[theox05]

I quite unexpectedly won the NL West and WS as Colorado in 2018. I wasn't really trying as I thought my window of opportunity was 2019-2020-2021, but things sometimes shake out in a crazy manner!

First, the roster. As you might expect, it wasn't too different in 2018 as in 2017.


C Danny Jensen/Reese McGuire (Platooned to see who is better)
1B Rowdy Tellez
2B Carlos Asuje
3B Nolan Arenado
SS Brendan Rogers
LF Raimel Tapia
CF David Dahl
RF Carlos Gonzalez

My rotation was pretty pedestrian:

P Jon Gray
P Lance Lynn (one year rental in FA)
P Trevor Bauer (CLE put him on waivers after a disaster of a season start)
P Luis Cessa
P Tyler Anderson

Notable Bench Players:
Luis Brinson RF (Platooning with Carlos Gonzalez)
Ryan McMahon 1B/3B

Offseason Moves:
If the offseason I was able to resign Carlos for 10 mil with option for a second year.

Traded Trevor Story as his SO rate and OBP are just unacceptable. Got good value as I traded him after an "so-so" 2017 season. Plus Brendan Rogers was ripping through the minors like Mike Tyson through a elementary school bully.

How it Played Out

Pre-season Prediction showed us with 95 wins, with the LAD right behind with 94. However, one month into the season the LAD starting getting hit with the injury bug. Kershaw down for 3 months. Bellinger out for a month or two. The rest of the division is pretty terrible despite SF winning the WS in 2017.

I end up with 105 wins, with Rowdy Tellez tying for the HR lead, Dahl winning the batting title (and putting up a 10.1 WAR), and Arenado leading the league in RBI. I figure, what the hell, probably won't make it, our pitching is pretty weak (Jon Gray ended with a close to 5.00 ERA), but lets play 'em out.

WC Round: LAD loses to CHC.

Divisional: COL over CHC in 5.

I draw STL in the NLCS and I figure there is no way I'm getting through the deadly Wacha-Martinez combo, plus Leake is having a great year. Then I look at their record. They only won 93 games and their batting is abysmal. The Wacha-Martinez-Leake combo has carried them all year!

NLCS: COL over STL in 5
We hammered Leake out of the park, and although Wacha pitched a complete game SO against us in Game 3, we batted well against everything STL put against us. We were unstoppable!

The 2018 World Series: Cleveland Indians vs Colorado Rockies

It must stick in Cleveland's craw that we claimed Trevor Bauer on waivers when they lost faith, only to see him win 17 games with close to 200 SO in Colorado.

Game 5, Colorado up 3 games to 1 with Luis Cessa starting vs Corey Kluber

Cessa has been all over the place in the regular season. Sometimes he pitches well, other times he gives up 6 runs in 2 innings. I have him as my number 5 and I am starting him to give others a rest. I figure we'll lose this one and try and win in the next two.

We are up 2-0 in the 6th with Cleveland gathering probably 2 hits an inning, they just can't get anyone over the plate. Kluber strikes out first two batters. Tapia walks. Rogers hits a single, Arenado singles to left. Bases loaded for David Dahl. He swings...GRAND SLAM!

We never looked back. Cessa got the complete game SO and we won 8-0. Colorado gets its first WS in a year we only expected to hit the WC and lose there.

Just goes to show what can happen when a team gets hot just at the right time.

MORE INFO
Brendan Rogers - ROY
David Dahl - NL MVP and WS MVP