Earlier this week I posted a piece on Bleacher Report on Matt Holliday and his impending departure from the Cardinals.

LINK HERE

And while I firmly believe Holliday will not be a Cardinal in 2010, it doesn't mean I don't want him to be a Cardinal in 2010.

For whatever reason, Holliday has always been one of those guys on other teams that I respected the hell out of and wondered what it'd be like to have in a line-up with Albert Pujols. (Chase Utley, Hanly Ramirez, Milton Bradley are others. Well. Maybe not so much after the Cubs fiasco... but I did think with the right manager that dude could have been a star. Sadly, he enrolled in Kanye West's charm school somewhere along the line.)

You probably have your list of guys, too. But rarely does a part of that short list actually come into uniform for your team. And ever more rare? That guy being about 10 times better than you expected.

And let's be honest here. Before the nut shot heard 'round the city, Holliday was pretty much a fucking beast. He came in from day one and put every single Cardinal fan on notice that he was the real deal All-Star Matt Holliday that carried a mediocre Colorado team to the World Series and his time in Oakland was an aberration, not the norm.

But my main contention- that the Cardinals need to lose Holliday to be better in 2010- isn't based on any statistical logic. It's more based on the notion that every team needs a rallying point for a championship series. Lame or otherwise, this would be the A1 storyline for 2010 and weave it's way in and out of every conversation about the team in some form or fashion

Matt Holliday is going to get a monster contract from someone. If he wanted to be a Cardinal, he would be a Cardinal. But he's politely deffered any iota of commitment to anyone- meaning he can be wooed. And when it comes to wooing, the Cardinals front office pretty much relies on us. The fans.

And the fact that we did our best sell job the one playoff game in St. Louis this year and couldn't seal the deal? Well. That was pretty much the writing on the wall as far as I'm concerned. Matt Holliday could have signed a 5 year 80 million dollar deal that next week and he would have been carried through the streets after pretty much costing the Cardinals another year of Pujols' prime.

He didn't, though. He was loved in Colorado too and was offered over 80 million dollars within a similar time frame and declined that offer as well. His agent is Scott Boras. He's hinted that he likes the big city more than the small towns he grew up in. I mean, shit. When we look back on these days in a few months, we're going to say things like... "Why didn't he just draw us a diagram!"

It's going to be a painful day for Cardinal Nation when our love is rejected. When we feel embarrassed for thinking he cared about things like "fans". I DO NOT look forward to it. Because I know roughly 30% are reading this right now and are 100% convinced that he's coming back and that I'm a fucking moron.

I wish.


Aaron Hooks is managing editor of CardsDiaspora.com and a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He writes every Friday for InsideSTL. Follow him on Twitter.