There’s a good chance you haven’t seen much of Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt over the last few seasons, despite the fact that he’s one of the best hitters in baseball. If Goldschmidt’s in your blindspot, don’t feel too bad, that’s just what happens when a guy plays in Arizona for a team that has not been very good lately. But do take a second to marvel at this home run that Goldy hit last night:
According to ESPN’s home run tracker, that dinger had a true distance of 482 feet, making it the third longest homer of the year behind a pair of 484-foot Giancarlo Stanton bombs—that’s nothing to be ashamed of, considering Stanton isn’t really human.
On Tuesday, Goldschmidt hit a ball so dang hard to the opposite field that it burrowed its way into a crease in the outfield wall:
Goldschmidt’s hitting .331/.446/.571 with 25 homers and 20 steals, and his 6.2 fWAR makes him the fourth-most valuable hitter in baseball. Over the last three years, he’s had almost exactly the same amount of plate appearances as Miguel Cabrera (both have missed some time with injury), and been just a smidge less productive than the Tigers’ slugger, who is only one of the best hitters of all time.
The Diamondbacks are 7.5 games back of first place in the NL West, so barring an insane winning streak, Paul Godlschmidt will be at home and out of your mind sooner rather than later. Then he’ll come back next year and continue anonymously kicking ass on a very bad team. Try to remember to check in on him every now and then.