No Holliday Discount

Last offseason Mark Teixera signed for $180 M. This offseason, Scott Boras is doing everything he can to compare Holliday to Teixera, calling him a “complete player” and “one of about 30 franchise players in MLB.” I wouldn’t get anywhere near Matt Holliday. This isn’t because he isn’t a good player, but because Boras is a master at getting players paid well beyond their worth. I’m still not sold that Teixera is THAT good. He had pretty good numbers this year, sure, but that park (New Yankee Stadium) is an absolute joke. Perhaps I will take a look at his home/away splits next (*). One knock on him out of the gate is that he plays 1B and thus shouldn’t be paid in addition to his offensive prowess such as a SS or CF should.

He is a complete player…in Colorado. Are you going to spend $180 M on a guy with those Home/Away splits and for which most of the data you have came from when he played IN Colorado? Throw in the fact that he sucked in Oakland (and was showing no power), then went to St. Louis in a lineup that included Albert Pujols (the best hitter in baseball), and that is where he began to hit again. But, would you pay $180 M for a player who has never shown great ability outside of Coors Field aside from half a summer hitting in a lineup with one of the greatest hitters of all time? I sure wouldn’t.

(*) Teixera 2009 – OPS, HR
Home - 1.014, 24
Away - .882, 15

Want to read more about this subjet? This was posted after my original post by ESPN's Rob Neyer.
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/1700/holliday-isnt-teixeira