Jackson Holliday begs Orioles fans to calm down despite icy start

Baltimore Orioles fans clamored for Jackson Holliday to get his shot in the big leagues this year. The player, thus far, hasn't lived up to the hype.

Holliday is batting .033/.094/.033 in his first nine games of MLB action. He has one hit, two walks and 16 strikeouts. It's been bad. There's no way to sugarcoat it.

No one is happy about his ice-cold start but Holliday doesn't want anyone hitting the panic button yet.

"I’ve gone through this before in the minor leagues. Not to start a season or to start a big league career, but it did happen in High-A," Holliday told Roch Kubatko of MASN. "You fail a lot in baseball. It’s happened to every single person in this locker room. It’s just a different timing for me. It just happens to be right at the beginning. Better to get it out of the way at the beginning, huh?”

Holliday says he's adjusting to MLB at the moment and trying to build off the positives he's been able to muster, like hitting offspeed pitches to the middle of the field, even if they were lineouts. Those good swings can become hits down the road.

“Overall, the past few games I’ve had some positives. Obviously, no hits but some good at-bats, some walks, some good swings. So I’m kind of looking at it that way and building off those and looking back to what I was doing in spring training and trying to get back to a few little things," Holliday said.

Jackson Holliday needs time to figure things out and that's okay

This is the reality of calling up a 20-year-old. Players at every age have to adjust to their surroundings, especially when going up a level. What's made Holliday stand out as a prospect is that he eventually figures it out and thrives. The Orioles have to have faith he'll do that this time as well, whether he turns it around quickly enough in the big leagues or needs to spend more time in the minors.

If fans need something to calm their nerves over Holliday, consider this:

Holliday is going through a rough patch, but so is Aaron Judge. The Yankees star has had a stretch in his last 23 at-bats as the Orioles rookie.

As Holliday said, baseball is hard, even for veterans at the top of their game.