Since arriving with the St. Louis Cardinals, Paul Goldschmidt has not quite been the same player he was in Arizona. His approach and production at the plate greatly varied from his established track record. Here is an explanation as to why he may be in the road back.
In the past offseason, the Arizona Diamondbacks shipped off Paul Goldschmidt to the baseball capital of the Midwest, the St. Louis Cardinals – a city emblazoned by the prominent, stainless steel clad arch. It is not only a different atmosphere but a highly different playing roster construction.
The laid back vibes of Pheonix, Arizona did not travel with him, he is under slightly more stress- not equivalent to the pressure cooker of the North East- but enough. Also, the roster is not constructed with an emphasis on an aggressive approach at the plate.
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The entire St. Louis Cardinals roster lacks an ability to work counts at all, ranking among the bottom in the league in terms of on-base percentage and slugging percentage. However, Goldy has found a recent string of success since the onset of the second half.
He has made an adjustment, by attacking pitches up in the zone- rather than waiting for a pitcher out. The approach had not yielded much success for him, as most pitchers have been attacking the zone against the patient Goldschmidt. He made his own adjustment by eventually launching all of the balls in the upper portion of the strike zone.
Goldschmidt has seen his walk rate plummet in the second half, while his slugging percentage and OPS have skyrocketed. Even more so his batting average on balls in play has sunken from the first half, which indicates a rise in average will be coming soon.
While this seems strange, his first-half held the lowest ISO- slugging percentage without batting average- since 2016, in which he posted a career-low 24 home runs. It has shot up since the start of July, however, it would appear that things will all settle into place relatively soon.
The walk rate is bound to rise a bit, as his hot streak tempers down. It is unlikely to reach the highs of 2015-2017, yet he still can raise his OBP to a respectable height.
An aggressive approach will only be this successful when a player such as Goldschmidt can drive the ball out of the park with regularity. A .330 OBP is league average and in order to prolong this run of success, he must boost that while maintaining a high slugging percentage.
This new approach is a step in the right direction, yet Paul Goldschmidt must adjust as pitchers catch on to his new, aggressive style.