Other Crap

The fans never seem to catch on to this Coors thing, do they?

Today the Rockies fans were cheering "MVP" for Matt Holliday. Matt has batted .301 with 11 homers on the road. Multiply his road number times two - 22 homers with a tepid .485 slugging average, .859 OPS. Not exactly MVP material. (He has batted .376 with 25 homers and 78 RBI at Coors!)

You'd think we would learn from past mistakes. Back in 1995, Greg Maddux had one of the greatest pitching seasons in the history of baseball. He was 19-2 with an ERA below 1.70 - 40% of the league average. No twenty game winner has ever earned a .900 winning percentage, and Maddux is the only 19 game winner to do so, and therefore owns the all-time record for most wins with a .900 winning percentage. He got fewer MVP votes than Dante Bichette, who hit 31 homers at Coors, 9 on the road! Bichette had virtually the same splits as Holliday does this year. He hit .377 at Coors (Holliday .376) and .300 on the road (Holliday .301)

If you look at the batting leaders in away games, to put everyone on almost-equal footing, you'd probably conclude that the MVP is the same guy who won it last year. Ryan Howard has 24 homers and 80 RBI on the road. Or you might conclude that it is the best hitter in the league. Albert Pujols has batted .360 on the road, with an OPS of 1.110. (Although Chipper Jones has kept pace with him across-the-board.)

Matt Holliday is 21st in the league in OPS on the road, behind Ryan Church and Chase Utley. Holliday is 26th in "away slugging average," still behind those two guys, but now also behind Xavier Nady, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Corey Hart, and Josh Willingham.

It is especially interesting to compare Josh Willingham and Matt Holliday. Take away Coors, and they are the same player! Slugging averages: .487 and .485. OBP: .364 and .374. Home Runs: 11 apiece. RBI: 53 and 55. Yet I don't hear a lot of fans chanting MVP when Willingham comes to the plate. By the way, Coors also affects hitters' salaries substantially. Willingham is playing for $380,000 this year, Holliday $4.4 million. They are about the same age, and each has three years experience. (Although Holliday has three full years, Willingham one full year and two partials.)