Jackson Holliday struggling to cope with poor start to Orioles career

Much like his father Matt, Jackson Holliday’s MLB career is off to a slow start. As of this writing, Holliday is batting just .059, but the storyline has been buried thanks to the Orioles winning ways. That’s one benefit to playing for a team like Baltimore, which is littered with top prospects — while the pressure is on Holliday, he is not alone in this process. The entire team is young and making adjustments on the fly.

Holliday will eventually figure things out, just as his father did. Whether that requires another trip to the minor leagues remains to be seen. Every player’s path is different. Holliday is a tremendously-talented infielder who has hit at every level. This is one of his first roadblocks, and it shows.

“Obviously I wasn’t expecting this,” Holliday said. “I knew what I was getting myself into. It’s the best of the best of the best for a reason. I guess I haven’t had a challenge yet, and this is the first one. … It’s obviously challenging, but I feel like I’m handling it the best that I can.”

Jackson Holliday is clearly pressing, and Orioles manager Brandon Hyde knows it

On the surface, it looks like Holliday is pressing some. A couple of days off could do the young infielder some good, which Brandon Hyde acknowledged as well.

“It’s not easy on this stage to not get off to the start that you want to,” Hyde said. “Especially if you’re 20 and you have one year of professional experience. You just try to put your arm around him. Try to make sure that he’s OK mentally. He’s just trying to do a little too much. He’s trying to get a hit. He’s trying to produce.”

And there lies the primary issue. Holliday is thinking too much. Yes, baseball requires intuition and the ability to act on certain pitchers’ traits, but what Jackson is considering goes far beyond that. He is pressing, and nervous he won’t live up to the hype.

All the moments leading up to Holliday’s big-league debut were just that — hype. Now he needs to back up all the prospect rankings, hearsay and publicity he’s received since he was drafted No. 1 overall. Thus far, the weight of those expectations has gotten the best of him.

This article was originally published on fansided.com as Jackson Holliday struggling to cope with poor start to Orioles career.