Snakecharmer's busy today, so I'm running the Dbacks Daily.
Ah, the NLCS. How we've missed you; it's been 6 years! You might be the red-headed stepchild in TBS' book, but you're #1 in our book. Two young teams with a lot of good years and rivalry games ahead of them face off. Dbacks fans, take heart: the Diamondbacks have never lost in the CS. Dbacks fans, take heed: neither, technically, have the Rockies.
While we're all counting the minutes until 5:37 or whatever stupid time the game's starting, there are plenty of stories today about the upcoming action on the field.
Let's start off with the selection found over at SI. Their playoff special front page features a shot of Mark Reynolds taking BP with the roof open. Jon Heyman, one of the few sportswriters to correctly predict the Dbacks-Rockies NLCS, has a piece comparing the four CS teams and looking at their similarities; he sums it up as parity, pitching, and youth. Gennaro Filice talks about the five NLCS storylines; including youth, Webb, Taveras, BoMel, and Rox D. It's also got some good links at the bottom that I will not reproduce here. Richard Deitsch's Media Circus evaluates the TBS broadcasters and saves his kindest words for a familiar face to Dbacks fans. Jack McCallum has a nice feature specifically on the Rockies, for those of you who are interested in that. Going back a few days, Jacob Luft discusses five things we learned from the DS. His point about the Dbacks focuses on their precocious nature and obscene improvement over the season. Finally, one of the godfathers of SI baseball writing, John Donovan breaks down the matchup position-by-position and likes the Rockies in 6. (That seems to be the consensus, actually. Rox in 6.) He also writes about the improbable rise to the CS for each of these teams.
Moving right along, let's take a look at Fox Sports' offerings. Randy Hill writes a somewhat obnoxious and smug article on "Why the Red Sox might not win the World Series", looking at real and imagined advantages of the other 3 teams. As has already been posted elsewhere, Dayn Perry somewhat redeems himself and extols the virtues of both NLCS teams. Ken Rosenthal breaks down the CS, and actually likes the Dbacks in 6. Nice to know somebody believes in us.
ESPN has Tim Kurkjian taking Dbacks in 7, which is, again, another article that's been posted elsewhere on the 'Pit. A few sources have already picked up on the fact that Josh Byrnes has worked for the FOs of four teams in his career (Cleveland, Colorado, Boston, and Arizona). But Jerry Crasnick also has a nice piece on how former Cleveland exec John Hart mentored the GMs of the Indians, Rox, and Dbacks. Jayson Stark, one of their few good writers, talks about the insanity of the NLCS. There's actually some good stuff in there as well, and Stark's one of those sportswriters who's not afraid to admit when he's wrong. ESPN's also got their Diamond Daily, summing up the NLCS. For some sports nerdism, check out Imagine Sports' NLCS simulation, which has Jeff Francis winning tonight and the Rockies advancing to the WS. (Their NLDS simulations also had the Rockies and Cubs advancing, incidentally, further proving that mathematicians everywhere HATE the Diamondbacks) Oh, and while you're over at ESPN.com, take a look at their 'expert picks'. In case you still haven't taken the NLCS poll, go ahead and do that now.
On to Sporting News. David Pinto takes the Rockies, based on hitting. Bob Hille talks about just how hot the Rockies really are. Ryan Fagan writes the official positional breakdown, and chooses the Rockies in 6. Sean Deveney writes a somewhat vanilla piece on wtf the Dbacks are doing in the NLCS.
The official mouthpiece: we've got articles here on Webb preparing to face the Rox, Upton as the future, and the brothers Drew wanting to meet in the World Series. Hmmm... Brothers Drew? Do they tell fairy tales as well? All articles are complete with poor writing, as always.
On to the local media. You're going to have to go through Tucson papers first, just because I said so. Sarah Trotto interviewed Webby and talks about his need to be on his game. Bruce Pascoe writes about the Tucson connections, specifically, the links to the NLCS and spring training, and last year's Sidewinders. There's also an article about Micah's offday tuneup. Finally, Bruce Pascoe writes about the Dbacks' and Rockies' blueprint for success.
The East Valley Tribune includes Jack Magruder writing about the Dbacks copying the Rockies in building the franchise, the players calling BoMel MOTY, Micah pitching game 4 rather than game 3. Also included are articles on how well the Dbacks and Rox know each other, Micah's tuneup, and a good column on the long paths Todd Helton and Jeff Cirillo took to get here.
Moving on to the Republic, we have stories about the Dbacks being underdogs... again, Matt Holliday's choice of sports, the Rockies being fired up, (shocking!!) Colorado's defensive prowess, Stephen Drew's confidence, and the Dbacks' players' confidence that the fans will show up. In the blogs, we have Doug Haller writing about another Doug of the Slaten variety, as well as Micah itching to get into the action. Nick Piecoro's blog, however, hasn't been modified since Tuesday's entry on NLCS start times.
A few AP articles from various sources cover BoMel keeping the same rotation, TBS hoping for continued good ratings, MLB's chosen CS crew chiefs, (let's just say I am NOT happy about the NLCS having Tim McClellan and Angel Hernandez in our umpiring crew) a ticket scalper in Denver getting arrested, and then there's the official AP preview.
See you all around 5:78 or whatever obnoxious time they have the Dbacks-Rocks first pitch! GO DBACKS!!