Verlander vs Reyes
The fact that there is absolutely no reason to think that the Tigers aren't going to win this series except for one Albert Pujols makes me suspicious. Still, my prediction has to go with Detroit and Justin Verlander is one big part of that reason, his season would have been as fantastic as there has been for any rookie in recent memory had there not been so many rookie pitchers this season with equally impressive seasons.
As far as storylines connected to the Rockies, we've all heard by now of the lost season of 1999 and Jim Leyland's pathetic role that year. In this case, two writers I normally disagree with, The Rocky's Krieger and Bad Altitiude's Mark Donohoe are spot on in criticizing the rest of the mainstream media in their effusive praise of Leyland. No matter how bad the team he inherited was, and the one in 1999 from the Rockies front office was terrible, Leyland did give up on them and he gave up on Denver almost before he arrived. Still. I like the Tigers tonight and in the Series.
Update [2006-10-21 19:18:33 by Rox Girl]:
I forgot to link to the Wall Street Journal's article about the importance of managers in general, it repeats research we've already presented by Chris Jaffe that shows that La Russa's teams have tended to outperform expectations, while Leyland's have underperformed. A more interesting article appeared in today's print version about Ticketmaster's pursuits to cut off competition from StubHub and others in the re-sale market, but that's apparently not free to everybody. I'll probably go into that story in more detail some time this offseason when Rockies news is slow.