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The San Francisco Giants are the World Series champions in Major League Baseball. Congratulations to San Francisco.
That means that the Rockies will not only be shooting to dethrone the defending NL West champions for their 19th consecutive season, but that same team will also represent the MLB champions for the first time since 2002, when Todd Helton was the same age as Matt Daley is now.
The Giants set the standard, so obviously, the way to win a World Series is to copy San Francisco's formula. It is completely foolproof. Define the key roles by the 2010 Giants and fill those roles.
We start with the rotation. Dominating starting pitching was the Giants' calling card, and it is what led Keith Law to say the Giants were "a better postseason team than a regular season team."
- Ace. SFG - Tim Lincecum. COL - Ubaldo Jimenez.
- Young #2. SFG - Matt Cain. COL - Jhoulys Chacin. It'll take a lot for Chacin to step up, but he is capable.
- Dominating/Wild Lefty. SFG - Jonathan Sanchez. COL - Re-sign Jorge de la Rosa.
- #4 starter with filthy curve. SFG - Barry Zito. COL - Jason Hammel.
- Rookie lefty starter with top of rotation potential yet disappointing previous season in the minors. SFG - Madison Bumgarner. COL - Christian Friedrich.
- Former All-Star outfielder coming off a horrid season, terrible defender. SFG - Aubrey Huff. COL - O'Dowd needs to pry Carlos Lee away from Houston, somehow.
- Well over the hill former Red Sox shortstop. SFG - Edgar Renteria, 2010 WS MVP. COL - Orlando Cabrera, 2011 WS MVP?
- Top prospect rookie catcher, late May debut. SFG - Buster Posey. COL - It will be aggressive, but Wilin Rosario could fit here.
- Large utility infielder with pop but no defense and many K's. SFG - Juan Uribe. COL - End the long rumored connection and acquire Jhonny Peralta.
- Middle-aged RH outfielder with flashes of brilliance. SFG - Cody Ross. COL - Xavier Nady.
- Former All-Star outfielder who seemed to be pushed into retirement. Also, horrid defense. SFG - Pat Burrell. COL - Jermaine Dye would like a job, I'm sure.
- Outfielder in lower thirties, out of the majors a few years, atrocious MLB career stats. SFG - Andres Torres. COL - ummmm...Ruben Mateo?
There is growing buzz that the Rockies will explore trades for the Nationals' Josh Willingham and the Angels' Juan Rivera as they search for a right-handed bat.
We got the buzz, we got the buzz! Yeyah! We got the buzz!
Consolation Prize for Texas: At Least You Made It. - Beyond the Box Score No one is interested in consolation prizes, but at least 24 other teams have longer pennant droughts than the Rockies.
Rockies may look to trade for Rays starter James Shields | HardballTalk If not for the World Series ending yesterday, I would have dissected Shields further today. Yesterday, Aaron Gleeman completely dismisses an acquisition of James Shields as foolish, not due to his poor 2010 campaign, but his flyball tendencies.
It is a lazy analysis that you can be sure the Rockies would look deeper than. It was just two years ago that the Rockies acquired a starting pitcher from Tampa Bay with a history of giving up home runs and being a flyball pitcher, and Jason Hammel turned out just fine.
Furthermore, I challenge you to check the career FB/HR, GB, and FB of James Shields and compare them to Jeff Francis. Francis has done more than "survive" in his career at Coors Field. While the Rockies may prefer pitchers with heavy sink, acquiring Shields would not be out of the ordinary or foolish in the slightest.