St. Louis Cardinals’ Goldschmidt finds consistency in the fundamentals
There’s not a great deal of flash that comes with reaching base nearly half the times a hitter comes to the plate, so Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt had to reach deep into his bag of tricks to come up with a little panache.
“He’s playing with one button unbuttoned,” infielder Brad Miller explained, “so that’s his version of a little flash. He’s the Big Fundamental.”
“The Tim Duncan of baseball,” as Miller put it, is performing baseball’s most fundamental task at an outrageous pace thus far this season — he gets on base.
A lot.
Through Tuesday night’s action, Goldschmidt has appeared in each of the Cardinals’ 19 games. Only once, on July 28 in Minnesota, has he failed to reach base. He was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts that night, one of only three games in which he’s struck out more than once.
By contrast, he’s reached base multiple times in 12 of those 19 games, breaking a five-game streak in which he’d done so by going 0-for-4 with a walk in Tuesday night’s loss to Kansas City.
His .487 on base percentage would lead the National League by 27 points had the Cardinals played a sufficient number of games for Goldschmidt to qualify among the league leader. Whether he maintains that pace for long enough to reach the podium is to be seen, but if there’s anything with which Goldschmidt can be easily identified, it’s consistency.
“You’ve gotta be able to have good at bats,” Goldschmidt said. “When they make a mistake, hit it hard, and a little bit of luck in there.
“Just try to keep it goin’.”
See ball, hit ball is perhaps baseball’s most repeated formula, if not its most repeatable.
Several times in recent days Cardinals manager Mike Shildt has referred to hitting a baseball as the hardest thing to do in sports, and his team’s offensive inconsistency over the last two years bears that out.
Goldschmidt, whose first season in St. Louis was the least productive full season of his Major League career, has tried to find the calm of that missing consistency at the center of 2020’s storm.
“I think just embracing that you can’t make it what you’re used to,” said Goldschmidt of handling this season’s peculiarities. “I think you can either try to fight it or just accept it, and I think we’ve done a good job of just (going) out there and playing baseball.
“Guys try to prepare to the best of their ability, and then once the game starts go out there and compete, keep it simple.”
Part of that preparation, as Miller described it, was a team-wide video conference before the Cardinals resumed play in Chicago after a 17-day-long layoff due to repeated infections of COVID-19. Miller said Goldschmidt encouraged his teammates to, “have fun, laugh, this and that.”
Goldschmidt, certainly, has found his fun.
In the 14 games since the break, Goldschmidt has reached base 30 times — 15 walks and 15 hits — in just 57 plate appearances. He has nearly twice as many walks as strikeouts, of which he has only eight. His two doubles and two home runs over that stretch have driven his slugging percentage in those plate appearances to .548, and that consistency has had a radiating effect on those around him in the lineup.
“I know they definitely would prefer to pitch to me than him,” said Miller, whose 1.066 on base plus slugging percentage over that stretch trails only Goldschmidt’s 1.074.
“He’s just very steady and he’s like, ‘hey, keep going up there.’ He’s a steadying presence. He works his butt off. He’s a superstar and he does all the little things right, so I think that’s been a lot of fun to share the dugout and the locker room with him.”
With starting shortstop Paul DeJong missing eleven games after testing positive for the coronavirus, Goldschmidt has also been the anchor of a defensive infield which has featured some volatility, especially on the left side.
Miller possesses a strong arm from third base, but is not always accurate. Tommy Edman, who filled in at shortstop, had never before played the position in the majors.
To watch the Cardinals on a given night is to observe several plays in which Goldschmidt stretches the correct number of inches in a given direction to make a saving play that otherwise passes without notice.
He did commit an error against the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday night, throwing wide to Adam Wainwright covering at first base.
He let out an expletive that was audible enough to be heard in an empty stadium but also mild enough that it could’ve been aired on daytime television.
That’s “The Big Fundy,” playing loud.
“I just have been trying to take it day by day, at bat by at bat,” Goldschmidt said. “Get a good pitch to hit, hit it hard. Just try to keep it simple. I’ve been able to do it for a few days, but there’s a lot of games to go, so just try to keep it going.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 11:04 AM.
