Hey, remember when an exiled-in-Oakland Matt Holliday(notes) used to be a target for our sympathy? 

No mas. 

Though Roy Halladay(notes) has stolen much of Holliday's trading deadline thunder, the similarly-named slugger is again riling up other fans with the possibility of him being traded to one of their teams.

Tigers fans have their eyes on him. Yankees fans might be interested. Maybe Giants fans, too. 

Meanwhile, ESPN's Buster Olney is reporting that the Cardinals and A's are talking about a deal that'd would send prospect Big Brett Wallace to Oakland and set up a nightmarish duo — for the opposition, anyway — of Holliday and Albert Pujols(notes) in the St. Louis lineup.

Olney's source puts the chances of Billy Beane and John Mozeliak getting the deal done at "50/50".

For those of you still stuck on the idea that Holliday is a fallen creature and not much of a catch any more, please see this blessing from FanGraphs' David Cameron. While it's true that Holliday was famously struggling in the pitcher-friendly Coliseum environs, he's rebounded rather solidly. Since May 1, he's hitting .300/.402/.479 with 10 homers and 42 RBI. He's looking a little more like the guy that was poised to drive a Brinks truck with Scott Boras into this offseason.  

We'll wait and see where Holliday ends up, but as a baseball fan, I'd love to see what Holliday in a pretty neutral Busch Stadium and with a lineup that desperately needs his help. There'd also be a lot of great questions raised over his two months there, particularly whether or not the Cards could ever get over their usual distaste of dealing with Boras and whether or not they'd attempt to resign him while a contract extension for Pujols could still be an issue.  

On one hand, St. Louis has more than a few salaries coming off their books and could get creative in cementing one of the better, if not the best 3-4 punches, in the league. On the other, they could always just enjoy two months of Holliday then cash in two picks for the pleasure of late season services.

But that's getting way ahead of ourselves here.

For now, at least Holliday's back into coveted player status, where he belongs.