World...series!!!

[TheIncredibleRox]

I'm hot off the corner of 20th and Blake. A joyful riot like I've never seen.

I can't believe I get the pleasure of saying the Rox are in the World Series.


WOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

[bigheadache]

Congrats to the Rockies and all their fans.

[indianadrew]

i fell asleep and woke up to see brian fuentes pitching in the 8th. then manny comes in and cleans house. i am still shaking. i was also very happy to see every rockies player thanking god. GO ROCKIES!!!!!

[Newman]

Fuentes pitching the 8th will wake you up, Drew!

What a ride!

My favorite part of the ceremony was when the crowd boooed Dick Monfort and he rolled his eyes and muttered "Boooing?" Hey, some of us fans won't forget how the owners TURTLED after the Hampton/Neagle fiasco.

But why be negative...:>)

My main memory is mid September, paying off my Rockies bets at the PO, then thinking it was a good season for a change but so what, we're still in 3rd place!!

What is the streak now? 21 wins out of the last 22 games? It lives like a Hollywood feel good movie!

HISTORY: We swept the NLDS and then swept the NLCS!

Unbelieveable!

And now we have to wait 9 days til October 24? Agggggghhhhhhhhh...why can't the series start tonite! I'm no good at waiting!

Great to have this site to share thoughts and feelings with other astute Rockies fans. What a great morning! GO ROCKIES!!!!!

[Dante Bichette]

I don't know what to say. This is like a dream, and a darn good one at that, that just won't end

[GerryInCS]

Putting fuentes in in the 8th was about the only bad decision of the game. For some reason when he has big cushion, he tneds to pitch himslef into trouble. If it were me I would have put Speier or Affeldt in with a five-run lead.

[sg8335aa]

Originally Posted by GerryInCS

Putting fuentes in in the 8th was about the only bad decision of the game. For some reason when he has big cushion, he tneds to pitch himslef into trouble. If it were me I would have put Speier or Affeldt in with a five-run lead.

Are you kidding me? Fuentes has been lights out since coming back from injury.

Having Fuentes pitch the 8th inning is one of the reasons we have won 21 of 22.

Putting Speier or Affeldt in would have been an incorrect decision. You go with your best players there.....and don't leave it to chance with guys that don't have as much talent.

[BigRapidsJackass]

Leaving Hawkins in would've been my decision. I trust him more with a 5-run lead because he doesn't walk (or hit) many batters and he keeps the ball in the park.

BTW, I'd have to say that Hawkins must have developed a different grip/delivery or something on his fastball because he seems to have turned into an extreme groundball pitcher:

GB/FB rate

2003: 1.04
2004: 0.89
2005: 1.15
2006: 1.31
2007: 3.06

Career: 1.22

I doubt this is a small sample/statistical blip since GB/FB rates are pretty consistent season-to-season, and in LaTroy's case remarkably consistent over his entire career. Before this season, his all-time high GB/FB ratio was 1.34.

This has changed my perspective on LaTroy, since I was opposed to signing him in the first place. Right now, I think he's throwing great, and I'd like to see him back next year; I think we've got an option on him.

[Roxpert]

Jackass, the TV guys said last night that Hawkins has changed his delivery dramatically since seeing him in his days with the Twins and Cubs. Somebody in the Rockies organization must have worked with him in April/May when he was on the DL, because he's not the same pitcher he was before (and that's a GOOD thing).

As for Fuentes, he has tended to struggle against the D-Backs with big leads in the past. Remember the grand slam by Chad Tracy in July of last year in a game where Fuentes blew a 5-0 lead? He indeed may lose focus with big leads, or he just decides to go with his fastball without mixing in his changeups and curves. That's what I noticed last night when he kept hitting 92 and 93 MPH on every pitch, which is NOT his game. I was worried about his pitching before the 3-run shot by Snyder, and wanted him pulled immediately after that homer. He finally was taken out, after Upton tripled. I do believe you have to go with Fuentes to start that 8th inning, however. So I don't fault Hurdle for that decision.

[Newman]

I guess you have to use Fuentes in the 8th. It's written in stone. He used to be our closer afterall. In sports you are not supposed to lose your job due to injury, but BF did. It would take giant stones for the Heater to give somebody else that assignment.

Would it cause turmoil in the clubhouse if Clint (the genius) gave the 8th inning to Speier or Herges? Would Fuentes then pout and be completely useless?

I do hear what Pert is saying, that maybe Brian loses concentration when he enters the game with a huge lead (6-1). But if you can't focus during the close out game of the NLCS, well, when exactly do you focus??????

[indianadrew]

A position-by-position look at how the Rockies and Red Sox match up - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

they have broken down the team player by player. they say we will lose in 5 games. lets go in there and kick their asses

[wolf213]

Originally Posted by indianadrew

A position-by-position look at how the Rockies and Red Sox match up - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

they have broken down the team player by player. they say we will lose in 5 games. lets go in there and kick their asses

Thanks Drew for the Link, I'm going to have to print that out and use it as toliet paper.

What a bunch of crap.

Youkilis better then Helton?

Manny better then Holliday?

Drew and Hawpe are even?

and after Becket, I will take all of our starters over theirs.

[wolf213]

Anyways, I thought I would do my own Comparison between the Rocks and the Sox, I will start with the starting 9:

Catcher:

I give the edge to the Red Sox here. Torrealba has come up big in the post season, but by all statistical measures, Varitek beats him.

1b:

People who call Helton and Youkilis the same aren't paying attention, or where dropped on their heads as kids. Helton beats Youkilis by 85 points in OPS here. Youlilis is a decent player, but he's not Helton. Edge Rockies

2b:

Likewise, people calling Kaz and Pedroia the same arn't paying attention here either. Pedroia has Kaz beat in Average, OBP, SLG, and OPS, and its not very close either. Edge Red Sox

SS:

Tulowitzki, enough said. Edge Rockies

3b:

I'm giving the edge to the Red Sox here, Atkins and Lowell are similar offensive players, but Lowell is much better defensively.

LF:

People who say Manny is better the Holliday are taking some very good drugs. Holliday is .200 points better on OPS, and plays a better defense. Edge Rockies

CF:

Ellsbury has been good, although its a small sample. Still I give the Red Sox the edge here.

RF:

Again, no question, edge Rockies here. Brad Hawpe might be the most under rated position player in the game right now.

DH:

Edge Red Sox, but they loose a ton when they come to Colorado, as one of their big guns in Ortiz, Yook, or Lowell will have to sit.

So Looking at the totals here:

Red Sox: 5 Rockies 4.

Fairly close lineups, and the edge that the Sox have at 3b is about even to what we have. We have pretty big advantages in LF and RF, and even 1b.

[Newman]

Good run down, wolf. I might give Yook the edge over Helton. Youk is red hot right now. Definitely Hawpe over JD Drew. That is east coast bias reporting right there. Drew was booed all year long at the Fen.

Who would you rather see come in in the 8th? Gas can Gagne or gas can Fuentes? I'd still rather have Brian, but I'll be nervous as hell when he jogs in from the pen.

The Red Sox are 2:1 favorites I think I heard on the radio today. And Beckett is a huge favorite to win game one over our sports illustrated cover boy Francis.

Why can't the dream continue? I would love to sweep the Sox. Three sweeps! That's the way I would write this movie.

Is it Wednesday yet?

[Heltonfan]

Here's how my projections see the lineups (numbers given are projected Wins Above Replacement over a full season):

C: Varitek 2.37, Torrealba 0.21
1B: Helton 4.02, Youkilis 2.38
2B: Pedroia 2.57, Matsui 1.43
SS: Tulowitzki 2.59, Lugo 1.69
3B: Lowell 2.76, Atkins 2.59
LF: Holliday 5.10, Ramirez 3.22
CF: Ellsbury 0.95, Taveras 0.37
RF: Hawpe 3.06, Drew 2.26
DH: Ortiz 6.01, Spilborghs 0.97

So basically, Wolf's analysis is right on. If we take these numbers, and weight them according to home-field advantage (four games with DH, three games without, and assuming that Ortiz replaces Youkilis at Coors), the Red Sox lineup totals 23.3 projected WAR, compared to our 19.9. So the difference in lineups amounts to a little over 3 wins per year.

Pitching:

Beckett 4.74, Francis 3.78
Schilling 4.34, Jimenez 0.50
Matsuzaka 4.73, Fogg 1.84
Cook 3.55, Lester 1.27

Projections are not kind to Ubaldo, and, as discussed earlier, they're probably too kind to Matsuzaka. I think it's reasonable in both of those cases to use 2007 stats rather than projections - in that case, the numbers to be used are 4.02 for Dice-K and 1.73 for Ubaldo. Repeating the process, weighting things by the number of starts we expect each pitcher to get, the Red Sox' rotation is worth a projected 15.7 wins per year; ours is worth 10.4. Which is another way of stating the blatantly obvious: there's a huge difference between Schilling/Matsuzaka and Jimenez/Fogg.

Bullpens:
Papelbon 4.32, Corpas 2.32
Fuentes 1.05, Okajima 0.75
Delcarmen 0.78, Hawkins 0.63
Timlin 0.72, Herges 0.55
Affeldt 0.76, Lopez 0.27
Speier 0.25, Snyder -0.01
Gagne 0.80, Buchholz 0.38

Totals: Boston 7.6, Colorado 5.9. We've got a slight edge after the closers, but there's a huge difference between Papelbon and Corpas. None of this should be particularly controversial.

Add it all up, and the Red Sox are 10-11 games better than we are over a full season. And this is without considering any possible difference in the quality of the leagues. So the Vegas line, with the Red Sox as 2:1 favorites, is probably about right. But flip that around: there's a one-in-three chance that we'll actually win this thing. That's plenty to get excited about, I think.