New York – Father knows bats.
Tom Holliday is not your typical dad. He watches son Matt with a trained eye, a byproduct of his job as pitching coach for national champion Texas. When the Rockies outfielder struggled through the season’s first six weeks, Dad was grinding his teeth.
“It’s a little thing called expectations,” Tom Holliday said at Coors Field last weekend. “But I know him as well as anyone. I knew he would come out of it.”
Of the Rockies’ questions answered this season, perhaps none is more important than Matt Holliday proving his power. Since the all-star break, he’s hitting .321 with 14 home runs and a National League best 61 RBIs. Projected starting center fielder Cory Sullivan and Brad Hawpe have combined for 13 home runs – for the year.
“The uncluttering of my mind began before the break,” Holliday said. “I stopped trying to do so much and went back to keeping everything simple.”
Holliday is set to enter next season as the Rockies’ cleanup hitter. There will be no physical adjustment for the role, with the slugger admitting he’s comfortable at his 225-pound playing weight.
PICK AND CHOOSE: Midway through April, the Rockies were drawing comparisons to the 1962 Mets, baseball’s worst team. Now they aren’t even the worst team in the National League, ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates. This weekend’s games will determine where Colorado picks in the June amateur draft – second through fifth among the possibilities. Kyle Drabek, son of 1990 NL Cy Young Award winner Doug Drabek, is considered the nation’s top high school prospect. And University of North Carolina left-hander Andrew Miller tops most collegiate lists.
FIRST AND LONG SHOT: The irony wasn’t lost on Ryan Shealy. Two days after taking flyballs in the outfield with Choo Freeman’s glove, the rookie started at first base Thursday night. “If I had known that’s all it took, I would have done it sooner,” Shealy joked.
Manager Clint Hurdle wanted to see Shealy face Tom Glavine after the slugger performed well against left-handers in the minor leagues. The prospect hit 26 home runs in Triple-A, motivating the outfield experiment.
FOOTNOTE: Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone singled out Rockies reliever Ryan Speier for praise, saying, “He’s hard for guys to pick up with that unusual delivery.”
