Rockies, D'Backs resemble 1987 Twins
Posted: Thursday, October 11, 2007 6:00 PM
Twenty years ago the Minnesota Twins stunned the baseball world by winning the World Series after an 85-win regular season. They won their division and went to the postseason as heavy underdogs. They stunned the Tigers in the ALCS and took down the Cards in seven games.
Their general manager, Andy MacPhail, was in his mid-30s and has frequently admitted that those Twins arrived before their time. They were rebuilt around a young nucleus that was designed to blossom a year or two later. But they hit a torrid streak of pitching and clutch hitting at the right time -- October -- and walked away as champions.
Sound familiar?
Yes, as the NLCS starts tonight, the first comparison might be to Colorado, but actually there are parallels to the Twins in both the Rockies and the Diamondbacks.
The Twins had a young general manager (MacPhail was 34, Arizona’s Josh Byrnes is 37), a young manager (Tom Kelly was 37, Arizona’s Bob Melvin is 45), a starting lineup whose oldest position player was 29 (Colorado has Todd Helton at 33, Kaz Matsui at 31 and the rest are under 30, Arizona has Eric Byrnes at 31 and Augie Ojeda, 32, replacing the injured Orlando Hudson, 29), a core group that rose together through their farm system in Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, and Greg Gagne (Colorado has Garrett Atkins, Matt Holliday, Brad Hawpe and Jeff Francis and Arizona a younger set of Stephen Drew, Conor Jackson, Chris Snyder, Mark Reynolds and Justin Upton), a matching set of starters in rising star Frank Viola and veteran Bert Blyleven (Arizona has Brandon Webb and Livan Hernandez), and rabid support from crazed fans pleasantly surprised by an unexpected late-season run (see Coors Field in Game 3).
Now you get that this is a flashback LCS for me, a broadcaster who joined the Twins in January 1988 and lived through the yearlong celebration of that remarkable October.
Here’s some matchup keys: Arizona has the best starter (Webb) and closer (Jose Valverde) in the series. Colorado closer Manny Corpas has been tremendous down the stretch, but is just being baptized under the brightest lights.
Colorado crushes the ball at home (.291 BA, NL-best 478 runs), but also hits on the road (382 runs, fifth in the NL, 56 more road runs than Arizona). The Rockies, though, did lose power out of altitude (14th in the NL in road home runs).
Arizona has the best bench bat in veteran switch-hitter Tony Clark. The Rockies excel on defense, easily baseball’s best defense this season.
Both groups are true teams, excelling in contributions from all comers rather than one or two major figures.
Arizona’s spiritual leader is Byrnes, a veteran who was a released player two winters ago and has been reborn in the desert. Colorado’s leader is a rookie. Troy Tulowitzki is "22 going on 32 on the field" in the words of a Rockies' insider. He has brought an edge to his team in the latter stages of the season that has been contagious. He refuses to accept losing and pushes his teammates, even the veterans.
People I feel good for in this series:
TODD HELTON: No one who watched will forget his dance across the infield after the final game of the regular season. The Rockies hadn’t won anything other than the right to play one game for the wild-card spot, but Helton, who had never played in a postseason game, looked like a Little Leaguer. He’s made money and achieved fame, but it was still moving to see his genuine joy. His walk-off homer off Takashi Saito on Sept 18 was the key moment of Colorado’s season.
KAZ MATSUI: Talk about adding pain to the Mets’ collapse. Their fans now watch Matsui, a colossal failure in New York, thrive in the relaxed atmosphere of Denver.
BOB MELVIN: Discarded in Seattle, runner-up for manager of the Cubs to Dusty Baker, and second choice in Arizona (remember the Wally Backman fiasco). Melvin’s demeanor has been a perfect match for this D’Backs team.
THE GARAGIOLAS: The First Family of baseball in the desert, Joe Sr. will throw out the first pitch before Game 1. And Joe Jr., now in the MLB commissioner’s office, constructed a World Championship team as well as the structure of player development that led to this year’s team.
MIKE RIZZO: Now the assistant general manager for Washington, Rizzo is responsible for most of the homegrown Arizona talent on display in this series. As scouting director from 1999-2006, Rizzo drafted Brandon Webb, Chad Tracy (who's injured) as well as Drew, Jackson, Quentin and Upton. He is the unsung hero of this Arizona season.
