Paul Goldschmidt’s no-good stretch: By the numbers
May 11, 2018, 9:25 AM
Arizona Diamondbacks' Paul Goldschmidt breaks his bat on a swing against the Houston Astros during the eighth inning of a baseball game Sunday, May 6, 2018, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Paul Goldschmidt has yet to get going.
It took the Arizona Diamondbacks’ five-time All-Star 11 games just to record a multi-hit game this year and the same amount of time to hit his first home run. Mid-April looked like it could be a turning point, and by the end of last month, he had batted .297 with four homers and 11 RBIs over the 30 days.
But the last seven games of April and first nine of May have been no good.
Here’s a look at his last few weeks at the plate and how it’s sunk his overall numbers.
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1
Goldschmidt has just one RBI in his last 17 games since April 22.
.059
That’s the first baseman’s batting average in May as he’s hit 2-for-34.
.187
For the year, that’s Goldschmidt’s average against right-handed pitchers in 91 at-bats. He’s doing quite well in 42 at-bats against lefties, hitting .286 with three of his four homers against southpaws.
.138
Chase Field hasn’t been kind to Goldschmidt, who is hitting .138 at home versus .294 on the road. His OPS is .572 at home to .910 away from home.
.200
While Goldschmidt began the season struggling at the plate, he at least was getting on board by taking a lot of walks. That’s not so true anymore. He’s walked seven times in the last 16 games. In the first nine games of May, that has coupled with his poor hitting to produce an on-base percentage of .200.
30.2
Goldschmidt is striking out 30.2 percent of the time, up from 22.1 percent last season. Nearly half of Goldschmidt’s games this season have included more than one strikeout, as he has compiled 18 multi-strikeout outings in 37 total games.
10
This season, Goldschmidt has the 10th-best batting average on the Diamondbacks at .218. He’s seventh in OPS at .744.
68.6
Per FanGraphs, most of Goldschmidt’s plate discipline statistics line up to last year’s numbers and those for his career. One outlier is his first-pitch strike percentage. Goldschmidt is falling behind on the first pitch 68.6 percent of the time. That’s well above last year’s percentage of 59, which was already the second-highest of his career.
74.3
The first baseman’s contact percentage of pitches thrown in the strike zone are also down. He’s making contact on 74.3 percent of in-the-zone pitches and hasn’t been below 80.2 percent since his rookie year.
24
Despite all the woes, Goldschmidt still leads the D-backs with 24 runs scored this year thanks to the trusty A.J. Pollock — who has very early MVP-type buzz — batting behind him at No. 4 in the order.
