St. Louis Cardinals Best/Worst Case: Matt Holliday

Best Case: Same old Matt Holliday, and then some

No pun intended on the “old” thing there.

In 2007, Matt Holliday smashed 36 home runs with 137 RBI and a .405 OBP. His 216 hits (.340 average) ranked second only to Ichiro Suzuki who turned in 238 that year.

Interestingly, Holliday wasn’t even a top-10 finisher in WAR that year. His 5.8 WAR value was good for 14th in baseball, and was a full 3.4 points lower than leader Alex Rodriguez (9.2).

Still, Holliday was the NL MVP runner-up to the Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins, narrowly missing out on the MVP honors with 75% share of the vote compared to Rollins’ 79%.

Yes, I know that Holliday was 27 that year, and yes I know that he played in hitter friendly Coors Field for half of his games. But, in best-case predictions, I’m calling for a similar season in 2016.

With a resurgent 2016 campaign, Holliday has his option picked up for 2017. The physical specimen seems to be in the best shape of his life, a true credit to his top-notch workout program.

Matt Holliday best-case stat line in 2016:

.315/.405/.510 with 37 home runs, 120 RBI, 100 runs scored and 45 doubles.

Next: Worst Case: The Old Man with the Bum Quad