Baseball in Spanish Really Is Better

I don't know if this is more a testament of how bad network announcers are in the United States, but watching baseball in Spanish is infinitely more enjoyable. While studying abroad in Chile this semester I have had precious few opportunities to watch live broadcasts of American sports, and even less opportunities to watch my favorite teams. So needless to say I was thrilled when I got home from class today and saw a commercial on ESPN for game two of the Diamondbacks-Cubs series later that night.

I was supposed to go out with my fellow gringos but I immediately canceled and prepared myself for a long night of baseball. Because they are on East Coast Time down here the game didn't start until 10:00 p.m. But staying in and staying up is a small sacrifice for the opportunity to watch my D-Backs dismantle the Cubbies.

Why all the pundits have been burying the Diamondbacks and jumping on the Cubs bandwagon I'll never understand. This team is built for the playoffs. Not to mention the seemingly forgotten fact that they had the best record in the National League. Much attention has been paid to the fact that the Diamondbacks have given up more runs than they've scored this season, but fortunately for the D-Backs baseball goes by your win-loss record and not run differential so to me it seems like a relatively unimportant statistic. Sure they get blown out a lot, but they also have the uncanny ability to come through when it matters and win the tight ones, hence the counter-intuitive run differential. Besides, to me the blowouts are a credit to the big picture thinking of manager Bob Melvin, sometimes it can be wise to realize when you're beat and rest your key guys to fight another day. All season long the key guys have been fresh, so even in the dog days of summer this team would fight and scrap to the very end of close games and more often than not they came out on top. That is good managing, keeping everybody ready and able to perform when it matters most.

As for the game tonight, the Cubs struck first with a second inning home run by some dude named Soto, who the Spanish announcing team loved because of his Hispanic last name, but it has been all Diamondbacks since then. In the bottom of the second future superstar, rookie Chris Young, put Arizona ahead 3-2 with a no doubt about it three-run shot. As the lead-off hitter he hasn't had very many opportunities with men on base but he took advantage in a big way tonight. I thought the key to the inning was starting pitcher Doug Davis putting down a beautiful sac bunt with two outs to keep the inning alive and bring up Young. Then Stephen Drew, another rookie, reached when his grounder up the middle was bobbled, although I think he would have reached anyway as he's relatively fleet of foot. Eric Byrnes brought Drew home with a triple off the wall and the Diamondbacks headed into the third with a two-run lead. I showered in the third and when I got out the score was the same so as far as I know nothing of note happened. In the fourth Drew brought plated two with a double down the line, he really started to swing the bat the last month of the regular season and he seems to have carried it over to the postseason. The Diamondbacks tacked on a couple more in the fourth and fifth and the Cubs got a couple late but the outcome was never really in doubt after the second.

That has been the most impressive part of the Diamondbacks' first two playoff games, and their entire season for that matter; the maturity of their kids. Consider that in tonight's game the D-Backs started four rookies, two of which, Mark Reynolds and Justin Upton, were mid-season call-ups that had never even set foot in AAA. And they are all holding their own and then some. In game one Drew and Reynolds both homered, important blasts at that in a 3-1 win. And tonight Young has a big-fly and two runs scored, Drew has driven in a pair and scored a run and Upton has a couple walks and a couple runs scored. Amazing production for guys that are all making their postseason debuts. And it's not like these guys spent a ton of time in the minor leagues either. Young , Drew, and Reynolds are all 24, while Upton just turned 20. I am freaking six months older than Upton and he's starting in right field for the National League's best team!

This team came into the year looking to set a solid foundation for the future, maybe win a few games but most importantly develop the young guys for a postseason run next year or even the year after. But the kids sped up the timetable with their veteran poise and rapid development and now I honestly believe that they could win it all this year. Like I said above, this team is made for the postseason. They have a certified ace in Brandon Webb; I would argue that he has been the best pitcher in baseball the past two years. They have serviceable starters behind him in Doug Davis (who was phenomenal the last two months of the season and again tonight) and Livan Hernandez. They have the best back-end of the bullpen in Juan Cruz, Tony Pena, Tyler Lyon and Jose Valverde. They have speed throughout their line-up and just know how to win close, high-pressure games. The only thing they don't have is that one big bat, although Young is developing into that guy. He had 32 home runs in the regular season despite a terrible start to the year. I don't know if you really want to change what got you here but if I was Bob Melvin I might consider swapping Young and Byrnes in the line-up to get Byrnes' higher on-base percentage and base-stealing ability at the top and Young's power in the three-hole, although I think messing with success would be a risky proposition this late in the year.

Speaking of Melvin, he is undoubtedly the National League's manager of the year this season and with good reason. The way he has juggled this line-up, moving guys around, and even in and out of the line-up altogether has been masterful. He's worked several call-ups into the everyday line-up, dealt with injuries to Orlando Hudson, Chad Tracy and Randy Johnson, and kept everyone fresh and confident. His handling of the Upton situation has been particularly impressive. J-Up had more hype surrounding him than any Diamondbacks player in franchise history. I realize that franchise history is only ten years, but stay with me. The fans and media were absolutely clamoring for him to be brought up from AA. When the time finally came the Diamondbacks were in the middle of a three-way fight for the National League West with Los Angeles and San Diego and his debut came when they were in L.A. to take on the Dodgers in the most important series to that point in the season. Melvin isn't deaf so he had to know how much excitement surrounded Upton's call-up and instead of doing the boring, but safe, move of bringing him off the bench and starting the more experienced Jeff DaVanon he plugged the 19-year-old right into the line-up. It is what the fans wanted, and he opened himself up to a lot of criticism if the kid wasn't ready and got overwhelmed or if the team slipped in the standing while trying to work him in. Fortunately for everybody Upton was extremely poised from the beginning, and even though he made his fair share of rookie mistakes Melvin stuck with him and the team kept winning. Melvin did a great job the rest of the way giving him nights off when he was struggling, moving him around in the batting order to get comfortable, and just all around helping him shed the "savior" label and work his way into the team. It was just a really impressive display of managing a delicate situation.

Who knows how it will work out the rest of the way, but after two games the Diamondbacks are right where they want to be. The playoffs are so wide open this year that I don't think anyone can really be called the favorite, but after two games the D-Backs have made a pretty big statement to the rest of the league that was seemingly ready to write them off as an aberration when these playoffs began. We weren't supposed to be here this year, this was supposed to be part of the rebuilding process, so as far as I'm concerned we're playing with house money at this point. If we fizzle out and our inexperience and lack of pitching depth does us in, fine, we had a great year and we can look forward to next season when all our guys are a year older and wiser. But if this team keeps doing what it has done all year we can easily come out of the National League, and I'd eveb give us a fighter's chance of taking down the AL champion. And if that happens watch out, because this team is just starting to get going, and with these young guys the Diamondbacks will be a force for years to come, an exciting thought because they are a damn good team right now. Off to Chicago!