TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Friday, October 03, 2003

So, to borrow a line from one of the Division Series previews here, how many people had Cubs-Marlins in the NLCS at the start of the year in their office pools? You've got Dontrelle Willis vs. Jason Schmidt on short rest and Matt Clement vs. Russ Ortiz, also on short rest, to set up this very possibility. Florida and Chicago have Josh Beckett and Kerry Wood, respectively, waiting in the wings for a prospective Game 5. You've gotta like their odds at this point, though a Wood-Hampton matchup has the makings of a classic do-or-die game.

I believe there was some pining for the good old days of the hoss who could take the ball and shut down the opponents for nine innings a few weeks ago on this site. I think we just saw Exhibit A for why this would be a Good Thing with Mark Prior's masterpiece last night at Wrigley. Well, maybe Jason Schmidt's Game 1 performance against the Marlins was Exhibit A and Prior's game was Exhibit B. Regardless, with the likes of Schmidt, Prior and guys like Toronto's Roy Halladay and the White Sox's Bartolo Colon having big success while racking up relatively high pitch counts and complete game totals, maybe this is the beginning of a trend which sees a complete gamer anchoring pitching staffs throughout the league. I guess before we get too carried away with this, let's see how their arms hold up next year.

Anyways, big weekend of baseball. I'm pretty psyched about the Twins chances, assuming they can get a good game out of Kyle Lohse. He seems like the one guy of the Twins trio that is most likely to get smacked around. I think if he can get settled in early on he'll have a good game, and the Twins might be able to play to their strengths of speed and aggressiveness on the basepaths to make just enough noise to get by the Rocket. Also, given the troubles the Yanks have been having catching the ball, they might have some problems with the turf. In any case, no matter what happens in Game 3, Santana-Wells in Game 4 should be another good one. I think the Twins are taking a lot of people by surprise, but if you've been heeding your faithful Minneapolis correspondent they shouldn't have snuck up on you...

posted by Tom Renbarger 11:04 PM