It’s still too early to declare a “winner,” but year one certainly looks like it’s going to Holliday and the Cardinals.  

I’ve been very impressed by Bay’s defense and speed (10 SB, 0 CS), and I’m still holding out hope that he’ll start hitting this year, but it might already be too late.  It’s hard to imagine that the Mets wouldn’t be in the thick of it right now if they had Holliday’s consistent and powerful bat.

I don’t buy the idea that Bay can’t handle New York after he hit the way he did in Boston.  New York is the big city, but in my book, the Mets are still a step down from the Red Sox in terms of intensity and pressure.  

Nor do I buy into the idea that Citi Field has sapped his power (he has three homeruns at home and on the road) or the idea that the stadium’s dimensions have gotten into his head (there’s as much evidence that someone has put a voodoo curse on his bat).  He’s just having a bad season.

After this season, the Mets will have Bay for three more years at $16 million a season, with a $17 million club option for 2014 that will almost certainly become guaranteed if he stays healthy.

As a Mets fan, I didn’t understand why the team seemingly never went after Holliday, and instead bid against themselves for Bay’s services, especially when it meant getting the older, (slightly?) inferior player and saving less than $1 million per season.  But that’s the way it’s been for this team and it’s fans lately.  

By all accounts, Jason Bay is a great guy with an accomplished major league track record.  He plays the game hard and is easy to root for; even when he’s not contributing with his bat, he’s running into walls making game-saving catches.

Let’s hope, for everyones sake, that he starts hitting sooner rather than later.