Vigilante Sports

The team with the best record in the NL (Diamondbacks) will face the hottest team over the last month (Rockies) in the 2007 NLCS. Arizona holds home field advantage due to their better record. This should make for a very interesting story. I still have doubts about both teams. Granted, they pretty much dismantled the Cubs and the Phillies respectively, but these teams are not (or should not be) much competition for the winner of the ALCS. The NL is a weaker league right now and these 2 teams are representative of that. Neither team sports both a dominating lineup and a shutdown group of pitchers. Below, I’ll highlight some key matchups and then make my prediction. Obviously my NL predictions haven’t been too hot so take the poll at the bottom of the post to share who you think will win this series.

Key Matchups

• Brandon Webb (ARZ) vs. Jeff Francis (COL) – This is the pitching matchup that will define this series. The pair will duel in Game 1 as well as Game 5 (if necessary). I have no reason to believe that Brandon Webb will falter. He’s a dominant starter who has the mental makeup to shine in the post season.
• Arizona’s bats – The lineup for the Diamondbacks shouldn’t scare anyone. Seriously, how did this team win 90 games. Their best offensive player is Eric Brynes. He’s a nice player, but he’s not the person you want leading your lineup. The thing is, they’ve been getting it done all season. They get the timely hit, and they don’t seem to make mistakes offensively.
• Colorado’s bats – Here is the flip side of the coin. Colorado has been lighting it up since the beginning of September. The middle of their order didn’t dominate in the NLDS, but it definitely did on their road to the playoffs. Tulowitzki, Holliday, and Helton are all mashers who have been hitting both at home at Coor’s Field and on the road.
• The bullpens – Both teams have innings 7-9 taken care of in terms of the bullpen. Arizona with Pena, Lyon and Valverde and Colorado with Hawkins, Herges, Fuentes, Corpas. Both teams had better strike early.

My prediction: Diamondbacks in 5

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 9:16 am and is filed under Baseball, MLB. 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.