Labrador Puppies. Good wine. A delicious burger. There are very few things that I love more than the St. Louis Cardinals. I don't even know if I love those things more than the Cards. And it's because I love them that I am appealing to, nay, DEMANDING (OK, I'm really begging) St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny when I say - for the love of God and all things good, please, please, please bench Matt Holliday for the postseason. I have nothing against him personally. In fact, I really like Matt Holliday. He is a stand up man of great character. An incredibly positive influence in the dugout, particularly for our young players, and one of the anchors of my beloved St. Louis Cardinals. We would not be in the postseason without him. His regular season consistency regularly puts us in the postseason. But it is at the end of the regular season where my admiration for him also ends. St. Louis Cardinals fans are loyal. We are (mostly) humble (there are some obnoxious braggarts out there). We LOVE our team and are grateful and proud every time they make it to the postseason. Our fans are also some of the most baseball-intelligent fans I've ever seen (to this day, a Cardinals game in St. Louis is the only game I've been to where the entire stadium - men, women, and even most of the children - erupted in protest when the opposing team's pitcher balked). And it is because of these characteristics inherent in every baseball fan in St. Louis that every time I mention that Matt Holliday should be benched people call me crazy. They shouldn't, because as baseball-intelligent people, every Cardinals fan knows deep down that the playoffs are not his forte. But loyalty trumps all, and that's why no one will listen. They can't. They are blinded by loyalty. My brother and I have the same argument every time the Cards are in the postseason, usually via text. Me: Here comes a strikeout. Brother: Nah. He'll do something. He's due. Me: Due to sit on the bench and watch. Brother: We wouldn't be here without him. Me: Doesn't matter now. He can't and won't do anything when we need him to. Brother: I hope he kills it. Me: I hope I have to pull my foot out of my mouth and eat crow, too. Pause as we watch the at bat. Me: Yup, he killed it. Right into that double play. Brother: Shut up. Without further ado, I present to you the evidence in 'Brian vs. Matt Holliday's playoff starting place'. Where shall we start? Why at the beginning, of course. While 2009 was a wash for most Cardinals, it was particularly terrible for Matt Holliday. He did far more bad than good. He batted .167. From striking out with the bases loaded and no outs in Game 1, to his Game 2 blunder that no one will ever forget, to his terrible Game 3 showing, this was 3 games to forget for Mr. Holliday. And while it was great of his teammate Ryan Franklin to come to his defense after Game 2, the fact remains that the game was indeed lost by Holliday, and the Cardinals were quickly brushed aside. The next time the Cardinals made it to the postseason with Holliday on their books was the miracle run of 2011. Credit to him, he was fighting off injuries for the final month of the season, and still contributed to the amazing run that put the Cards into the postseason. But that's where the party stopped. His defensive flaws were a little less prevalent this time around - but don't think that I forgot about his royal SNAFU when he should have been the one to catch a ball in the 4th inning of Game 6 of the World Series and he let it drop. While his batting average for the entirety of the postseason was MUCH better at .294, it was a bit inflated. If you take away the garbage-time hits (hits that didn't contribute to impacting the game because either we were already well in control, or we had no chance of winning) his average drops to an amazing .216. If you didn't catch the sarcasm there, please stop reading now. You already don't like this article, anyway. Yes, on paper it looks like he tore it up during the NLCS against Milwaukee, and to a certain extent he did. But that's also where all of his garbage-time hits came. In the NLDS he batted .222 against Washington, and .158 in the World Series. More his style. 2012 was a different year with the same results. He batted .224, and a couple of his hits were garbage-time hits, making his already pathetic average even more pathetic. He just didn't show up, and we really needed him to. After a promising start, we crashed out of the NLCS. What will the 2013 postseason hold for one of St. Louis' fan favorites? I say more of the same. My question is - why? What is it about the postseason that makes him anonymous? I don't know if he's nervous, or if he's just put so much pressure on himself to perform well that he caves under it. Whatever the reason, it's time for him to ride the pine. "How will we replace him," you ask? Well, while a broom stuck in the ground would be just as effective in his place, I do have a better option - Matt Adams. He is a monster. He has been unbelievable. Move Craig to the outfield when he comes back from his injury. He's an outfielder anyway. Holliday sits. Maybe he comes on as a pinch hitter late in games or as an impact player if we find ourselves trailing in a game. Not that he'll help, it's the playoffs after all. "Well, we don't know how long Craig will be out," you say. "There's no way that we don't play Holliday if Craig isn't in the lineup," you also say. While I see your point to a certain degree, let me ask you - have you not read the article up until now nor watched the Cardinals in the playoffs over the last few years? HOLLIDAY IS TERRIBLE IN THE PLAYOFFS. If you take anything away from this article it is that. In fact, this entire article could have only been that one sentence over and over again. So put in Shane Robinson. Or Adron Chambers. Heck, I don't care, put Matt Carpenter back in the outfield and put Descalso in at second base until Craig is back. Anyone is going to play better than Matt Holliday. It's a fact. I'll say it again - I like Matt Holliday, I really do. He's a good ballplayer. However, he should not be in our starting lineup in October. I hope he reads this. There's no way in hell that he will, but I hope he does. I hope Mike Matheny reads this, too. I want them to prove me wrong. I say that I 'want them to prove me wrong' because I know that Matheny will never pull Holliday. But he should. Because if he does then we'll be celebrating our 12th World Series championship. However, if for some reason Matheny doesn't bench Holliday, and if we win it all anyway, and if Holliday is the reason that we win the World Series, then I'll get a tattoo across the entirety of my back that says "Matt Holliday 4 eva, b****es!!!" Pinky swear. All statistics from this article come from espn.com