Rockies Enjoying Their Holliday

The Colorado Rockies are off to a strong start this season, with a 37-34 record (they haven't had a winning season since 2000, when they went 82-80). Unfortunately, the NL West is turning out to be a very competitive division, with the Padres, D-Backs & Dodgers ahead of them in the standings. A lot of their success is due to their 1 through 4 hitters; CF Willy Taveras (.315, 17 SB), 2B Kazuo Matsui (.316, 12 SB), LF Matt Holliday (.366, 13 HR, 57 RBI) and Todd Helton (.326, 6 HR, 37 RBI). They also have RF Brad Hawpe (.291, 12 HR, 47 RBI) & SS Troy Tulowitzki (.278, 4 HR, 29 RBI) contributing later in the line-up.

Typically when you think about the Rockies, Todd Helton obviously comes to mind as the star hitter. But, the 33 year old Helton has slowed down in the past few years, going from batting .347, 32 HR & 96 RBI in '04, to .320, 20 HR & 79 RBI in '05, to .302, 15 HR & 81 RBI in '06. Luckily for the Rockies they had the addition of Matt Holliday in '04, who has improved every season he's been with the team, hitting .290, 14 HR & 57 RBI in '04, .307, 19 HR & 87 RBI in '05 and .326, 34 HR & 114 RBI in '06 (kind of like a passing the torch type of deal huh?).

Holliday has been consistently hitting well every month so far this season (guess you have to for a .366 BA!), and is on track to have 200+ hits, 130 RBI & 30 HR. He doesn't have any Auto RC's, so his key base from '99 would be his Bowman Chrome RC. Expect to pay between $10 to $15 TAC on auction.

I'm guessing that the Rockies' NL West competitors will probably start choking as the season winds down (like they often unfortunately do), so if they can maintain their consistent level of play (like how they just swept the Yankees this week), they have a chance to finally go to the playoffs again (the last & only time was in '95).