Hot Holliday = Cardinal success

Matt Holliday is the St. Louis Cardinal’s All Star Left Fielder and he’s having a career year. With a career batting average of .316, his best year up to now was 2007. Then, he was a Colorado Rockie and hit .340 with 36 homeruns and 137 rbis. His OBP was .405 and slugging % was .607. This year, after 97 games, he’s hitting .325, with an OBP of .407 and slugging % of .545 along with 18 home runs.

The Cardinals are 14-11 over the past 30 days. During that time, Matt Holliday is hitting .393 with 6 home runs and 19 rbis. His slugging % is .674 and OBP is .476. While Holliday is not the only reason for the Cardinals recent winning streak, he’s a major factor.

When Holliday, David Freese, Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig are on their “A” game offensively, the Redbirds are almost unbeatable. And when you consider their pitchers have been inning eaters and rally killers, this team has all the ingredient to repeat as World Champions.

But, Matt Holliday is doing exactly what the Cardinals obtained him for when they made the deal to obtain him from Colorado. Not only does he offer protection for the cleanup hitter, he’s one batter in the Cardinal lineup that can do the most damage with our current roster. No one in the lineup is hitting the ball for average and power like Holliday as his 1.150 OPS attests.

As the Cardinals approach the last third of the season, it is important that Holliday continues his offensive display. Last year he faltered at times, in part due to health, but, we need him healthy this year as we approach the playoffs. So, I hope Mike Matheny will take every opportunity to rest him when possible and when you have a player like Allen Craig, that shouldn’t be too hard.

Holliday stumbled early on in the season. After the first two weeks of the season, he was hitting in the low .200’s and his power was not there. Since then, he’s hitting over .340 and is showing his power with homeruns and doubles. He recently hit the longest home run in the new Busch Stadium. We need a healthy Matt Holliday and a productive one. Let’s hope we have both this time around when we get to the playoffs.

Thanks for reading. Go Cards!