Hit fest for Holliday: No. 1 prospect tallies 3rd 5-hit game of the season
Brendan Samson
@brendan_samsonJust yesterday, MLB Pipeline dropped its new Top 100 prospects re-rank and once again, Jackson Holliday found his name at No. 1.
Holliday's lock on that top spot was only strengthened by going 5-for-6 in Bowie’s 9-7 win over the Richmond Flying Squirrels on Friday night. The highlight of the night for last year's first overall pick came in the seventh inning when he swatted a triple off the center-field wall, plating two runs. The 19-year-old also stole his 21st base of the season in the sixth, showing off both his 70-grade hit and 60-grade run tool in short order.
The last time a Baysox player tallied a five-hit night was in 2019 when outfielder Cedric Mullins hit for the cycle. For Holliday, the five-hit performance was the latest in a string of impressive outings, including last Saturday, when he went 4-for-5 and swatted his second Double-A homer -- and ninth of the season in total. He followed that up with his 10th jack of the year the next day.
Seemingly on a nightly basis this season, the Orioles’ top prospect has continued to amaze. The five-hit night is his first for Double-A Bowie, but his third in total -- all the more impressive considering he is younger than nearly everyone he plays against.
If that isn’t enough, he’s tallied 29 multihit efforts in 88 games played this season. That means any given day that Holliday’s name is penciled in the lineup, there’s nearly a 33 percent chance that he will collect more than one hit in that contest.
At this point, it's seemingly like Holliday is playing “MLB The Show” on rookie difficulty. Through 17 games with the Baysox, he’s hitting .386 with a 1.049 OPS, a continuation of his performances in High-A and Single-A where he posted a .940 OPS and a 1.182 OPS, respectively.
Coinciding with the midseason re-rank, MLB Pipeline updated its rankings of all the No. 1 overall prospects since 2004 based on pre-MLB hype. Holliday came in at No. 5, behind only Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Shohei Ohtani, Wander Franco and Byron Buxton. Those are some serious names to be in the mix with, especially considering that Holliday’s hype will continue to grow in the time before he inevitably makes his Major League debut.