Greatest QBs of the Super Bowl Era: No. 53 - Neil Lomax

The Cardinals franchise, both in St. Louis and Arizona, wasn't much to watch in the 1980s, but it wasn't the fault of quarterback Neil Lomax.

Lomax was a star from nowhere. He was a fifth-string freshman on partial scholarship at Portland State University who eventually set 90 NCAA passing records, including throwing seven touchdowns in a quarter.

Even with outstanding numbers, Lomax lasted to the second round of the 1981 draft because of concern over the level of competition that he faced. Still, he won the starting job as a rookie and mostly held on to it for the rest of the decade.

Lomax made two Pro Bowls in the 1980s, 1984 and 1987, which by far were his best seasons. Unfortunately for Lomax, the Cardinals didn't surround him with much talent. The Cardinals made the playoffs just once, in the strike-shortened 1982 season, so he couldn't add points from the postseason. In 1987, St. Louis went 9-7 but missed out on tiebreakers.

Lomax was forced to retire in 1990 because of an arthritic hip. Still, he played long enough to be in the top 10 in approximate value four times, passer rating five times and in DYAR twice.

Neil Lomax
		Season					Playoffs
Year	Team	AV	PR	DYAR	QBR	Avg.	PR	QBR	Avg.	Total
1983	St. Louis	1.67	4	X	X	2.84	0	X	0	2.84
1984	St. Louis	9	7	X	X	8.00	0	X	0	8.00
1985	St. Louis	0	1	X	X	0.50	0	X	0	0.50
1987	St. Louis	7	6	5	X	6.00	0	X	0	6.00
1988	Arizona	0.75	4	5	X	3.25	0	X	0	3.25
Total										20.59
Best 5 (1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988)										18.09
JAWS Score										19.34

Greatest QBs of the Super Bowl Era: No. 54 - Jim Plunkett

Jim Plunkett was a Heisman Trophy winner and No. 1 draft pick who got off to a solid start for the New England Patriots but was considered a bust when he resurrected his career with the Oakland Raiders in the 1980s.

Plunkett finished in the top 10 in approximate value for the Patriots in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Plunkett played for the 49ers in 1976 and 1977 and then moved on to the Oakland Raiders as a backup.

Five games into the 1980s season, Plunkett inherited the starting job when Dan Pastorini broke his leg. The Raiders went 9-2 with Plunkett as the starter and then won the Super Bowl from the Wild Card spot. Plunkett had the highest passer rating in the playoffs.

Plunkett was again in the top 10 of approximate value in 1982 but the Raiders had Plunkett backing up Mark Wilson to start the 1983 season. Again, Plunkett moved back into the starting lineup because of injury and led the Raiders to a Super Bowl victory. Plunkett had the second best quarterback rating in the playoffs.

Jim Plunkett
	Season					Playoffs
Year	AV	PR	DYAR	QBR	Avg.	PR	QBR	Avg.	Total
1971	3	0	X	X	1.5	0	X	0	1.5
1973	5	0	X	X	2.5	0	X	0	2.5
1974	6.5	0	X	X	3.25	0	X	0	3.25
1980	0	0	X	X	0.0	5	X	5	5.0
1982	5	0	X	X	2.5	0	X	0	2.5
1983	1.67	0	X	X	0.84	4	X	4	4.84
1986	0	2	X	X	1.0	0	X	0	1.0
Total									20.59
Best 5 (1973, 1974, 1980, 1982, 1983)									18.09
JAWS Score									19.34

Truly great baseball teams harder to find

If you like underdogs then this year's World Series is perfect for you. The Royals are going back to the series for the first time since 1985 and the Giants advanced to their third series since 2010 despite having to go through the wild card elimination game.

But if you like watching great teams play in the World Series then this really isn't for you. The Royals won 89 games this year while the Giants won 88. The two teams caught fire at the right time. Kansas City is a perfect 8-0 so far, while San Francisco is 8-2.

Of course, ever since baseball created two divisions in 1969 and added a third along with a wild card team in 1995 it's become increasingly difficult to win the World Series. Since 1969, the team with the best record in the major leagues went on to win the World Series just 11 times.

In fact, since the wild card was added in 1995, a team that didn't even manage to win its division has won more World Series -- six, soon to be seven -- than the teams that entered the playoffs with baseball's best record -- four.

That's a weird phenomenon. What is true baseball greatness? I spent a couple of hours today creating a quick ranking of all World Series winners since 1969. I gave points for:

* Regular season winning percentage. My 1990 Cincinnati Reds won .562 of their 162 games so they get .562.

* A ranking scale. If the team had the best record in the major leagues it received 1.000 points. If it had the best record in its league it received .800. If it was a division winner it received .600. If it was a wild card team but had a better record than at least one division winner it received .400. If it was a wild card team with a record worse than all division winners in its league it received .200.

* Playoff points based on wins times opponent winning percentage divided by total games played. My 1990 Reds beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in six games in the NLCS that year. The Pirates had a .586 winning percentage that year. So the formula reads (4*.586)/6 for .391 points.

* World Series points based the same way. The 1990 Reds swept the mighty Oakland A's that year. Oakland had a .636 winning percentage in 1990 so the formula reads (4*.636)/4 for .636.

Obviously, sweeps against teams with great records scores more points.

I added one more column, bonus points for wins. It is undoubtedly more difficult to get through the playoffs now. In 1976, the Reds swept the Phillies and Yankees to go a perfect 7-0. The Phillies won 101 games in 1976 and the Yankees won 97 during the regular season so it was an impressive pair of sweeps.

This year though, the Royals have won all eight and they are just now getting to the series. If they lose to the Giants then that impressive run is just a footnote. They'll only really be remembered in Kansas City. To balance things out for teams in the wild card era, I added .01 for each total win, regular season and playoffs. So the 1990 Reds, who had to win eight games to win the playoffs and World Series, received .990 points. In 2013, the Boston Red Sox won 108 games between the regular season and the playoffs so Boston received 1.08 points.

Got it? Good. Here's my list:

		Win Pct.	Scale	Playoffs	World Series	Win bonus	Total
1998	Yankees	.704	1.000	.425	.605	1.250	3.984
1976	Reds	.630	1.000	.624	.610	1.090	3.954
1970	Orioles	.667	1.000	.605	.504	1.150	3.926
1975	Reds	.667	1.000	.571	.339	1.150	3.727
1984	Tigers	.642	1.000	.518	.454	1.110	3.724
1989	A's	.611	1.000	.439	.568	1.070	3.688
1999	Yankees	.605	.800	.510	.636	1.090	3.641
2007	Red Sox	.593	1.000	.411	.552	1.070	3.626
2009	Yankees	.636	1.000	.444	.383	1.140	3.603
1969	Mets	.617	.800	.574	.538	1.070	3.600
2005	White Sox	.611	.800	.513	.549	1.100	3.573
1986	Mets	.667	1.000	.395	.337	1.150	3.549
1978	Yankees	.614	1.000	.426	.391	1.070	3.501
2013	Red Sox	.599	1.000	.399	.399	1.080	3.477
1995	Braves	.625	.800	.496	.463	1.010	3.393
1979	Pirates	.605	.800	.559	.366	1.050	3.380
1982	Cardinals	.568	.800	.549	.335	.990	3.242
1992	Blue Jays	.593	.800	.395	.403	1.040	3.232
1971	Pirates	.599	.800	.417	.365	1.040	3.221
1993	Blue Jays	.586	.800	.387	.399	1.030	3.202
1991	Twins	.586	.800	.450	.331	1.030	3.197
1990	Reds	.562	.600	.391	.636	.990	3.179
2004	Red Sox	.605	.400	.420	.648	1.090	3.163
1983	Orioles	.605	.600	.458	.445	1.050	3.158
2012	Giants	.580	.600	.331	.543	1.050	3.104
2008	Phillies	.568	.600	.416	.479	1.030	3.093
1972	A's	.600	.800	.331	.353	1.000	3.083
1988	Dodgers	.584	.600	.357	.514	1.020	3.075
1977	Yankees	.617	.600	.378	.403	1.070	3.068
1974	A's	.556	.600	.422	.504	.970	3.052
2010	Giants	.568	.600	.408	.445	1.030	3.051
1996	Yankees	.568	.600	.427	.395	1.030	3.020
2000	Yankees	.540	.600	.358	.464	.980	2.942
2001	Diamondbacks	.568	.600	.389	.339	1.030	2.927
2002	Angels	.611	.400	.473	.337	1.100	2.921
1981	Dodgers	.573	.600	.333	.367	1.020	2.893
1980	Phillies	.562	.600	.343	.399	.980	2.884
1987	Twins	.525	.600	.484	.335	.930	2.874
1985	Royals	.562	.600	.351	.357	.980	2.850
1973	A's	.580	.600	.359	.291	1.010	2.840
1997	Marlins	.568	.400	.463	.305	1.030	2.766
2003	Marlins	.562	.400	.367	.416	1.020	2.765
2011	Cardinals	.556	.200	.387	.339	1.010	2.492
2006	Cardinals	.515	.200	.366	.469	.940	2.490

The win bonus was enough to push the 1998 Yankees slightly ahead of my 1976 Reds.

As mentioned before, the Reds swept a Phillies team that featured Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton. But it was just a three game series.

The 1998 Yankees had to play more games although its competition was weaker. After sweeping a Texas team that won 88 games in a three-game series, it took the '98 Yankes six games to dispose of a Cleveland team that won just 89 games in the regular season.

New York then blew out a San Diego team that had won 98 games. It's those two losses against the Indians that would have put the Yankees below the '76 Reds. New York though won 114 games in the regular season and was an impressive 11-2 in the expanded playoffs. That compares with the '76 Reds, who won 102 games in the regular season and all seven of its playoff games. The Yankees won 16 more games. That's a big chunk.

Interestingly though the 1970 Baltimore Orioles were one win away from topping both. The '70 Orioles won 108 games and then swept Rod Carew's Minnesota Twins, which had won 98 games, in a three-game series.

The 1970 Reds didn't put up much more of a fight. The Orioles won the first three games of the series before the Reds avoided the sweep by scoring three runs in the eighth inning to win game four, 6-5. Had the Orioles hung on to that game that would have added enough points to move from No. 3 to No. 1.

There's a fine line to greatness.