Sunday, October 14, 2007


The Colorado Rockies have been the talk of the MLB Postseason since they tied for the NL Wildcard spot with the San Diego Padres. In the first round of the NLDS, they had to play a tough Philadelphia Phillies team. Their pitchers were able to shut down the explosive offense of the Phils leading them to a sweep and a spot in the next round.

I don’t think anyone would have predicted this at the beginning of the season. The Rockies have been off the radar since the last time they made the playoffs in 1995. Along with the Royals, some considered them to be the joke of the NL. Now all of that has changed. The Rockies proved themselves worthy of being in the postseason by beating one of the “hottest” teams in the NL. Now they are going up against another “hot” team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Game one of the NLCS is going to be an interesting one. Each of these “streaking squads” has something to prove. The D-backs had to survive the Padres for the NL West title and the Rockies had to win 13 of their last 14 to survive for a Wild Card playoff game against San Diego (which they won and are still winning). It was said, “the one common fabric I see ... is that these guys really epitomize 'team.' This is not a collection of individuals playing for a team. This is a collection of individuals playing AS a team.” I agree with this quote. These guys are not like the Yankees or the Red Sox simply because they don’t have the resources, namely money, to get big named players. They are a good mix of young and veteran players all striving to reach the World Series.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071010&content_id=2260468&vkey=ps2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2007/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3057346&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071010&content_id=2260083&vkey=news_col&fext=.jsp&c_id=col

5 comments:

Alex Margulies said...

Yea, I cant believe the Rockies have made it this far. Who would have though that the potential World Series matchup this year could wind up being the Rockies vs. Indians? But it just goes to show that the team that hits fire right before the playoffs ends up being the team to beat.

justin said...

Yea, I CAN believe the rockin rockies have made it this far. They are an extremely underrated and over-talented team. One of the most solid starters in the league, in Jeff Francis. They got possible Rookie of the Year, in Troy Tulowitzki. And who can forget the guy that put up the best numbers in baseball this season, in strong MVP candidate Matt Holliday. As strong as either AL team may be, I gotta go with the Rockies all the way. I mean seriously 19 of 20, how can you pick against that??

zdunham said...

You do a great job of going deeper into the story than just simply the basic facts. Bringing up the fact that both teams have a tiny payroll compared to teams like the Yankees and Red Sox shows just how big of underdogs these teams are. Although not impossible, it has become increasingly diffucult for teams with small payrolls to overcome and reach the playoffs and succeed. It was also a great point to mention how both teams were hot going into the playoffs, which is a HUGE factor in the MLB. Great post man!

49ers said...

Many can argue that the San Diego Padres were the best team in the NL West for a long part of the year, so it's scary see what the Rockies are doing now. Ever since that tight extra innings (one game playoff) against San Diego, the Rockies have played loose baseball all postseason long. They look the most dominant this postseason and I'm a Giants fan.

seanheymann said...

Anything is better than Fox Sports.... I'm going to give TBS a chance