Who said trouble?

In my most recent post last Friday, I was pulling a Randy Quaid on the Cardinals road trip to Fenway this past weekend. After getting swept by the Royals at home, and having 4 key players on the DL, I figured a trip to Fenway would send us reeling. Instead, we won 2 out of 3 in dominating fashion, and took the third game into extra innings, before losing in the bottom of the 13th. This team will just not give up and has yet to stop surprising everyone.

The Cardinals currently sit at 3.5 games back in the Central, with the 2nd best record in the National League, 5th best in all of baseball. The Cubs are still winning to of course, as they swept the cross town Chicago White Sox this past weekend. As I have mentioned before, the Cards and Cubs have lots of big series in late August that will determine the division crown. The Cardinals just need to hang in there and stay within striking distance, and then see what happens. Certainly the Cubs cannot continue all summer at this pace. Zambrano and Soriano are hurt, so maybe they are coming back down to earth.

Interesting Tribune article about the Cubs having success with former Cardinals. I praised the day we got rid of Jim Edmonds, because he is just too old to be effective and stay healthy. Sticking with the theme of the Cardinals season, Jimmy is proving me wrong, at least so far in Chicago. Getting younger and developing minor league talent has been a huge organizational goal since the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006. An overview of a few of the Cardinals top prospects is here, including a few Memphis Redbirds players.

Developing talent through the farm system is not only the best way to get young players, but also the best way to get cheap players. In baseball, players have no ability to be a free agent until they have given 6 years of service. If you draft well, then develop well, you can have 3 years or so of super cheap production. Ryan Ludwick, for instance, makes $411,000 this season . . . yet he is batting .300, with 16 home runs and 57 RBI, putting him easily as one of the top 5 outfielders in the national league, production wise, so far this year. He cannot sign with another team I believe for one more year. There certainly won't be many players with that much value, but at least 2 or 3 on your team at all times is definitely needed to win a championship.

The Cards won last night in Detroit, again in dominating fashion, 8-4. Next weekend, the Cards host the Cubs in a big July 4th series. With Pujols coming back, it would be nice to take advantage, since the Cubs may still have Zambrano and Soriano out. Lets go Cards

Trouble in St. Louis

The St. Louis Cardinals are definitely in trouble. After getting swept this week by the Kansas City Royals, the Cards head up to unfriendly Fenway Park to Boston for a 3 game set this weekend. With all the injuries that the Cardinals are dealing with (Wellemeyer, Pujols, Molina, Brad Thompson, Carpenter), the lack of depth and lack of starting pitching is beginning to show. Somehow, the Cardinals are tied with Philadelphia for the 2nd best record in the National League, at 42-32, luckily sitting only 3.5 games behind the Cubs, who were swept by Tampa Bay this week as well.

The Cardinals need to grind out a few wins and try to play at least .500 ball for the next two weeks. All season they have been consistently winning 2/3 in nearly every series, until this week's sweep by the lowly Royals. Every team hits a rough patch over a 162 game stretch, but its avoiding the prolonged bad run that separates good teams from bad.

There is a feeling that this team has played over its head so far this year, and might be regressing a bit. Injuries make it difficult to determine if the Cardinals slide is related to injuries or simply baseball's law of averages catching up to a team playing too well. Likely its a bit of both. The Cardinals have surprised me all year, because they seem to get going when the going get tough, as they say. I hope I continue to be surprised.

As I said recently, the Cardinals have a big July 4th series with the Cubs. This will be important, because the two teams won't meet again until a bevy of games in late August and early September. Pujols hopefully will be back by that series. Molina and some of the pitchers should be back this weekend or early next week from the DL. If the Cardinals can just stay within striking distance, the season will be much more entertaining come late August.

Notre Dame & NBC Extend TV Deal thru 2015

Today the announcement came that Notre Dame Football will continue to have its home games exclusively televised by NBC through 2015. The current deal expired in 2010. As of right now, there are no internet articles available since the press release occurred about 45 minutes ago. But here is a link to the official press release document that I received via email.

Some people suggested that NBC would not renew the deal unless Notre Dame starts winning, especially considering this past season. Obviously those skeptics were wrong. Extending a deal like this is great for the school and the fans for lots of reasons. Here are the most important reasons why this deal is good for Notre Dame, in order of importance:

1. Leverage with the BCS, and other conferences - Most of the major conferences resent Notre Dame's unique independence in football. Should the Irish lose their exclusive television deal, many would argue this would weaken their position at the bargaining table of the college football world. Most conferences and athletic directors know that Notre Dame is good for college football, thus the reason for giving them the special, unique clause in the BCS contracts. A weakened Notre Dame might give the BCS and college AD's the ability to force Notre Dame into a conference to be in competition for BCS or other bowl games. Keeping a strong program, both on the field but especially financially, will give us the freedom to remain independent, and likely be a part of any new BCS or college playoff systems.



2. Exposure for recruiting - How many coaches can tell someone's family that their son will be on national TV guaranteed 8 times a year, no matter what the opponent? (note: the deal with NBC is for 8 games a year - 7 home games, and then 1 neutral site game like San Antonio in 2009 vs Washington State - this is all a part of the new scheuling trend of 7-4-1 home/road/neutral). Most years all 12 games are on national tv, including ABC, CBS, or ESPN for road games. Since we recruit nationally, TV is important to bridge the distance gap we face when recruiting in Florida, California, etc., because parents and family can watch their son play on nearly any given weekend with ease.



3. Availability to fans - this is very important, and even more so for Notre Dame than any other school. Notre Dame's national fanbase negates any regional telecasts or regional networks, like the Big 10 and other conferences have/are attempting to creat. Since I live in Tennessee (aka SEC country), having the Irish fixed to NBC is great news, as SEC teams would likely replace the Irish if it were the local networks choice or regional broadcasts. Having a national network broadcast at least 8 games makes it so much easier to watch and follow the Irish, no matter where you are.



4. Financial security - tied closely to #1 reason above, the NBC contract means guaranteed revenue. This allows our entire athletic department to budget and plan better, knowing what TV revenue we will have through the year 2015. In a time when all the major conferences are scrambling to get their own TV network for sports (i.e. the Big Ten Network), Notre Dame continues to carve out its TV spot like the rest of the BCS conferences. The purposes of Big 10 Network and Notre Dame's NBC TV deal are the same - to control your own TV rights, guaranteeing yourself the proper exposure. The success of the Big 10 Network and the Notre Dame deal with NBC will continue to push all conferences to gain a further TV prescence than just the big games.

Obviously this is extra surprising given the horrendous 2007 season, the losingest in ND history at 3 wins and 9 losses. Word is that things are looking up for the 2008 Irish, mostly because of a) its summer b) the schedule is 2-3 games easier and c) those true freshman cant get any worse, so they have to be better in 2008 right? Lets go Irish fans, drink the Kool-Aid with me . . .

ND Tidbits

A few interesting items in the news regarding Notre Dame football over the past few weeks.

• Chris Zorich returns to ND in an Athletic Department role. He was a poster child of the Lou Holtz era, and is very popular around the Chicago area. Always good news.


• Not only is yours truly drinking the Kool-aid, thinking the Irish will have a good 2008 - so is one Irish assistant coach (Bernie Parmalee, pictured). His comments are vague, but entertaining for me to hear. Look for the Irish record to improve slightly, while their competitiveness and intensity improve dramatically.


• Notre Dame football team's cumulative GPA was once again over 3.0, for an unprecedented 6th straight semester. I've been an athlete at Notre Dame, and I know: there are no joke majors. There is tons of support and study sessions that athletes are required to attend, however. Even though I was a 4.0 high school student, I had to attend counseling sessions, study halls, and all other sorts of meetings to make sure that I was in fact succeeding academically. Kudos to Weis and the Athletic Academic staff and support team for doing it the right way.


• Very very quiet on the search for an Athletic Director. Impressively quiet. There have been some names floating around, in particular Steve Orsini (pictured) of SMU, who is reportedly a qualified and interested candidate. In addition, Bubba Cunningham and Joe Castiglione, AD's currently at Tulsa and Oklahoma, have been mentioned as possible candidates. We really don't know who, if anyone, has officially been contacted. And we don't have a timetable for a decision. I would assume in the next month, but who knows.


• Freshman arrived on campus this past Monday for summer school and essentially the beginning of their tenure as Irish freshman. The #2 ranked recruiting class in the country will be very important to the next few seasons, so hopefully they get started on the right foot. They have all been assigned numbers, covered in this article where the history of every number is mentioned. Pretty cool stuff. My favorite is that there will be 2 freshman wearing the #9, Tommy Zbikowski's old number. Both Kyle Rudolph (Freshman, speedy tight end from Cinncinnati) as well as Ethan Johnson (pictured, Freshman, absolute stud defensive end from Oregon) will be donning the great #9. Those 2 are easily 2 of our top 5 recruits signed last year, if not our top 2. Also interestingly, is that California QB Dayne Crist will be wearing good ole #10, last worn by this guy . . .
  
  


• Interesting take on Notre Dame and the BCS, conference situation in the Orlando newspaper. I agree, ND needs to win to maintain the power that it has at the table. More importantly, we need an Athletic Director that will continue to lead in a way that is best for ND and our independence, as well as meshing with current college football conferences.

NBA Draft: 8 days & counting . . .

The NBA Draft approaches next Thursday, June 26th. Players have pulled out of the draft and the field is now set. What will the Grizz do with the 5th and 28th picks? Here is a plan and simple layout of what to look for.

In a previous post, I discussed how a trade to Miami for Beasley is a possibility, but seemingly only if we can draft OJ Mayo at #5. Word out of Miami is that OJ Mayo is who they really want, and they would be interested in trading with whomever drafts him. Miami knows Beasley is the 2nd most coveted player in the draft, and thus not drafting him at their #2 spot would be leaving value on the table. The ideal scenario for the Grizz is to have OJ Mayo available at #5.

It looks more and more like Minnesota, who picks at #3, will take Mayo, at least according to Chad Ford's new mock draft 5.0. Yes, there has been chatter about Minnesota GM Kevin McHale loving his tall white brethren Kevin Love. I think the Love to Minnesota talk is a smokescreen, and Minnesota will take Mayo. Most of the opinions coming out at this point are intentional leaks intended to manipulate trades in some form or fashion. Additionally I think its clear that Mayo is the #3 player in the draft, and that Minnesota will take the best player available rather than filling a more pressing need.

So lets simplify the draft - we assume Rose and Beasley are going #1 and #2. Then we are assuming, although hoping not, that OJ Mayo is selected at #3 by the Timberwolves. Seattle at #4 has been eying Bayless as they need a PG desperately, so there really hasn't been much talk about whom they will pick. That leaves the Grizz at #5. Here are really the only logical options:

• Kevin Love (UCLA)


• Eric Gordon (Indiana)


• Danilo Gallinari (Italy) - pictured
  
• Anthony Randolph (LSU)
  
• Brook Lopez (Stanford)

You can read profiles on these players in Ford's mock draft, and I'm certainly no scout. Ive also linked all the players above and below to their draft profile on NBA Draft net.

At the Grizzlies second 1st round pick (at #28), here are some players that have been mentioned. I'm sure there are plenty of other names out there, as its hard to predict who will be on the board at #28, unlike #5:

• Courtney Lee (Western Kentucky)


• Bill Walker (Kansas State) (note - coming off knee injury)


• Chris Douglas Roberts (Memphis)
  
• Joey Dorsey (Memphis)
  
• DJ White (Indiana)
  
• JJ Hickson (NC State) (pictured)
  

The Grizzlies have two major needs in my opinion, and they are both equally important:

1. Perimeter guard/small forward player that can defend, and be an offensive threat to take some pressure off Rudy Gay.


2. Interior toughness, aka rebounding and defense. Any offense down low is a bonus.

Now lets play GM. One key ingredient to picking at #5 is knowing what you can get with your later picks. Why pick a PF if there are many that will be available later, with minimal dropoff? Simple supply and demand. Rating all the players in the draft, to assess all of your picks from one vantage point, is the key to a balanced draft. So we've seen the available players and the team needs. Now lets try to envision draft scenarios for the Grizz, while trying to assess the dropoff from whats available at #5 to #28 (again, assuming Mayo is gone):

Scenario 1 - Draft Kevin Love at #5, then get a perimeter guy at #28, either Courtney Lee or CDR.

Scenario 2 - Draft Eric Gordon at #5, then DJ White, Hickson, or Dorsey at #28.

Scenario 3 - Draft Brook Lopez at #5, then the best of the PFs in scenario #2 available at #28

Which scenario is more likely? Hard to say. I think Kevin Love is the likely pick for the Grizz at #5, based on the early and continued buzz. However, I don't think perimeter players Lee or CDR will be available for the Grizz at #28, really forcing the Grizz to draft another power forward. Given that wing and perimeter impact players are not going to be available come the 2nd pick, I think we must address the perimeter need at #5 then get one of many decent power forwards that will be available at #28.

To me, its simple - the value of perimeter help is higher in this year's draft, due to the scarcity of perimeter impact players and the abundance of power forward and center help.

Given the cards the Grizz have, with Mayo gone at #3 and perimeter help being scarce late in the 1st round, I would draft Eric Gordon at #5, and DJ White at #28. Gordon is a great athlete that can drive and shoot, while DJ White epitomizes toughness in the middle. Both have much to prove, but I think they would be hungry to work hard in Memphis. There are plenty of Hoosier fans that would enjoy that as well.

Chris Wallace is a smart guy, and he has done this many times before. Certainly things are not as simple as I propose. In the NFL, where every team has multiple picks, finding value in each round is the name of the game. Hopefully the Grizz will do the same, really figuring out what they can pick at #28 before they decide on whom to pick at #5.