Confidence Makes All Difference in 'Pen

In Advanced Scouting, MLB FanHouse's professional talent evaluator breaks down the playoffs from a scouting perspective.

There is one lesson that we learn year in and year out as the postseason unfolds. The team that has their bullpen clicking is often the team that wins. Game 4 on Monday night was a microcosm of the series between the Phillies and Rockies. While they were not dominant out of the 'pen, the Phillies were able to slam the door where Colorado could not.

In the final two innings of Monday's game, the Philadelphia bullpen surrendered just one walk against Colorado's four. As close as the Rockies came to winning the game, it is unrealistic to feel confident in winning a contest in which your bullpen surrenders that many free passes to a lineup that hardly needs the help.

Part of the issue with the Colorado bullpen is the inexperience factor and the erratic performance that can come with it. That's what you get when you have young pitchers that are still learning their craft like Franklin Morales. With his electric stuff, he has a very good chance to have a successful career, but his inexperience reared its head at the wrong time this October.

What appeared to be plaguing Colorado closer Huston Street in this series was a lack of confidence in his stuff, despite his ability to match up with Philadelphia hitters. Although he has good stuff with a sinking 90-93 mph fastball and sharp slider, it is not what you would call truly electrifying. If a pitcher that is not blessed with upper-90s velocity or a disappearing breaking ball can not fall back on his fearless mentality and the confidence to hit his spots, he's going to have problems.

What the Phillies had in their favor in this series, despite their question marks in the bullpen, was having guys who had both electric stuff and the confidence to come over the plate with it and not give out free passes. The relief work wasn't always pretty from the Phillies but the difference really was the ability to throw strikes and be aggressive.

Spotlight Moment

It looked clear that one some level Huston Street was dealing with some shaken confidence on Monday night. Whether it was a result of his failures in Game 3 is unknown, but whatever the cause was, his lack of aggression in the zone ultimately came back to bite him. If he goes after some of the previous hitters more aggressively, he may have never wound up in a situation where he had to face the dangerous part of the Philadelphia lineup.

Flashing back to Street's ninth-inning battle with Jayson Werth, he only has himself to blame for winding up in a bad position. Even setting aside the fact that if he's more aggressive the game is already over, he still had the chance to keep the game tied. But, continuing to avoid the plate, Street backed himself into a difficult count yet again against Werth, who saw just one fastball out of the six pitches the Rockies closer delivered. With the way he can drive the ball to right-center, at some point a pitcher needs to put the thought of the fastball into Werth's head. Street did not do that, fell behind in the count and continued to look to his slider, which he was leaving up in the zone. Being tentative with any of your pitches in the postseason, specifically the fastball is going to lead to trouble against a lineup as challenging as the Phillies.

Quick Hits

• It might be a good time for any baseball fans looking ahead to next year to highlight the name Carlos Gonzalez. With a skill set, stance and swing at the plate that resemble Carlos Beltran, he appears poised to have a breakout season in 2010. Few things are better for a young player than to finish a season strong and as all viewers of this NLDS could see, finish strong he did. Gonzalez has an outstanding swing path in which he keeps the barrel of the bat in the zone extra long, allowing him to cover a variation of speeds and locations. He creates a lot of loft in his swing, so it would not be shocking to see him put up 25-30 home runs as soon as next season. With skills that impressive in just about every tool category, this series may have given fans a sneak preview of a future star.

• As he continued to roll along, Cliff Lee looked superb again in the Phillies' clinching game. Lee continues to work mostly off the command of his 91-94 mph fastball, and he is able to sprinkle in his secondary pitches seemingly at will. As aggressively as he uses the fastball, it's extremely difficult for a hitter to pick up any kind of pattern. His ability to expand the zone on hitters should profile well against the Dodgers. However, the Dodgers are paced by fastball hitters like Matt Kemp, so it will be interesting to see how Lee alters his strategy against their lineup, if at all.

Frankie Piliere spent the last three seasons working as a scout, most recently in the professional scouting department for the Texas Rangers in 2009. He now serves as the National Baseball Analyst here at FanHouse.