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• Vote: Which team will win the National League West?

As the immortal Kent Brockman might put it, we salute our new Rockies overlords. Topics for discussion later today may include Dante Bichette's Hall of Fame stubble, Jeff Cirillo's cheery disposition and the misunderstood greatness of Kevin Ritz. We can't stay away from the Rockies, but unlike the Dodgers, that seems to be just fine when it comes to a team most of SportsNation is rooting for in the NL West.

Ryan Spilborghs was Monday's hero, hitting a walk-off grand slam to clinch a four-game series against the Giants. Tuesday, Troy Tulowitzki took his turn, delivering a walk-off single against the first-place (for now) Dodgers.

Tulowitzki leads all shortstops with 23 home runs and trails only Hanley Ramirez in OPS among players at the position with at least 400 at-bats. And by almost any metric, he's one of baseball's best defensive shortstops. But don't take our word on his value (or much of anything else); check out what Buster Olney had to say in chat last week. Then weigh in on whether Tulowitzki is more valuable than a guy in the thick of the AL MVP race.

Ed (Jersey)

Who has been the most important PLAYER for the Rockies based on the turnaround they've had?

Buster Olney

Ed: Tulowitzki, undoubtedly. When he started playing better, they started playing better. Keith Law had a nice piece about this on Sunday.

JK (Denver)

No mention of Ubaldo? You know the pitcher who has gone 6IP in EVERY start since May 1? Who hasn't allowed more than 4 ER in all but 2 starts all season? Doing all this while pitching half his games in Coors? Let's give the guy some love. (And yes, Tulo is every bit of the key to success as well.)

Buster Olney

JK: yeah, he's been great, but you can almost draw parallel lines between Tulowitzki's season and that of the Rockies ... When he took off, so did they. Full transcript.