ST. LOUIS — It's hard to call a .260/.346./.476 slash line with 34 home runs and 97 RBI a "bad" year for a player. Most guys around baseball would take that year in a heartbeat.
But for Paul Goldschmidt, it did seem like there was more in the tank than what he put out in his first year with the Cardinals in 2019. Now, so far in this abbreviated 2020 season, he's been one of the best hitters in the game, and is giving Cardinals fans exactly what they thought they were getting when he came over from Arizona.
So far through 18 games this season with the Cardinals, the 32-year-old first baseman is hitting .368 with an on-base percentage of .507 and OPS of 1.068. In a nutshell, Goldschmidt is getting on base more than half of the times he's come to the plate this season.
While the Cardinals still have played significantly fewer games than a lot of teams around the league due to their COVID-19 outbreak, Goldschmidt's OBP is still 51 points higher than the next closest player.
But Goldschmidt is getting on base in all sorts of ways. He's making hard contact, he's hitting the ball over the fence and he's walking at an impressive rate. "Goldy" already has 16 walks in 57 at-bats in 2020. That's a walk rate of nearly 22%, the second best in baseball.
And the ways Goldschmidt is getting on base are having a direct effect on his team winning games.
Goldschmidt currently leads baseball in wOBA, or "weighted on-base average". That advanced statistic assigns a value to each method of reaching base in terms of how it impacts scoring runs.
But Goldy's hot start isn't just good for him. It's good for the whole lineup. Especially for the guys hitting in front of and behind him like Tommy Edman and Brad Miller.
And Miller has been loving every moment of playing, and getting to know Goldschmidt.
"He's a superstar and he does all the little things right. So that's been fun to share the dugout and the locker room with him," Miller said.
"He's (Goldschmidt's) the 'Big Fundy'. He's the Tim Duncan of baseball. We're pushing that... And Paul, when we came back here, we had a Zoom call before we played the White Sox, and he said, 'Hey, we're just going to go out there and have fun, laugh and kind of play loose'. And all Paul has done, is he's playing with one button unbuttoned. So that's his version of a little flash. He's the big fundamental."
And in true "Big Fundy" fashion, Goldschmidt has just been doing his job like always, even as his statistics reflect one of the hottest players in the game.
"I've just have been trying to take it day by day at-bat by at-bat. Just get a good pitch to hit, hit it hard and keep it simple," Goldschmidt said.
The Cardinals have gone 8-5 since they returned from their COVID-19 hiatus, with Goldschmidt at the front of the pack leading the charge. If he can keep anchoring a Cardinals lineup that needs a strong man in the middle, this team could be able to keep the good times rolling.