Cold air chills Holliday's approach

To start the year, Matt Holliday experienced a rare power outage. He hit the All-Star break with a sub-.400 slugging percentage and went all of May without hitting a home run. As the season progressed, Holliday re-discovered his power stroke and finished with his typical offensive numbers.

In the first half, he didn’t pull many pitches with authority, which many speculated was the source of his power leak. But in the second half, his power returned but in a different way - he stayed to the middle of the park. His .489 wOBA on balls hit to center field was seventh best in all of baseball this season.

Despite his power numbers dipping to career-worst levels in 2014, his power hasn’t waned completely. His average fly ball distance is still among the best in baseball, his 292 foot average distance placed him ahead of Mike Trout and just behind Andrew McCutchen, despite each of those hitters outslugging Holliday by more than 100 points.  

In the first inning, Holliday took a Madison Bumgarner offering deep to right-center field. Base runner Matt Carpenter aggressively rounded second base expecting the ball to land safely, only to see Gregor Blanco run it down. As was pointed out during the broadcast, the cold air likely played a factor in knocking that drive down.

Holliday is getting older but this bat still holds a lot of pop. His up-the-middle approach allows him to bang doubles and home runs to the alleys, but in the colder air it might hurt him and the Cardinals this fall. Look for the Giants to follow the trend against Holliday by pounding the Cards big bat with heat, daring him to use the big part of the park.