Matt Holliday

I've mentioned before here that I am a Cardinals fan.  As such, I root for my team, all players and staff of the team.  I don't start booing guys that are starting to stink up the joint due to being injured, especially when a player may have been the best closer in club history.  (Yes, Izzy was better than Number 42, but I digress)  I spend a lot of time on Cards Talk and St. Louis Legends because I like to discuss Cardinals baseball with reasonable people, which I believe comprises a lot of most fan bases.  That being said, there's been a lot of vitriol towards Matt Holliday.

Holliday is struggling to start this season.  Coming into tonight's (4/23) game against the Cubbies, he was hitting 216/266/378 with only 3 HR.  A lot of people are getting on his case because he was expected to slide into Albert Pujols' spot in the order and produce like he always has.  Apparently, after 79 PA, there is a vocal minority raging against him.  There are two criticisms of him that I want to discuss here.

1) He isn't "clutch".  Without talking about what clutch is and whether or not it exists, I'm going to assume people mean that he doesn't come through late in games when the score is tight.  While I don't care for the close and late stats on BR, mostly due to them being small sample sizes, his OPS in those situations is 911.  His career OPS?  924.  He's pretty much the same hitter in every situation.  And he's awesome in every situation.

2) He isn't better than Lou Brock.  As I've mentioned before, I love talking about the Hall of Fame.  And, me being a Cardinal fan, I love Lou Brock.  Mostly because he was a good hitter and helped my favorite team win 2 World Series in the 1960s.  Having said that, Matt Holliday is SO far ahead of Brock it isn't funny--in fact, you might be insulting Holliday with such a remark.  To keep things short, Matt Holliday has an RC27 of 7.6.  Lou Brock has an RC27 of 5.2.  9 Hollidays would outscore 9 Brocks by almost 2.5 runs a game.  Matt Holliday's SecA (which takes into account steals--which is what Brock is known for) is 344 and Brock's is 252.  And, for good measure, Holliday's OPS+ is 136 and Brock's is 109.

Cards fans, we're better than this.