Update: HOLLIDAY A CARD 7yr/120 million, p178

[stlouie_lipp]

We lose Holliday we get two first round picks, correct? I kinda don't want him to sign then...

Really? You'd take two draft picks over a proven commodity?

[TGantz]

I know it's smart to build up the farm system and get talented young players, but re-signing a franchise player like Holliday in his prime should be the priority.

[clevername]

I'd rather resign him, but the 2 first rounders are the reason I'm not all doom and gloom if we don't. Things may not go so well next year, but it doesn't doom us for the next 5 years or anything...as long as it doesn't upset Albert to the point of leaving, but I imagine the team will be upgraded in other areas if the Holliday money isn't spent on him and Albert will feel just fine about his future in St. Louis. I'm in a hopeful mood this Thanksgiving.

(that said, screw the Red Sox.)

[cards2468]

I'd rather resign him, but the 2 first rounders are the reason I'm not all doom and gloom if we don't. Things may not go so well next year, but it doesn't doom us for the next 5 years or anything...as long as it doesn't upset Albert to the point of leaving, but I imagine the team will be upgraded in other areas if the Holliday money isn't spent on him and Albert will feel just fine about his future in St. Louis. I'm in a hopeful mood this Thanksgiving.

(that said, screw the Red Sox.)

I can't quite remember who said it, but it was said that when we have multiple first round picks, we tend to take cheaper 1st round picks unlike when we only have 1 and we get somebody like Wallace or Shelby Miller. I'll take 1 Miller over a couple of Peter Kozma's any day. The picks aren't as valuable to a team like us as most might think.

[clevername]

that's the way things used to be, but with the last two picks of Wallace and Miller and the Mateo signing I'm hoping the FO has recognized the use of spending that money at the front end of the draft.

[Eephus Speed]

Isn't it a first rounder and a sandwich pick? Or a sandwich pick and a second rounder if the signing team has a top 15 selection?

[clevername]

Isn't it a first rounder and a sandwich pick? Or a sandwich pick and a second rounder if the signing team has a top 15 selection?

it's that. And since the Mets don't look like they're going to be in it we'd probably get a 1st and a sandwich that's basically a 2nd 1st.

[fanforever]

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseb ... z0YIsHfTOw

Always, Matt Holliday has been willing to do whatever he could to get better. Perhaps it's part of the DNA coding of a coach's son. Even as a kid who grew so big, so fast in Oklahoma that he was barred from carrying the ball in Pee Wee Football and had to play in baseball leagues with older kids, Holliday "was ready to start paying the price in life, right down to what he ate, tending to details," his father, Tom, says.

As a star in the major leagues, Holliday has kept the same attitude - he recently added yoga to his fitness routine - and that keep-improving outlook is sure to be part of his approach even after he signs a mega-deal as perhaps the best free-agent slugger in baseball this winter.

"He doesn't live on his laurels, he doesn't sit back," says Tom Holliday, the associate head baseball coach at North Carolina State and the former head coach at Oklahoma State. "Everything he does has been dissected with his free agency season coming and he just has been fully dedicated. Always has been."

Holliday, who will be 30 in January, could figure into the winter plans of both New York teams and some reports state he craves the city's limelight. Others say he does not. He could stay in St. Louis, where he finished last season, or perhaps land in Boston. The Angels and Giants have both said they won't pursue him.

The Yankees could get involved in the Holliday sweepstakes depending on what happens with their own free agent left fielder, Johnny Damon, whom they'd like to re-sign. And Holliday fits the profile of what the Mets desperately need - a slugging outfielder - though it remains to be seen if they'll spend the kind of money that Holliday's agent Scott Boras is looking for - Boras has claimed that Holliday is worth a deal similar to the eight-year, $180 million contract Mark Teixeira got from the Yankees last year.

Either way, his dad says, the possibility of playing in New York is not daunting to Holliday. "I don't think that'd be any problem," Tom Holliday says. "He's grown-up. He's a man about that baseball world right now, and certainly everybody knows how much emphasis there is on winning in New York. He knows that and I think he totally appreciates that.

"We're a baseball-crazy family, so we feel he could play anywhere."

Growing up, Holliday spent a lot of time at his dad's practices, watching OSU stars such as Robin Ventura. Whenever his father sat in the dining room talking to one of his players, Holliday and his brother, Josh, would eavesdrop. "You could hear the television being turned down in the living room so they could hear," Tom Holliday says, chuckling.

By 2004, Holliday was a regular with the Rockies and he nearly won the 2007 NL MVP when he led the league in average (.340), RBI (137) hits (216) and doubles (50). He has a career average of .318, a career on-base percentage of .387 and career slugging average of .545.

"His power can break up a game at any time," one scout said.

Some have criticized Holliday because his career numbers at hitter-friendly Coors Field are better than his stats elsewhere - he has 84 career homers in 361 games at Coors Field, compared to 68 in 493 games elsewhere. His career average at Coors (.357) is 67 points higher than his average in other parks and he slugged .643 at Coors, .474 elsewhere.

"He's clearly the best bat in the free-agent class," says former Mets and Orioles executive Jim Duquette, now an analyst for Sirius/XM radio. "He's not Teixeira, but he's pretty good. He's one of those middle-of-the-order bats who are hard to resist.

"I'm not concerned about Coors numbers - I think what he did in St. Louis is a good representation of what you can expect. Plus, I don't think the criticism that he couldn't handle a big market has any merit. He could've played major college football and that takes toughness. I don't think New York would be a huge deal for him."

Holliday hit .286 with 11 homers and 54 RBI in 93 games for Oakland last year and then caught fire after he was traded back to the NL in St. Louis, batting .353 with 13 homers and 55 RBI in 63 games hitting behind Albert Pujols. Another scout, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the talk about Holliday was that he was uncomfortable in Oakland, but then "found solace in St. Louis."

"In Oakland, he took it as a challenge to help a young ballclub; sometimes you try too hard," Tom Holliday says. "The next stop was right into the frying pan with a contender that needed a boost and he felt like he could handle that. He really warmed up to that."

He could warm up to New York, too, if market circumstances fall the right way. Duquette, however, believes Holliday is headed back to the Midwest. "My gut is that he stays with St. Louis," Duquette says. "I think they have the wherewithal and the desire and, in the end, that'll be his best fit. They can win and he'll help them keep Albert, who finally got some protection in the lineup from him."

[Joe Shlabotnik]

He could warm up to New York, too, if market circumstances fall the right way. Duquette, however, believes Holliday is headed back to the Midwest. "My gut is that he stays with St. Louis," Duquette says. "I think they have the wherewithal and the desire and, in the end, that'll be his best fit. They can win and he'll help them keep Albert, who finally got some protection in the lineup from him."

I'm trying to stay cool about this whole Holliday business. But really, how many guys get to be tempted by the chance to get paired with one of the best hitters in all of history for years in a on-two tandem that could be remembered as long as they play the game? Pretty heady stuff.

[obucard]

He could warm up to New York, too, if market circumstances fall the right way. Duquette, however, believes Holliday is headed back to the Midwest. "My gut is that he stays with St. Louis," Duquette says. "I think they have the wherewithal and the desire and, in the end, that'll be his best fit. They can win and he'll help them keep Albert, who finally got some protection in the lineup from him."

I'm trying to stay cool about this whole Holliday business. But really, how many guys get to be tempted by the chance to get paired with one of the best hitters in all of history for years in a on-two tandem that could be remembered as long as they play the game? Pretty heady stuff.

Ruth/Gehrig. Mantle/Maris. Pujols/Holliday?