Matt Holliday vs. Jason Bay: Who Do You Want?

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In the offseason there are normally multiple free agents available at a single position. Most years it’s easy to tell who the best player is and therefore, who should be receiving the biggest contract. You can always count on there being a player who stands out above the rest.

This offseason is a bit atypical as it’s led by two free agents, Jason Bay and Matt Holliday, who both play left field.

It’s inevitable that major league teams with a vacancy in left field are going to be debating in the coming weeks on who necessitates the biggest chunk of change from their wallet.

Quite frankly, the answer isn’t an easy one; both players are relatively similar in what they do on the field. Bay had a roller coaster of a season: he started out the first two months of the season with a bang, only to struggle in the next two, and finish up his 2009 campaign on a very high note.

Holliday struggled out of the gate, but was traded to the Cardinals and saw his production increase exponentially.

Let’s take a look at what each player did this year, and then break down the aspects of their game in order to figure out should be higher on draft boards for next year in fantasy leagues (fair warning: it’s fairly comprehensive):

Matt Holliday
.313 Batting Average (182 Hits)
24 Home Runs
109 RBI
94 Runs
14 Stolen Bases
.394 On Base Percentage
.515 Slugging Percentage
.346 Batting Average on Balls in Play

Jason Bay
.267 Batting Average (142 Hits)
36 Home Runs
119 RBI
103 Runs
13 Stolen Bases
.374 On Base Percentage
.537 Slugging Percentage
.318 Batting Average on Balls in Play

Batting Average

Taking into account Holliday playing in Coors Field for five seasons, he’s a career .318 hitter. Even though the BABIP seems high, his career average is a .354 mark, so this year’s BABIP isn’t all that outlandish.

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