Simply, Matthew Holiday is the greatest pitcher the Legacy Baseball League has known. Joining the Cleveland Athletics at league inception in 1895, the big righty from Kansas City has befuddled LBL hitters in each of his seven seasons. By the time he finally hangs up his cleats, he will have nearly single-handedly written the LBL pitching record book.
At 6'2", the mammoth right-hander is an intimidating sight when he takes the mound. Despite a generally soft spoken demeanor, the hurler has used an incomparable tenacity and competitive spirit to bend the LBL to his will since the day he first donned Cleveland's maroon-and-white uniform. Emerging from the old independent leagues in the Midwest, Holiday has never posted a season with less than 6.0 WAR/100 games. He has won 2 Western League Pitcher of the Year awards through the first 6 seasons and is the easy favorite for his third with the recently concluded 1901 season.
In 1901, Holiday raised the bar on his own unimpeachable standards of excellence by posting the best season of any LBL player in league history at the young age of 30. Posting 8.8 WAR in a 100 game season, Holiday led the WL in strikeouts (and posted a pitching line of 20-13 (with 2 saves), 166 Ks, 43 BB and a 2.67 ERA (2.26 FIP).
Holiday is the all-time LBL WAR leader through 7 seasons (with 47.9) and dominates with above average velocity and the total annihilation of the ability for opponents to square up the ball (55.4% GB rate).
Riding Holiday's dominant pitching efforts, Cleveland has won the Frontier Division of the LBL's Western League in five of its seven seasons. With exemplary work ethic and leadership, Holiday is hoping to get Cleveland over the hump in 1902 and help them to capture their first Legacy Cup.