30-year old righty swinging Matt Holliday will be entering the first year of a seven year deal with the Cardinals that will make him a very rich man. Now he will be Albert Pujols protector in the lineup for a full year and it will be interesting to see what kind of outstanding numbers he can put up. Holliday played in 63 games for the Cardinals last season after coming over from the A’s in a trade and he was 83 of 235 (.353 avg, 1.023 OPS) with 42 runs scored, 13 homers, 55 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Holliday played in 156 games overall for the A’s and Cardinals last season in which he was 182 of 581 (.313 avg, .909 OPS) with 94 runs scored, 24 homers, 109 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Holliday played in 155 games in LF last season and he made 5 errors while showing average range. Holliday has a pretty good throwing arm as he had 7 assists last season. Look for Holliday to put up huge numbers in 2010 as long as he can stay healthy.

27-year old righty swinging Nick Stavinoha will likely back up Holliday in LF. He played in 27 games for the Cardinals last season and he was 20 of 87 (.230 avg, .621 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 2 homers and 17 RBIs. Stavinoha didn’t make any errors in 13 games in LF last season while showing pretty pathetic range.

24-year old lefty swinging Jon Jay is the Cardinals’ #13 rated prospect coming into this season according to Baseball America. Jay played in 136 games in AAA-ball last season and he was 142 of 505 (.281 avg, .732 OPS) with 72 runs scored, 10 homers, 54 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. He will have a legit shot to make the Cardinals this spring as a backup outfielder.

PROJECTED GRADE FOR THE LF IN 2010: A