Matt Holliday

And with no margin for error, the Cardinals of course committed a colossal one when Matt Holliday dropped what should've been the final out of the game. Some people say that the ball hit him in the gut, but if you were watching closely, it's pretty clear it hit him in the junk. For a baseball player, priority one should be protecting your junk, priority two should be catching the ball. If Holliday takes care of priority one, priority two should've taken care of itself. Even after the drop though, there were still two outs with just the tying run at second base. Ryan Franklin has to be able to get out of that. Is everyone glad that when Franklin showed for a month that he clearly wasn't right, that we decided to save John Smoltz for mop up duty in Game 3? This is Smoltz, a future Hall of Famer with nearly as many saves in one season (55, as Ryan Franklin has in his career (56). Tony La Russa's blind loyalty cost us Game 2, a split in LA, which makes Game 3 a very different scenario coming back to St. Louis for two. I really wouldn't have been sad if La Russa and the Cards parted ways after this year. And now he's bringing in Mark McGwire as a hitting coach? The Cards never finished worse than fifth in the league in team batting average under Hal McRae and led the league in 2008 in team average. One of the offense's biggest problems down the stretch was they were impatient. I'm positive that McRae told them to be more patient, but he can't take pitches for them. I feel bad for McRae. He's being run out of town for a media circus. McGwire better have some answers when he gets here, and I don't mean about the team's hitting.

Continue reading "St. Louis' Awful October and World Series Preview"

Albert Pujols is clearly starting to heat up again, as he hit his second bomb in four games. But Matt Holliday has remained hot for the birds. He took out the "A" in Big Mac Land during batting practice, tying the score between him and Pujols in letters for the year.

Continue reading "Magic Number Keeps Shrinking, Brendan ..."

The big three will be Matt Holliday, Mark DeRosa, and Joel Pineiro. Pineiro can't be expected to repeat this year and if he expects to be paid like a pitcher who can replicate this year, it would be hard to see him returning either. For Holliday to come back, it would probably take something close to the four-year, $72 million deal that the Rockies offered him. Of course, he turned that down to stay in a hitter's paradise, so he may be one of the guys that is purely driven by money. If he tells his agent, the notorious Scott Boras, to go out and find the largest contract possible, it won't come from St. Louis. However, if he decides to tell Boras that he wants to stay in St. Louis and to just get a deal done, as another Boras client, Kyle Lohse, did last year, Holliday could hang around for the remainder of his prime. DeRosa is probably the most likely guy to stay. He would probably sign the most affordable contract of the Cardinals big pending free agents and since Brett Wallace was dealt and Troy Glaus won't be re-signed, the Cards have to find someone to play third base. It might as well be a guy that can hit 25 bombs a year and be good for clubhouse chemistry at the same time.

Continue reading "Cubs Starting to Fade in Central Race"

him wouldn't make any sense.

A similar rumor involving the Cardinals is a trade for the Rockies' Matt Holliday. The rumored deal would have the Cardinals send Ryan Ludwick, Skip Schumaker, and Mitchell Boggs to Colorado for Holliday. I wouldn't even do a straight up Ludwick for Holliday deal. Holliday's contract is up after 2009 and will easily make $6 million more in 2009 than Ludwick. After that, Holliday is a free agent, not to mention a client of Scott Boras. Boras certainly will want him to test free agency. 

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k Teixeira is the big name that's been bandied about in baseball, and (except for Brian Fuentes and Matt Holliday, who will either go close to the deadline or not at all) is the Last Man Standing as far as frontline trade candidates go.

Continue reading "Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop"

or Adam Dunn in Cincinnati and there is talk the Rockies could potentially look to move Matt Holliday. Certainly others could become available as teams fall out of contention. And of course there is one Barry Bonds who sits waiting for a phone call from an interested party. Bonds, however, comes with his own set of problems and would seem to be the complete antithesis of David Ortiz, which brings me to my final point.

Continue reading "Injury to Ortiz is Bad News for Boston"

neup that scored the second most runs in the National League last season returns with MVP candidate Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe and Troy Tulowitzki. While anyone would expect a team in Colorado to score plenty of runs, it is always pitching that becomes the question. The Rockies’ pitching staff posted a very respectable 4.32 ERA last season, but what may be surprising to many, is that their road ERA was better than that of the vaunted San Diego pitching staff (4.29 to 4.42). With young fireballer Ubaldo Jiminez joining the rotation full time, a solid staff led by Jeff Francis becomes even better. Colorado may miss the playoffs this year due to a competitive division, but they will be one of the teams right there at the end battling for a berth.

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Preview Part One: National League West"