Good afternoon.
Let’s take a look at Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt.
Because, why not? He has the hottest bat in the land.
Goldschmidt Stat Of The Day: First of all, I want to explain OPS+ again. It’s quite simple. A 100 OPS+ is exactly league average. So a hitter wants to be way above 100, right? And he doesn’t want to drift and drop and go under 100. Not to pick on the guy, but Corey Dickerson has a 34 OPS+ which means he’s 66 percent below league average offensively.
Goldschmidt has a 138 OPS+ since coming to St. Louis before the 2019 season in the trade with Arizona In his eight seasons in Arizona his OPS+ was 145. That’s just an eight-point difference. Goldy being 38 percent above league average offensively during his time as a Cardinal is nothing to complain about.
It’s impressive. Really impressive. The man was supposed to be in decline, right? Yes, the OPS+ is down just a bit from the Arizona years … but we aren’t talking about a dramatic drop in offense. Not even close.
May 31, 2022; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (46) celebrates with teammates after scoring against the San Diego Padres during the third inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
Goldschmidt is getting older, but he’s still hitting up to his established standards. Wait, check that: He’s exceeding some of his previous standards.
Here’s what I mean …
Goldy had a 139 OPS+ in his final three seasons (2016-2018) with Arizona. He put that together in his age 28, age 29 and age 30 seasons.
But over his last three seasons for the Cardinals (2020-2022) Goldschmidt has a 153 OPS+. That’s 14 points higher than his final three years in AZ. And this is extra special because Goldy put up that 153 OPS+ across his age 32, 33 and 34 seasons.
He’s supposed to be getting worse offensively.
But he’s actually improved offensively.
What aging curve?
Next Goldschmidt Stat Of The Day: Since the start of last season Goldy ranks 2nd among MLB hitters in RBI (142), 3rd in batting average with runners in scoring position (.364), 4th in batting average (.307), 5th in doubles (53), 6th in onbase percentage (.380), 7th in OPS (.920), and 9th in slugging (.920).
Final Goldschmidt Stat Of The Day: I gotta go fancy-pants stat here. Using the park-and-league adjusted runs created metric (wRC+), Goldschmidt is the fifth-best hitter in baseball since the start of last season at 51 percent above league average offensively.
And he’s doing all of these wonderful things in a season where offense is down around the majors.
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
Bernie invites you to listen to his opinionated and analytical sports-talk show on 590-AM The Fan, KFNS. It airs Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m. and Friday from 4-6 p.m. You can listen by streaming online or by downloading the “Bernie Show” podcast at 590thefan.com — the 590 app works great and is available in your preferred app store.
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All stats used here were sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Stathead, Bill James Online, Fielding Bible, Baseball Savant and Brooks Baseball Net unless otherwise noted.
For the last 36 years Bernie Miklasz has entertained, enlightened, and connected with generations of St. Louis sports fans.
While best known for his voice as the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch for 26 years, Bernie has also written for The Athletic, Dallas Morning News and Baltimore News American. A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has hosted radio shows in St. Louis, Dallas, Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Bernie, his wife Kirsten and their cats reside in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis.
