San Francisco – Matt Holliday’s march toward becoming the Rockies’ first homegrown power outfielder is approaching statistical credibility.
Holliday entered Tuesday with a .306 average, which would rank seventh in the National League, sandwiched between Brady Clark and Marcus Giles. After missing 33 games with a broken finger, Holliday sits 20 plate appearances shy of qualifying for the league leaders.
For a team looking for players to vindicate its youth movement, Holliday’s achievement would represent a breakthrough. He’s on pace to break into the leaders, bat willing, in approximately two weeks.
“There’s no doubt it’s a big deal,” Todd Helton said. “I still have the paper I cut out when I made the leaders my rookie year.”
While not focused on his stats, Holliday was aware he’s closing in on qualifying status. The 25-year-old has executed quite a U-turn. On May 11, he was hitting .255 with no home runs. Since then he has batted .328 with 14 home runs and 39 RBIs. That’s production befitting the cleanup spot he occupies in the lineup.
“Your swing is your swing,” said Holliday, who tripled home a run in Tuesday’s first inning. “I am doing a better job of driving the ball by keeping weight back.”
Making Holliday’s offense more impressive is he never hit more than .300 in his final five minor-league seasons.
“The one thing we all know is that he’s a gifted athlete, strong with a fast swing,” general manager Dan O’Dowd said.
No trades brewing
A year ago, the Giants claimed Shawn Estes and Jeromy Burnitz on waivers but were unable to complete a trade with the Rockies. This season, Colorado will not move a veteran before today’s deadline. This isn’t to suggest the Giants weren’t interested in Rockies players.
San Francisco pushed aggressively to acquire pitcher Jason Jennings in exchange for former catcher Yorvit Torrealba and Double-A pitcher Merkin Valdez, but the Rockies balked. Catcher Todd Greene and Dustan Mohr would be the most obvious candidates. Greene hasn’t attracted interest, and the Rockies are considering Mohr for their center-field vacancy next season.
Latch involved with USA
Rockies special assistant Marcel Lachemann will work with Team USA in November as it attempts to qualify for the 2008 Olympics. Lachemann would likely serve as a pitching coach and could end up helping USA manager Davey Johnson in the spring’s World Baseball Classic.
