Colorado Rockies - World Series Preview

Well FOX was able to expand their ALCS playoff coverage to a total of 7 games and the Roxs finally have an opponent. I for one am glad the Roxs had some time off as I needed to reenergize after those tense 3 weeks. So bring on the Red Sox. The proverbial tale of the tape is below:

For those viewers who think the Roxs just waltzed into the playoffs they are a bit wrong. Granted we had some lucky bounces but the numbers suggest we were at the top statistically in the National League. Our pitching took some time to catch up but it settled in. Really the only glaring statistics we don't match up well with the Red Sox is pitching. We don't strike out a lot of batters and we do give up a fair amount of hits. Hopefully our defense will make up for that. So everyone is plugging the Beckett angle. I admit it will be difficult to get two wins from such a post season monster. Beckett has faced the Roxs in one form or another 6 times over his career and four times in Coors Field. He is 3 - 1 at Coors over the years having pitched about 6 innings, giving up about 6 hits, 3 runs, 4 K, and less than one homer. Schilling has also pitched a fair amount in Colorado having pitched for the D-backs. The two pitchers I think give us the most difficulty would be Dice-K and Wakefield although I am not for sure if Wakefield will pitch in this series? Over the years we are 5 - 4 against the mighty Sox. We were 2 -1 against them this year at Fenway. So who knows...can our luck hold out? Roxs WPA for the two playoff series is below:

The big thing the chart tells me is that Holliday, Helton, and Tulo really haven't done a whole lot in the playoffs. If we can get some offensive from these three I think it would be huge for the Roxs chance. Most of the "experts" give the Sox the edge mostly giving them a 4 - 1 to 4 - 2 series victory. I mean the 2nd highest payroll against the 25th. The "wow" factor of the Red Sox history versus 15 years of nothing but a lone playoff appearance and the Blake Street Bombers. Ultimately on Wednesday, Game 1 starts the 2007 playoffs. If we just played statistics we wouldn't bother playing these games so let's pitch, hit, run, and catch and see where things fall. Let's hope for a well played 6 to 7 more games and at the end of it let the best team win. Go Roxs!