Looks like the Diamondbacks (wow!) and Rockies (huh?) have reached the NLCS.

Let’s be the first to do a breakdown:

Catcher:
The Rockies’ Yorvit Torrealba is a career .250 hitter with a .313 OBP. The Diamondbacks split duties between Chris Snyder and Miguel Montero. Neither has been all that impressive this season, but both are young (26 and 23, respectively). If you lined all three up statistically it would be really hard to tell them apart. There’s very little production coming out of the NLCS backstops.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS. They have two relatively poor hitting catchers compared to just one for the Rockies.

First Base:
Todd Helton may not be the stud he once was, but he continues to put up acceptable enough numbers to keep manning the corner for the Rockies. The Diamondbacks have a platoon between the switch-hitting Tony Clark and the still-waiting-to-breakout Conor Jackson. Even if this were anything close to a tie, Helton is a gold glover (and a rightful one).
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Second Base:
Kazuo Matsui has been a pleasant surprise in Denver this year. His numbers don’t look that different from his days in New York, but his OPS is higher now than it ever was there. With Orlando Hudson on the shelf, the Diamondbacks have been using ex-Cub Augie Ojeda, who is really, really, bad — and not good defensively.
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Third Base:
Garret Atkins vs. Mark Reynolds. Uhhhhh…
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Short Stop:
The Diamondbacks are continuing to wait for Stephen Drew to have his breakout season, as they should. He was bad on both sides of the baseball this season. Meanwhile, Troy Tulowitzki broke out in a huge way. My pick for NL Rookie of the Year has got everything going for him. I still do think, though, that Drew is the better of these two in the long haul.
EDGE: ROCKIES. This is getting kind of redundant.

Left Field:
Potential NL MVP Matt Holliday in left for Colorado. Surprisingly terrific year from Eric Byrnes in Arizona. I’ll take the MVP.
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Center Field:
Ryan Spilborghs has put up some decent numbers in Colorado this year. Another of Arizona’s potential stars, Chris Young, is waiting on his breakout year. I mean, this could have been it with 29 homers, but a .295 OBP has me thinking probably not. Still, he’s good defensively and I love future stars.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS.

Right Field:
For whatever reason, the D-backs benched Carlos Quentin (another future star, maybe) in favor of Jeff Salazar and Justin Upton. With regards to this breakdown, it doesn’t really matter — Colorado’s Brad Hawpe is at the head of the class. But the D-backs might have been better off with Quentin in right for the long haul.
EDGE: ROCKIES.

Starting Pitching:
Both teams have a very similar rotation: Good No. 1 and the rest is just blah. The difference is Brandon Webb is far and away superior to Josh Fogg. In a short series that may not matter a whole lot, but the D-backs get the edge here.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS.

Relief Pitching:
Arizona has one of the best bullpens in the majors when it comes to protecting leads. Colorado has found success in the (cheater?) Manny Corpas, but that’s about it.
EDGE: DIAMONDBACKS.

Surely, the Diamondbacks have the better pitching, and they proved they can shut down a powerful offense as they ripped through the Cubs. But the Rockies don’t keel over like the Cubs.

ROCKIES IN 5.

Just, out.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 9:39 am and is filed under Diamondbacks, Rockies, NLCS, Breakdown. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.