Paul Goldschmidt, St. Louis Cardinals
Last week, it was Paul Goldschmidt’s ridiculous hard-hit rate that caught our eye. This week? It’s his very, very odd triple slash.
The Cardinals’ newest first baseman has made his mark at the plate by smashing six homers and driving in 10 runs while scoring 10 more of his own. His 112 wRC+ tells us his overall production at the plate has been solidly above average, but his batting line just doesn’t look right through 59 plate appearances: .180/.305/.540.
Goldschmidt’s performance against certain pitches shows a clear divide in what’s going on, too. He’s crushing four-seamers (189 wRC+) and sliders (264) from opposing pitchers, but has struggled against sinkers (29), changeups (-38), and curveballs (44).
So, is this technically a surprising start? Not quite because of how the advanced stats portray his production. His triple slash is just weird and worth pointing out because that’s part of the fun with early-season statistics.
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book and created an online class about how to get started as a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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