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The Rockies visit Matt Holliday tonight (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Outrage! Disgust! Disbelief! Hunger!
These are all emotions and feelings Rockies fans had when Matt Holliday was traded shortly after the 2008 season to Oakland (Athletics Examiner).
Ok, I haven’t had breakfast yet and maybe that last one slipped in accidentally.
It was less than a year ago that the Colorado Rockies front office sent Holliday packing for three players everyone thought were far less valuable than Holliday. In return for Holliday the Rockies received young starting pitcher Greg Smith; a pitcher who throws entirely too many fly balls to be successful at Coors Field, Carlos Gonzalez; a young prospect that had yet to prove successful in the majors unless you count striking out as being successful, and Huston Street; a former Rookie of the Year who lost his mojo long ago.
Rockies fans were upset. A team that had made it to the World Series just a year ago was being dismantled, head first. The one guy that was nationally known was being sent packing and with a full year left on his contract too! Why not wait until next season and see if the Rockies could contend with Holliday first? If not, then trade him before the deadline in July of 2009 and the Rockies would surely get more value in return.
All valid questions without any answers.
We are now almost to July which means about three months of baseball has been played. Everyone outside of Colorado thought the Rockies were actually getting OK value in return for Holliday. Holliday, after all, is a product of Coors Field. His home/road splits after 2008 were fairly severe. In 2008 he slugged .584 at Coors and .486 on the road. In the year in which most Rockies fans thought he should have won the MVP, 2007, he slugged .722 at home and .485 on the road.
Outfielders that slug under .500 are pretty common in The Bigs.
It is 2009 and Holliday has played 70 games this season, nearly half way done, and he looks pretty pedestrian in Oakland. His OPS is .790 and he is only slugging .423. To put that in perspective among all major league outfielders with at least 200 at-bats Holliday ranks 45th in slugging (out of 73) and 37 out of 73 in OPS. He is average. Right in line with his career splits away from home (Coors Field for close to 350 games). He is Ryan Spilborghs, only Spilborghs has three less home runs. Holliday's stats match up almost evenly with Spilly's.
The Rockies now have Street closing games for them and a potential All Star. Street has been close to un-hittable over the past month. The Rockies also have the second piece of their outfield of the future. Dexter Fowler got the start at the beginning of the season and after Gonzalez tore the cover off of the ball in Colorado Springs (Sky Sox Examiner) he was called up to play with the big boys too. Only Smith has not had significant playing time for the Rockies of the players traded for Holliday. Sounds like a fair trade for Spilborghs, doesn't it?
All of this is irrelevant, however. Rockies fans will always remember Holliday for how he played in front of the home team at Coors; a player who absolutely raked. Hit for power and a high average and always came up big when needed, including a magical slide in game 163.
Along with watching old friend Holliday this weekend, keep an eye on the young pitchers in Oakland. Billy Beene is trying to put together the next coming of Zito/Hudson/Mulder and Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill are two pieces the Rockies will see this weekend. Both are great young pitchers and both are definitely worth tuning in to watch.
The Rockies look to get back on track tonight after losing their first series in nearly a month.
- What did the locals in Oakland think of Troy Tulowitzki during the 2007 run? Really good perspective from Oakland A's Examiner Scott Sabatini.
- Are he and Barmes the best middle infield in the major leagues?
- Who fixed Tulo and why is his power in the bat back?
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