyes’ 157-36 overall record is hard to argue with. An 8-7 bowl record with a few postseason embarrassments could be improved on. What really couldn’t be is a sensational seven conference titles – which reasonably would be eight if not for a postseason ban on a 12-0 squad in 2012. The Buckeyes may not have the numbers to claim best of this century now, but with Urban Meyer pulling the strings, it might not be too long until they do.

North Dakota State: If we were only talking about the last four years, the Bison would breeze through the competition. Their 63-3 record with four national titles is, well, absurd. Before that? North Dakota State swiftly comes back to Earth with a more reasonable, but still strong, 74-40 mark. Did you already do the math? That’s an overall record of 137-43

…and I should probably mention they have a 20-2 postseason record.

20 wins. Two losses.

The Bison made the move from Division II to FCS in this time period and were ineligible for postseason play in multiple 10-1 seasons, otherwise they very well could have added to that title total. Which, quite frankly, is a little scary. One thing that isn’t as scary is this game. And this one in the same season. Sometimes you find things while researching that you wish you never did. Those qualify.

Appalachian State: While the Bison were fiddling around with moving up from Division II, another squad was busy winning national championships and knocking off the winningest-program in FBS history. That was the Mountaineers of Appalachian State. Their record of 131-52 is a modest amount below North Dakota State’s. It isn’t the regular season that separates these two FCS programs. The Mountaineers postseason mark, despite a three-peat from 2005-2007, is 19-8, considerably worse than the Bison’s…let me say it again…20-2.

Top Dynasty of the 21^st century: North Dakota State Bison. I get it. Strength of schedule for the Bison isn’t anywhere near what Ohio State, let alone Alabama, Florida and LSU, face on a week-to-week basis. Their national titles are much less publicized and viewed. They don’t have NFL prospects filling up the first round. They weren’t even in the FCS for part of this era. There are a lot of reasons not to pick them.

Go ahead, write an article on why LSU’s consistency in the SEC makes them the best dynasty of this century, or why Alabama’s three titles set it apart, or how Ohio State’s conference dominance make them the frontrunner. They all have strong cases to disprove my choice.

To me, these issues have to be made relative, not directly compared. Of course North Dakota State doesn’t have to play the LSU defense, the Tim Tebow offense or Nick Saban’s game plan on an annual basis, but they ought to be held to the standards of their competition, not of a league above them. North Dakota State has simply dominated about as much as a modern college football team can in this span. 137-43 in the regular season? Incredible – just as incredible as the others on this list, especially considering transition seasons. That doesn’t set them apart.

A .909 winning percentage in the postseason will. When the Bison play the best competition, they don’t just compete – they absolutely own everyone. Alabama doesn’t. Florida doesn’t. LSU and Ohio State don’t. They’re all tremendous teams, but have not set themselves apart at any part this century the way the Bison have.

Conclusion

The aforementioned follow-up article will now include the St. Louis Cardinals, San Antonio Spurs, New England Patriots, Detroit Red Wings, Kansas Jayhawks men’s hoops, UConn Huskies women’s basketball, Oklahoma State wrestling, Penn State volleyball, Texas baseball and North Dakota State football. Those ten dominant teams will be ranked to determine an ultimate “dynasty of the 21^st century.”

Be sure to check out Night Stuff on KRUI at the stroke of midnight Wednesday mornings as we discuss topics such as this, other sporting news and a few outrageous topics mixed in with a phone always ready to hear your takes. Did you like the article or happen to disagree with some of the choices? Tweet @TheMainStevent or @KRUISports to share your opinion.

The post The 21st Century’s Best Dynasty appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Let’s take a look at the top of the NFC West standings for a minute. Are you surprised with who you see? That’s right it’s the Arizona Cardinals. Now let’s take a look at the top of the NFC standings as a whole. Are you surprised again to see the Cardinals at the top? Would you care to check to the standings for the entire NFL? If you guessed the Cardinals were at the top of those as well, you’d be correct.

That’s right, the Arizona Cardinals hold the best record in the NFL at 7-1. Some expected the Cardinals to follow up a 10-6 performance last year that left them just short of the playoffs with solid run at the playoffs again this season. The more popular opinion was that this team would struggle to overcome the losses of defensive centerpieces like Daryl Washington (Suspension), Darnell Dockett (Torn ACL), and Karlos Dansby (Free Agency) and continue to have an average at best offensive; leaving them as a mediocre team that would be left out of a crowded NFC playoff race. Very few predicted, if anyone, predicted this.

Now the question is worth asking, how good are the Cardinals really? Their record does not match-up with their overall talent, making one wonder if the Cardinals can sustain this over a full season. In this piece, I will focus just on the Cardinals place in the NFC hierarchy (The Broncos and Patriots have best team in the NFL on lockdown). I will make a case for the Cardinals being “for real” and the top team in the NFC and a case for this team being a fraud. After looking at both sides of the argument I will give a final verdict. It’s time to take the team with the NFL’s best record to court.

The Case for the Cardinals

Coaching:  It is time to acknowledge Bruce Arians as the one of the best coaches in the NFL. In 2.5 seasons as a head coach, Arians has a 26-10 record. He filled in admirably two seasons ago in Indianapolis when head man Chuck Pagano took a leave of absence to  be treated for leukemia, going 9-3 with a roster featuring a rookie quarterback and a lot less talent than this current incarnation of the Colts. Arians parlayed that success as an interim head coach to his first full time gig last year with Arizona where he lead his team to a 10-6 record in an NFC West that featured the conference’s (if not the NFL’s) two best teams. This year Arians is once again in that same tough NFC West and has lead his squad to the NFL’s best record, despite having less talent that he did the year prior.

Offensively, Arians has worked magic. Basically serving as the offensive coordinator for this team, Arians weathered a three game storm without starting quarterback Carson Palmer and built an offense to maximize back-up QB Drew Stanton. The star of the Cardinals’ offensive has always been veteran wide out Larry Fitzgerald, but Fitzgerald is heading down the wrong end of the age curve and it’s beginning to show on the field. While Fitz still does lead the team in receiving yards with 513 over 8 games, Arians has a fantastic job integrating several other young offensive weapons to take a burden off of the 31-year old wide out.

Running back Andre Ellington in an all-purpose yards machine, coming up with 1072 yards from scrimmage so far this year and giving the offensive a huge big play threat. Arians has also aided in the development of young wide receivers Michael Floyd and John Brown. Floyd, the team’s 1st Round pick in 2012, is finally developed into what the Cardinals thought he would be when they drafted him, bringing in 389 yards and two touchdowns so far. Brown has been a godsend this year for the Cardinals in his rookie season with 326 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns, most notably his game winner in the final minutes against the Eagles. Arians has taken an offense that lacks overall talent and maximized it. An offense quarterbacked by Carson Palmer/Drew Stanton feels like it should so much worse.

It is also important to point out the impact coaching has had for this team on the defensive side of the ball. Defensive Coordinator Todd Bowles has been the key factor for this team in overcoming the losses of Washington, Dockett, Dansby, and Calais Campbell.  Bowles had found creative ways to overcome the teams what should be glaring weakness on the defensive side of the ball. Starting with the pass rush, without Dockett, Campbell, or John Abraham the team lacked any obvious pass rushers. Bowles overcame this blitzing more than any other defensive in the league.

The result: the 5th best adjusted sack rate in the NFL (per Football Outsiders). With Washington suspended and Karlos Dansby leaving for Cleveland in free agency, Bowles also appeared to have an obvious weakness at linebacker with the veteran journey like Larry Foote appearing to be starters. Bowles overcame once again by playing more “Dime” personal than any other defense in the league. Seeing he had lots of talented defensive backs to toy with, Bowles took advantage of this by playing with 6 of them on over half of his plays, leaving just one linebacker on the field.  This defense is not far off from what it was last year, despite losing most of its big names. That is thanks to Todd Bowles. Expect him to get some head coaching buzz this offseason.

Defense: Let’s continue on the topic of that defense. As mentioned above, it’s still really good! They rank 6th in Defensive Efficiency (or DVOA, per Football Outsiders), 5th in Adjusted Sack Rate, 2nd in turnover differential and 6th in points per game allowed. That’s a really good defense. As mentioned above, they are playing well without significant pieces they planned to have, Daryl Washington and Darnell Dockett were supposed to be on this defense and they have just chugged along without them. Calais Campbell looked like a defensive player of the year candidate before he had to miss two weeks in  the middle of season due to injury but the Cardinals overcame that as well, going undefeated in his absence. Unlike Dockett and Washington, Campbell is back which could spell even more improvement for this unit. That is a scary proposition for opposing offenses.

There are two defining qualities for this defense. Their frightening secondary featuring two superstars, Patrick Petersen and Tyrann Mathieu and several other talented players; and their ability to stop the run. When opposing teams play the Cardinals a couple of things tend to happen. Teams will refuse to throw the ball at Patrick Petersen, they’d prefer not to throw the ball at all when the Cardinals come out with six defensive backs on almost every play. That being said, it’s really hard to run on this team. The Cardinals have given up 3.4 yards per rushing attempt, the 3rd best mark in the NFL and they’ve done playing most with only one linebacker.

This comes back to Todd Bowles and his ability to teach gab responsibility and run fits to his defense. No one is out of place and when that happens it is really hard to run the ball against this team. Factor in their secondary making it really hard to pass against this team, it’s just hard to score points when you play the Arizona Cardinals.

They’ve Played Some Really Tough Teams: The Cleveland Browns are now 6-3 but they have wins over the not so murders row featuring the Raiders, Buccaneers, and Titans and a loss to the Jaguars. The Cardinals haven’t had their path to 7-1 be quite so easy. They have wins over 3 teams that were in the playoffs last year (Philly, San Diego, and San Francisco), wins over 2 teams would be in the playoffs if they started today (Philly and Dallas), and their only loss was on the road to the Broncos where they played rookie 6th round pick Logan Thomas at quarterback for half of the game. They have played the 14th hardest schedule in the league so far (per Football Outsiders). While that is only a little above average, it shows they aren’t feasting on cupcakes and it is about on par with what they’ll see the rest of the way forward.

Football outsiders predicts the Cardinals future schedule as the 12th hardest in the league, featuring two games with the Seahawks, a trip to San Francisco, and match-ups with the Lions and Chiefs as the tough points. That doesn’t sound easy on paper and it won’t be easy on the field but this team has shown they can compete with the tough guys already.

The Case Against the Cardinals

The case against the Cardinals revolves around advance metrics. While the former players that overpopulate NFL talk love this team because of their “grid and effort and ability just get it done”, the advance metrics speak otherwise.

Team Efficiency: Football Outsiders’ team efficiency rating, known as DVOA is usually a pretty good indicator of what teams are actually good and what teams might be hiding behind some smoke and mirrors. It accurately determined that the Seahawks and Broncos were the league’s top two teams last year and only once in the last ten years and has a team outside of their top ten won or even made the Super Bowl (the 2012 Giants). Why is this important? The Cardinals are 16th in DVOA with a DVOA of 1.3%, or just one 1.3% above league average. For comparison, the Broncos have the league’s highest DVOA at 36.4% and the Buccaneers have the league’s worst DVOA at -35.9%. In terms of efficiency, the Cardinals are as average as they come. (Per Football Outsiders)

Where does this put them in the NFC efficiency hierarchy? Well if the NFC’s 6 playoff teams were chosen by DVOA, the Cardinals would not make the playoffs. The Seahawks, Packers, Eagles, Saints, Lions, and Cowboys all have a higher DVOA marking than Arizona. On per play basis, there are 6 teams better than this Cardinals team in the NFC alone. While they may be beating very good teams now it’s hard to imagine that keeping if they continue to play with this level of efficiency. League average teams should in theory, see league average results in the win-loss column in the long run. The Cardinals can avoid this destiny with improved play, but as of right now they are a league average team in terms of efficiency.

Offense: This is an area where both traditional and advanced metrics are working against the Cardinals. While I did give Bruce Arians credit for maximizing the potential of his offense, they still are not very good. They rank 24th in the league in offensive DVOA  and 27th in total yards per game. Those rankings seem about right for a team quarterbacked by Drew Stanton and Carson Palmer with a weak offensive line and developing receiving core. Arians has made the most of what he has and has developed some nice young pieces, but this offense just cannot be relied upon.

So far the Cardinals have had a simple recipe for winning games, play exceptional defensive, win the turnover battle and do not hurt yourself on offense. They have implemented this strategy to absolute success, but it’s worth wondering what would happen if they had to go into a shootout with somebody. The Cardinals do average 24 points per game, but they have never scored more than 30. The Broncos put 43 on their defense in Week 5 and the Cardinals simply could not keep pace. If their defense would begin to struggle in the latter half of the season it’s hard to imagine this offense being able to play catch up.

It’s also worth mentioning with this offense that Carson Palmer has been uncharacteristically careful with the ball this season. His touchdown to interception ratio is 5.5 touchdowns for every interception, much better than his career mark of 2.6 touchdowns per interception. It would not be shocking to see Palmer regress to his old ways in the second half of the season and if he does this Cardinals team would be in deep trouble. This is a team that needs to win the turnover battle and they cannot do that if Palmer regresses. This offense isn’t very good, so it cannot afford to get worse, which is definitely a possibility with Palmer at the helm.

Point Differential and Pythagorean Win Total: Pythagorean win total is the amount of wins a team should have based off their point differential rather than their total win-loss record. This has been proven throughout the years by NFL statisticians to be a better indicator of future performance than actual win loss record. According to their Pythagorean win total the Cardinals should have won just 5 games; since they’ve won 7 their two wins over expectation makes the luckiest team in football.  Five wins is nothing to shake your head at, but it still means this team is over preforming with 7 wins. If the Cardinals were to play like a 5 win team the rest of the way they will go 12-4 and make the playoffs, but it would be a 10-6 type of team that happened to win 12 games. It still seems fair to expect to the Cardinals regress back to the mean in the second half of the year though, how far back they regress will be what defines public perception of the Cardinals heading into the playoffs.

Fumble Recovery Rate: Just a reminder, recovering fumbles is not a skill, the laws of physics dictate where the ball bounces not the team that strips it. This means the rate at which a team recovers fumbles is unlikely to stay constant over an entire season. The Cardinals have recovered the ball 64.3% of the time when  they’ve seen it on the ground this season. That’s good enough for the 3rd best mark in the league. However, since every fumble is a 50-50 proposition it’s likely that this could regress as well back to the mean as well. Above I mentioned the impact of Carson Palmer not throwing interceptions’ on this team, they have to win the turnover battle. If Palmer would regress back to his mean interception rate and they started to fail to recover fumbles at the rate they are now the Cardinals would lose their advantage in the turnover battle. They would also probably lose a lot more games at that pace. This is a stat will likely naturally regress even the Cardinals cannot afford to that happen.

The Verdict

The Cardinals are NOT the NFC’s Best Team: The statistical evidence against the Cardinals was too overwhelming. On a per play basis, this is a league average team that should eventually regress to the mean. It is unlikely that Carson Palmer will continue to play this well, it is unlikely their fumble luck will continue, and if their defense ever has a bad game they do not have to the offense to keep them in it. Good coaching can right a lot of wrongs, but I don’t think this team is good enough to navigate through a very tough second half of the year playing the way they are now. I see them finishing about 11-5 and making the playoffs but being sent home soon after. The NFC’s best team is not located in Arizona, it is more likely to be found in Green Bay or Philadelphia (pre-Nick Foles injury). The Cardinals have been a fun story so far, but it will not keep up and it is very unlikely they will be the first ever team to play in a Super Bowl they are hosting. This isn’t the NFC’s best team. Case closed.

The post Are the Cardinals the Best Team in the NFC? appeared first on KRUI Radio.

ALDS Series 1: Rangers vs. Rays
Series Begins Friday, September 30
4:07 pm on TBS

It’s deja vu all over again between these two teams. The Rays and Rangers matched up last season in the ALDS where the Rangers, on the arm of Cliff Lee dominated the Rays, taking the series 3-2 and ultimately getting to the World Series, only to come up short against Lincecum and the pitching of the Giants.  Joe Maddon has elected to start Matt Moore in game 1 of this series.  This will be Moore’s second start as a Major Leaguer.  Yes, I said SECOND career start.  In his first start he sparkled against the Yankees, winning the game.  The rookie will face off against C.J. Wilson who has the number of the big hitters for the Rays.  Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton are a combined 3-27 against him with 13 strikeouts.  This first match-up could prove to be a big momentum booster for the Rangers.  After Moore/Wilson, we will see James Shield for the Rays and Derek Holland for the Rangers.  Holland went 1-0 against the Rays this season, but the Rays did hit him well, bringing his ERA up to a 5.84 this season against the Rays.  After Saturdays’ games neither team has established a for sure starter.  One would assume that the Rays will throw David Price off short rest, or Jeremy Hellickson off even shorter rest.  Either of these guys is a good option for them to face off against what should be Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison who respectively have had solid seasons.  The Rangers have Alexi Ogando on reserve here as well to come in if needed, but Ron Washington could limit Ogando’s work in the postseason, because Ogando is not used to throwing this many innings, as he only threw 72 1/3 innings last season compared to his 169 2/3.  The series will come down to which teams hitting can perform better.  The scale tends to tip towards the Rangers in the hitting categories, because of the way they are able to drive in runs and consistently hit for average, as well as power, but the Rays can also be extremely potent and should be able to manufacture runs against Texas.  This series could fly under the radar as one of the better match-ups in the playoffs this season, but that isn’t anything new to these two teams.  They are used to nobody talking about them, but look who’s talking now.

–By Tyler Tjelmeland

ALDS Series 2: Yankees vs. Tigers
Series Begins Friday, September 30
7:37 pm on TBS

This match-up is one of the more intriguing match-ups in recent memory in playoff baseball.  The Detroit Tigers have a great 1-2 pitching punch with Verlander and Valverde.  The Yankees grabbed home field advantage so this game will feature “new” Yankees Stadium and should be a fun one for those left handed bats.  It was extremely important for the Yanks to lock up the advantage for Granderson, Tex, and Nick Swisher to showcase that left-handed power on the Yankees side.  The Tigers will throw ace Justin Verlander and the Yankees will throw C.C. Sabathia in game one, in what should prove to be an awesome match-up.  The rotation is set-up very nicely for the Tigers, throwing Verlander against C.C. could be the best method, because beating Sabathia is the game you absolutely need.  They need to dictate the tempo of the series, and getting an early win in game 1, in New York would give the Tigers the best chance to succeed in these playoffs.  The Yankees not surprisingly dropped two starters in A.J Burnett and Bartolo Colon (completely off the postseason roster) and will throw a 3 man rotation with Sabathia, Ivan Nova, and Freddy Garcia, with 8 pitchers in the bullpen, including Burnett and Phil Hughes.  The Tigers will throw Verlander in game 1 and then red-hot Doug Fister is the projected starter in game 2.  Fister went 7-0 in his last 8 starts with an unprecedented 0.65 ERA.  After Fister, the slider chucking Max Scherzer will be slated against Garcia in game 3.  The pitching match-ups favor the Tigers and that could prove to be a tough obstacle for the Yankees to overcome, but hey, it’s the Bronx Bombers, with home-field advantage. Should be an awesome series!

-By Tyler Tjelmeland

NLDS Series 1: Brewers vs. Diamondbacks
Series Begins Saturday, October 1^st
1:07 pm on TBS

Both the Brewers and Diamondbacks went to the wire in a fight for home field advantage in the first round. The Brewers won
that battle and will now host Arizona at Miller Park for games one and two. The Brewers had to use Zach Greinke to secure home field, so Yovani Gallardo will start game one on Saturday. The D-Backs have announced that their Cy Young Award candidate, Ian Kennedy, will be on the mound in the opener. The Brewers will send Zach Greinke to the mound on short rest in game two and Shaun Marcum has game three. The Diamondbacks have yet to announce the rest of their rotation. Arizona is a young team with little postseason experience while the Brewers are determined to win before they likely lose slugger Price Fielder to free agency. The Diamondbacks won the season series with the Brewers four games to three, getting two of those wins at Miller Park. However, October baseball in Milwaukee is a whole different atmosphere when the Brewers close the roof and pack the place with over 41,000 fans. This should play out to be an exciting series and has a good chance of going all five games.   –By Jordan Kabialis

Predictions:

Jordan Kabialis: Phillies in 4 games

Tyler Tjelmeland: Phillies in 4 games

Adam Gassensmith: Phillies in 4 games

Stephen McDonald: Phillies in 3 games

Predictions:

Jordan Kabialis: Phillies vs. Brewers, Phillies in 6

Tyler Tjelmeland: Phillies vs. Brewers, Phillies in 6

Adam Gassensmith: Phillies vs. Brewers, Brewers in 7

Stephen McDonald: Phillies vs. Brewers, Phillies in 6

– National League Playoff Picture

– American League Playoff Picture

ALDS, NLDS, ALCS, NLCS, WorldSeries photos courtesy of MLB.com

The post MLB Playoff Predictions appeared first on KRUI Radio.

  NL East Champions:
Philadelphia Phillies (102-60)

With the acquisition of Cliff Lee in the offseason, creating a super-rotation with Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and even Roy Oswalt, the Phillies were clear favorites to win the National League East.

The only lingering question surrounding the Phillies was whether or not they could last without a right-handed bat. The glaring hole in the Phillies offense in the 2010 Postseason was the absence of a big right-handed bat in the middle of their lineup. Rumors began to surface about the possibility of adding Astros right fielder Hunter Pence. It seemed impossible that the Phils could actually pull off such a trade but they shocked the baseball world with only a few days remaining until the trade deadline. The acquisition of the all-star outfielder essentially filled any possible weakness on their roster.

The Phillies powered their way to clinching the first spot in the 2011 Postseason on September 14^th with a 1-0 victory over the Astros. It would be another three days before they clinched the NL East with a 9-2 rout of the Cardinals on September 18^th. This marked the earliest the Phillies have ever clinched in their history (Game number 150).

 The Phillies are poised for a deep postseason run with a potent offense and a lights-out starting
rotation. Halladay, Lee, and Hamels have combined for a 50-23 record with a 2.53 ERA. In
addition, the Phillies aces have combined for a strikeout to walk ratio of 5.39. Since the
postseason really only calls for three starters, the Phillies are sitting pretty with Worley, Oswalt,
and Kendrick coming out of the bullpen. Those six pitchers have combined for an unbelievably
low 2.80 ERA.

  NL Central Champions:
Milwaukee Brewers (96-66)

The Brewers made some noise of their own in the offseason, landing former Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke from the Kansas City Royals. Greinke looked to be the missing piece to the puzzle in the Brewers’ starting rotation. However, Greinke injured a rib in spring training while playing a game of basketball and missed the start of the season. Upon his return, he did not look like the pitcher he once was due to the missed time in spring training. He soon reached midseason form and went on a tear, helping to catapult the Brewers right back into the thick of the division race.

The Brewers also have one of the better back-end bullpens in baseball with the emergence of closer John Axford and mid-season addition Francisco Rodriguez. Axford has posted a spectacular 1.95 ERA and has converted on 46 of 48 save opportunities. Rodriguez, who was acquired from the Mets at the trade deadline, has filled in quite nicely as a set-up man for Axford, posting a 1.86 ERA since joining the Brewers.

A string of six and seven game winning streaks from late July to mid August ballooned the Brewers’ lead in the Central to a mammoth ten games over the St. Louis Cardinals. Just as the Brewers had seemingly run away with the division, a five game losing streak let the Cardinals back into the race. The Brewers quickly got back to their winning ways and officially locked up their division with a 4-1 win over the Florida Marlins on September 23^rd, fueled by home runs from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.

  NL West Champions:
Arizona Diamondbacks (94-68)

When the 2010 season came to a close, the Diamondbacks sat in last place in the NL West with a weak 65-97 record, 27.0 games behind the eventual World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. When the 2011 season began, it looked to be another dismal year for the D-Backs with the only highlight of the season playing host to the MLB All-Star Game in July. However, an early season charge had them in first place at the end of May, giving fans something to think about.

A lot of Arizona’s success this season can be credited to ace Ian Kennedy who pitched his way into the Cy Young Award conversation overshadowed only by Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who has locked up the first NL pitching Triple Crown since Jake Peavy for the 2007 Padres. Kennedy has shut down opponents posting a 21-4 record with a 2.88 ERA with opponents hitting just .227 against him.

In addition to Kennedy’s brilliant performance, youngster Daniel Hudson had a very nice year in his first full season with the D-Backs and as a starter in general. Hudson, who had not pitched more than 115 innings in his entire career (pitched 114 innings over two partial seasons), has logged 222.0 innings this season, recording a 16-12 record and a respectable 3.49 ERA.

After giving back their early season division lead to the defending champs, the D-Backs took advantage of San Francisco’s offensive woes and reclaimed the division lead in early August. Once they were back in first place, they slowly began to pad the cushion between themselves and the Giants all the way up to eight games. A late surge by San Francisco to get back in the race would go through Arizona but the Diamondbacks were able to shut the door with a 3-1 victory over the Giants on September 23^rd, giving them their first division title since 2007.

  NL Wild Card:
St. Louis Cardinals (90-72)

The St. Louis Cardinals took an early blow in spring training when they learned that one of their aces, Adam Wainwright, was lost for the season due to ligament damage in his right elbow.  Once heavy favorites to win the NL Central now looked to be a question mark on the season. However, there is a reason they play 162 games in a season: because in the words of Yankees great Yogi Berra, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”

St. Louis was able to find offense from right fielder Lance Berkman, who revitalized his career this season. To nearly everyone’s surprise, the Cards got an unexpected boost just three weeks after losing their best player: Albert Pujols returned from the disabled list. Just three weeks after fracturing his forearm, The Machine was back in the line-up, putting fear into the opposing pitchers.

Unfortunately for St. Louis, the Brewers went on a tear from late July to August to leave the Cardinals in the dust, building a 10 game lead in the division. Things did not look favorable for the Cardinals’ postseason hopes entering September as the Atlanta Braves held an 8.5 game lead in the wild card entering the final month of play. But then, something of historic proportions happened.

The largest lead to ever be blown in the last month of the season was 8.5 games, meaning that the Braves would have to implode and the Cardinals would have to play lights out baseball the rest of the season. As improbable as it seemed, that is exactly what happened. The Braves went 9-18 in the month of September and lost 8 of their last 11 games to blow their 8.5 game lead, entering the final day of the regular season in a tie with the Cardinals.

St. Louis needed to win to, at the very least, force a one game playoff with the Braves on Thursday at Busch Stadium. The Cards jumped on the Astros early and often in their final game, winning 8-0. The Cardinals would have to wait to learn how their regular season would end as the Braves, who were playing the Phillies, went into extra innings. The Phillies finally broke through in the top of the 13^th inning, eliminating the Braves and sending the Cardinals back to the Postseason.

For more coverage on the MLB Postseason, Tyler Tjelmeland has the American League Playoff Picture. In addition, the experts of KRUI’s “Sports Squawk” make their predictions for the entire Postseason.

– American League Playoff Picture

– 2011 Playoff Predictions 

The post National League Playoff Picture appeared first on KRUI Radio.