Matt Holliday and the MVP race

Matt Holliday is going to likely finish in the top ten voting for the National League MVP Award for the second time in his Major League Baseball career. The last time Holliday had such a season was in 2007, when he finished in second place to Jimmy Rollins. Holliday, for the most part, had better numbers even if they were inflating by his home games at Coors Field.

Entering Thursday’s action, the Cardinals outfielder was in 9th place in batting average with .309 while teammate

is in third place while batting .325 on the season. Holliday ranks 9th in slugging percentage (.525) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.905).

Holliday has scored 83 times this season, which places him in a tie for 5th place. His 151 hits this season place him in a tie for fourth place. Home runs? Third place with 28. RBI? Tied for the lead with 90.

“I definitely think he belongs in the conversation, though he has been largely overlooked at this point,” Sporting News baseball writer Chris Bahr told me. But the dude is leading the NL in RBIs and has very impressive numbers across the board.”

“He’s not MVP on his own team,” Sporting News baseball writer Stan McNeal said in an email. “That would be Yadier Molina.”

Scott Miller, a baseball writer for CBS Sports, told me that Holliday is “absolutely” in the running for the MVP race.

At The Sporting News, Anthony Witrado took a look at the race on Tuesday. They believe it to be a two man race between Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey.

In an email, Witrado said that Holliday being in the race is not out of the question.

“I think he’s a candidate but not one of the top 2-3 candidates,” said Matthew Leach, the former MLB.com beat writer for the Cardinals and now a national columnist for MLB.com. “As of right now I think McCutchen and Posey are the leaders.”

Yesterday, Anna McDonald had an article up on ESPN about Holliday being a candidate. I agree with Anna in that Matt does not recieve the same amount of attention as a Josh Hamilton or a Prince Fielder. Least we forget that he was batting in the same lineup as Albert Pujols for two and a half seasons.

I remember being excited when we acquired him from the Athletics in 2009. I didn’t realize that the club had tried to get him back when he was with Colorado.

"“I recall trying to work out a deal with the Rockies before they ended up trading him to Oakland,” Mozeliak said. “We weren’t successful, but in the end our patience paid off, because we ended up doing a better deal in the end with Oakland.”"

Time will tell by the end of this season but whether or not the votes are there, Holliday has performed very well this year after what was a very strange season for him in 2011.