About two months ago Jordan wrote an article about ESPN's player ranks and his projection of where Sixers would fall in those rankings.  ESPN is now nearly done with these rankings (they're at #6 as I type this) but clearly every Sixer has been listed already.  I figured some may be interested in where they ended up.  I'll start with the "worst".

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After tonight's dominance over the Giants, it seems that the talking heads are already handing Kershaw the Cy Young.  Why shouldn't they?  He's tied for the league lead in wins and leads the NL in ERA and strikeouts.  The pitcher's Triple Crown.  It's pretty clear that when you put very little thought into it that Kershaw should win the Cy Young.  Looking deeper into the stats tells another story.

The most obvious flaw is looking at the hard ERA number without even considering park factors.  Dodger Stadium has been one of the most extreme pitchers parks for several seasons while Citizens Bank Park has been neutral for the past few seasons.  If you compare what Kershaw did away from home in 2011 to what Halladay and Lee have done things start looking a little worse for the Dodger.

Kershaw: 2.90 ERA, 1.086 WHIP, 4.59 K/BB
Halladay: 2.41 ERA, 1.045 WHIP, 6.38 K/BB
Lee: 2.38 ERA, 1.015 WHIP, 5.31 K/BB

Another argument I've been seeing for Kershaw is about the quality of the teams.  Kershaw seems to be getting some sort of degree of difficulty bonus for doing what he's doing on a team that's barely above .500.  The Dodgers' offense is worse than the Phillies' so his 20 wins is more impressive than anything that Halladay and Lee have done, right?

Wrong.  While at first glance it seems that Kershaw is at a disadvantage, he's actually getting about as much run support as the Philly duo.  The Dodgers score an average of 5.46 runs per game when Kershaw starts.  The Phillies average 5.69 runs per game when Halladay starts and 4.92 runs per game when Lee starts.

Looking deeper into the stats it appears to me that the player most deserving of the NL Cy Young Award this year is none other than our own Cliff Lee.  I doubt that will be the case though.  I really can't see voters voting against a guy who is leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts.

I don't care if people have doubts about Faried's skills.  That is a completely understandable worry.  He has no offense and mostly played in the middle of a zone on defense for his entire college career.  The problem I have is when people discount Faried because of his size.

First thing's first.  NBA players play basketball while wearing shoes.  The fact that he's 6'6" without shoes should not be a factor to anybody.  If you're going to worry about how tall he is in bare feet then you should subtract 1 or 2 inches from every NBA player's listed heights.  All of those heights are their measurements (usually rounded up) with shoes on.  Kenneth Faried will be listed as 6'8" in the NBA.  It is entirely valid to compare his size to other players who have listed as 6'8" in the NBA as they were given the same liberties.

But I'm not going to talk about how Faried's size compares favorably to some rebounders of the past.  I want to talk about how he compares to current NBA power forwards.

Players do not block shots with their heads (as cool as that would be).  They also do not get a head in a shooter's face.  What matters most in regards to height on defense is how high/far you can reach your hands.  I do not care how high Faried's head reaches.  Because of his impressive wingspan, Faried's standing reached measured at 9'0".  The only potential first rounders to measure higher are players projected to be centers and Tristan Thompson (9'0.5").  I compiled a list of potential threats that he would be asked to defend in the NBA and his standing reach compares favorably with most of them.  I will post the list shortly.

The next issue is his weight.  At 225 pounds he is a little lighter than most bigs.  However he did post a pretty good number in the bench press.  If his lower body strength can match his upper body strength and he uses proper footwork there shouldn't be many players that can push him around.  The key is whether he can learn these defensive techniques.

As I promised, here is a list of players and their listed standing reaches and weights.  Note that older players (e.g. KG), international players (e.g. Ibaka), and players who weren't drafted do not have a listing for their standing reach and were not included.  Data from DraftExpress.  (I have no idea how to format this correctly)

LaMarcus Aldridge    9'2"        234

Andrea Bargnani        9'2"        249

Brandon Bass        8'10.5"        246

Carlos Boozer        9'05"        258

Chris Bosh        9'1"        225

DeMarcus Cousins    9'5"        292

Ed Davis        9'0"        227

Blake Griffin        8'9"        248

Tyler Hansbrough    8'10"        234

Al Horford        8'11"        246

Al Jefferson        9'2"        263

Carl Landry        8'6.5"        248

David Lee        8'10.5"        230

Kevin Love        8'10"        255

Josh McRoberts        8'10.5"        240

Paul Millsap        8'9.5"        258

Greg Monroe        9'0.5"        247

Nene            9'1"        253

Joakim Noah        8'10.5"        223

Josh Smith        8'10.5"        221

Amare Stoudemire    9'0.5"        233

Charlie Villanueva    9'1"        237

David West        9'0.5"        226

As you can see, there's very few players in the NBA that Faried would be forced to defend whose size he probably couldn't handle.  DeMarcus Cousins and Al Jefferson seem to cause the biggest match-up problems.  Unless those players are paired with someone equally as imposing I doubt Faried would be assigned to either of them though.

In summary, I do not think Faried's size will be as much of a detriment to his NBA prospects as many people think.  As long as he works on his lower body and develops proper defensive fundamentals (which, to be honest, I have no idea whether he will or not) there shouldn't be many match-ups that he cannot handle.  If you don't like his skills, ok.  That is a fine reason not to like a player.  His size is not.

Madden Ratings were revealed.  Here are the Eagles' ratings for those who don't want to click the link:

Position Name OVR SPD ACC
QB D. McNabb 90 78 75
QB K. Kolb 68
QB AJ Feeley 51

HB B. Westbook 94 94 99
HB L. McCoy 75 92 95
HB L. Booker 66 92 95

FB L. Weaver 82 79 84

WR D. Jackson 81 95 98
WR J. Maclin 78 96 98
WR K. Curtis 76 92 94
WR R. Brown 72 85 83
WR J. Avant 65 77 81
WR H. Baskett 64 81 84

TE B. Celek 73 75 77
TE M. Schobel 72 74 77
TE C. Ingram 63 84 88

OL J. Peters 95
OL S. Andrews 92
OL S. Andrews 87
OL T. Herremans 87
OL J. Jackson 84
OL M. Jean-Gilles 69
OL W. Justice 66
OL M. Gibson 66
OL N. Cole 65
OL F. Tupou 65

DL T. Cole 91 84 92
DL B. Bunkley 82
DL J. Parker 80
DL D. Howard 78
DL M. Patterson 74
DL C. Clemons 72
DL T. Laws 70
DL V. Abiamiri 69
DL D. Klecko 65
DL A. Gordon 60

LB S. Bradley 77 73 82
LB C. Gocong 70 70 82
LB A. Jordan 70 76 82
LB O. Gaither 65 75 85
LB J. Mays 62 75 82
LB T. Daniels 59 77 79

CB A. Samuel 95 90 95
CB S. Brown 87 87 91
CB E. Hobbs 83 90 93
CB J. Hanson 75 86 88
CB M. Harris 69 85 88
CB J. Ikegwuonu 53 85 86

S Q. Mikell 86 82 86
S S. Jones 80 86 88
S R. Baker 67 80 84
S Q. Demps 65 89 93

K D. Akers 77

P S. Rocca 59

The Eagles' Defense, statistically the best in the NFC last season, averages an 81.1 per starter.  In contrast, the Giants average 84.8, the Redskins 82.2, and Cardinals are an 83.

Demps and the linebackers look especially underrated.