MLB 2007 NL Series #2 Preview
Philadelphia Phillies vs Colorado Rockies
Pitching: Canadian Jeff Fancis leads the Colorado Rockies into Philadelphia to face the potent offense of the Phillies. Francis has a horrendous 8.46 Era against the Phillies in 2 career starts.g Jiminez, Fogg and Morales will follow as necessary. Aside from Morales, who has only started 8 times this season, no Rockies pitcher had a regular-season ERA undeer 4.00. Their bullpen is ranked a respectable 6th in the NL with a solid one-two punch in the late innings in lefty Brian Fuentes and rightyand hard-throwing closer Manny Corpas. The Phillies pitching isn't any better, led by a super lefty ace in sophomore Cole Hamels. After him, enter rookie Kyle Kendrick, who started the season in AA-ball, athough he was solid going 10-4 with a 3.64 ERA. After the youngsters, the Phillies have an aging veteran who is past his prime in Jamie Moyer and two inconsistent pitchers in Adam Eaton and Kyle Lohse. The bullpen is a question mark. Close Brett Myers has bought ther heat, but collapsed at the wrong time. Aging veterans Jose Mesa, Antonio Alfonseca and Tom Gordon have all shown their age at points in the season. One of these three will have to step it up and get hot otherwise it could be an early exit for the Phillies. Edge: even
Hitting: Both of these offenses are capable of putting runs on the board when it counts. The Rockies are led by MVP candidate Matt Holliday, who slid in with the winning run that punched the Rox tix into the playoffs in Monday's winner-moves-on show-down with the Padres. His supporting cast include lefty Todd Helton and emerging talented hitters Garrett Atkins, Troy Tulowitzki and Brad Hawpe. The Rockies were even with the Philles with on-base % despite hitting 40 less home runs, but finished behind them in runs scored and batting average. Most importantly, the Rockies were the hottest team in baseball down the stretch. The Phillies also have a potent offense led by Ryan Howard, who despite missing 47 games to injury, managed 47 HR's and 137 RBI's. However, he also struck out a whopping MLB record 196 times. Howard must choose his pitches wisely. Speedster Jimmy Rollins became just the 4th player in MLB history to hit 20 HR, 20 doubles, 20 triples and steal 20 bases. Overall, the Phillies are a threat to to steal just about anywhere in their line-up, minus the pitcher of course. Edge: Phillies
Series Prediction: Phillies in 4
Pitching: Canadian Jeff Fancis leads the Colorado Rockies into Philadelphia to face the potent offense of the Phillies. Francis has a horrendous 8.46 Era against the Phillies in 2 career starts.g Jiminez, Fogg and Morales will follow as necessary. Aside from Morales, who has only started 8 times this season, no Rockies pitcher had a regular-season ERA undeer 4.00. Their bullpen is ranked a respectable 6th in the NL with a solid one-two punch in the late innings in lefty Brian Fuentes and rightyand hard-throwing closer Manny Corpas. The Phillies pitching isn't any better, led by a super lefty ace in sophomore Cole Hamels. After him, enter rookie Kyle Kendrick, who started the season in AA-ball, athough he was solid going 10-4 with a 3.64 ERA. After the youngsters, the Phillies have an aging veteran who is past his prime in Jamie Moyer and two inconsistent pitchers in Adam Eaton and Kyle Lohse. The bullpen is a question mark. Close Brett Myers has bought ther heat, but collapsed at the wrong time. Aging veterans Jose Mesa, Antonio Alfonseca and Tom Gordon have all shown their age at points in the season. One of these three will have to step it up and get hot otherwise it could be an early exit for the Phillies. Edge: even
Hitting: Both of these offenses are capable of putting runs on the board when it counts. The Rockies are led by MVP candidate Matt Holliday, who slid in with the winning run that punched the Rox tix into the playoffs in Monday's winner-moves-on show-down with the Padres. His supporting cast include lefty Todd Helton and emerging talented hitters Garrett Atkins, Troy Tulowitzki and Brad Hawpe. The Rockies were even with the Philles with on-base % despite hitting 40 less home runs, but finished behind them in runs scored and batting average. Most importantly, the Rockies were the hottest team in baseball down the stretch. The Phillies also have a potent offense led by Ryan Howard, who despite missing 47 games to injury, managed 47 HR's and 137 RBI's. However, he also struck out a whopping MLB record 196 times. Howard must choose his pitches wisely. Speedster Jimmy Rollins became just the 4th player in MLB history to hit 20 HR, 20 doubles, 20 triples and steal 20 bases. Overall, the Phillies are a threat to to steal just about anywhere in their line-up, minus the pitcher of course. Edge: Phillies
Series Prediction: Phillies in 4
posted by opinionator777 at 7:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home