As we take a moment to breathe during the All-Star break, perhaps now is a nice time for a little perspective.
Do you realize that Paul Goldschmidt is the best player in the National League?
Did you know that if the season ended today, he’d win the batting title?
And how about this one — he also would be the winner of a modern triple crown, that being the three “slash” stats of batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
Maybe you knew all of this. But perhaps this gives some in Cardinals Nation a full appreciation of the All-Star first baseman.
Goldschmidt has been worth every penny of his contract.
And one has to think his numbers will remain remarkable through the rest of the season for two reasons.
One being that the Cardinals (50-44) face teams with losing records in 47 of their 68 remaining regular-season games. That’s a lot of Pittsburgh pitching.
And the other is the return of Tyler O’Neill to the middle of the St. Louis lineup. In the second half, you want to think a healthy and refreshed O’Neill will hit more like his 2021 self (.912 OPS) than his 2022 self so far (.650 OPS). That would beef up the lineup and affect pitching strategies to Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado.
Really, Goldschmidt’s first half (the “half” being 94 games) has been a privilege to watch. Here’s hoping Cardinal fans cherish what Goldschmidt does in that batter’s box — and does so matter-of-factly. In an era of outward emotions, Goldschmidt contributes by occasionally actually smiling. If this was the NFL, he’d have the top-selling jersey, if this was the NBA he’d been in some cool commercial. But it’s Paul Goldschmidt in the MLB, which just means he calmly goes up there and hits baseballs like he’s Roy Hobbs.
If Goldschmidt (1.004 OPS with 20 homers and 70 RBIs) is to win the MVP, he’d be the first Cardinal to do so since Albert Pujols won in 2009. In the past 50 years, a Cardinal has only won the MVP five times. Three were Albert. The others were Willie McGee (1985) and Keith Hernandez (1979).
Goldschmidt enters Tuesday’s All-Star Game with a league-high .330 batting average, followed by fellow first baseman Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers (.321). Since Stan Musial retired, a Cardinal has only won the batting title five times. Pujols was the most recent, but that was back in 2003.
From his office Sunday before the game was postponed, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol captured Goldschmidt’s batting profile this way: “When you drive the ball as well as he does and you hit for power, hit for average and are a well-rounded hitter — and not just hitting .220 with a 30% strikeout rate with 30 homers, but, like, actually being a hitter that is feared in all situations — that's a big deal.”
Other NL standouts have big numbers but a glaring drop-off in a key category, be it Kyle Schwarber with batting average, Pete Alonso with OBP or Freeman with home runs. But in the NL in 2022, Goldschmidt is inimitable.
That brings us to the modern triple crown. Now, as for the traditional triple crown, “Goldy” is sixth in homers (Schwarber leads with 29) and second in RBIs (Alonso leads with 78). The last NL triple crown winner was the Cards' Joe Medwick, in 1937. But these days, we’ve come to respect the “slash” line. A batting average tells us about a player’s hitting prowess, OBP tells us about his ability to simply get on base and slugging percentage looks at how many bases he’s getting on.
To win the “slash” triple crown means a guy not only wins the batting title, but leads in OBP, slugging and, thus, OPS. Since 1950, it’s only happened five times in the National League.
Think about that for a moment.
There was Larry Walker for Colorado in 1999 (but consider that his home batting average was .461, while .286 on the road). Todd Helton did it the following year for Colorado (and to his credit, he just hit — .391 at home, .353 on the road, with an OPS over 1.00 at both Coors Field and away). San Francisco’s Barry Bonds did it twice (2002 and 2004), but of course we must consider the preponderance of evidence that he used PEDs.
And the other two were recently. Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich did it in 2019, while Washington’s Juan Soto did it in 47 games played of the 60-game pandemic season of 2020.
And in 2022, Paul Edward Goldschmidt leads the NL in batting average (.330), OBP (.414), slugging (.590) and OPS (1.004).
Asked which of the two triple crowns is more impressive, Cards president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said: “I think history would say the first, but modern baseball would say the second. I think if anyone were to do either, that's an amazing run — and one that we just really haven't seen much of. …
“We’re witnessing greatness — and it’s amazing to be a part of. And just watching those performances, I was reminded a little bit of what we all got to witness when we were watching Albert in his prime.
"That's why you go out and trade for a Paul Goldschmidt, because you want to see that type of talent in this type of ballpark for these types of fans.”
