Willie McGee is part of the 2018 St Louis Cardinals

From Goldschmidt's Baseball Reference page:

Nicknames: Goldy or America's First Baseman

Really? Someone somewhere has actually called him "America's First Baseman"?

i called him that, but the full quote is "america's first basemen in being a moran"

Hes America's first basemen because he isn't allowed anywhere else

yadi is (allegedly) skipping 2 games to watch the puerto rican basketball team he owns play in the championship

yes, but during that time his knees will heal

lol

Goldschmidt just isn't letting up. His OPS+ after yesterday is 202; the only players this century to finish with an OPS+ over 200 are Bonds (4 times), Soto, and Sosa. I can't see a first baseman who did it since Bagwell (213) and Thomas (212) in '94. I expect he'll fall back, but what a season. (Judge is at 194 right now.)

also has a legit shot at the old-school triple crown; he's three homers behind schwarber and two RBI behind alonso

i haven't looked it up, but i suspect he might be having an all-time platoon split season, too. vs lefties this year, in 111 PAs he's .435/.527/.848, wrC+ is 276

Leading in the slash TC right now, too. Huge lead in slugging, comfortable lead in batting average; Soto will probably overtake him in OBP.

Should also mention Freddie Goldschmidt out on the coast: second in BA, third in OBP, sixth in SP.

Willie >>>>> pic.twitter.com/nqCIv6KHvV

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) August 25, 2022

wainwright, whose best case scenario is making a heroic relief pitching appearance in the playoffs and then retiring. carlos martinez continues to be the best thing about the team.

i was so otm in 2018

Whoah--definitely making a run at the Triple Crown.

Goldman and Freeschmidt came up again on James' site yesterday, and one reader pointed out how similar Goldschmidt and Bagwell are (per 162 games):

PG: .296/.392/.529, 145 OPS+, 32 HR, 105 RBI, 5.9 bWAR, MVP pending?
JB: .297/.408/.540, 149 OPS+, 34 HR, 115 RBI, 6.0 bWAR, 1 MVP

But neither is on the other's Similarity Score list.

Arenado is going to wind up with his best bWAR this season. I’d say he and Goldschmidt are both locking down their HOF chances, though I guess Nolan could always do an Andruw Jones and nosedive before he clears the bar. I’m guessing that’s highly unlikely though.

yeah, he is a very competitive guy. i was reading a little blurb about the birth of his child the other day, and he was basically like "i'm just glad it went smooth and calm so i could get back to the team for the next game". he seems genuinely driven to win a WS (goldschmidt as well) and he seems pumped to get a decent chance to do it

He did win one back in 2006!

weather permitting, i'm going to tonight's game! i was originally planning on going tomorrow, figuring a sunday day game against the Cubs would be ideal. but then i noticed that Wainwright is pitching tonight, which means Yadi will be playing, and the Cubs are starting a LHP, Drew Smyley, which means Pujols will almost certainly start as well. might be my last chance to see any of those guys play again (unless I splurge for playoff tickets, if they get that far).

it's kind of an odd situation because i'm not sure if i'll be standing room only or have a seat somewhere. i was able to get tickets, just $11 for a pair, this morning through the First Pitch Program. Not sure if there's a similar deal at other parks, but basically you get a voucher, and then when you show up at game time they tell you where your seats are (or more likely for this game, standing room since it'll probably sell out).

$11 gets you a hot dog at the Rogers Centre.

That’s a great deal for last minute seats!
The jays are probably too popular to do something like that, but my gf would be all over it if they did.

That’s a great deal for last minute seats!

totally agree

i chatted with a few different people in the line about their experience with the program. one guy told me that he used to have season tickets and gave them up because so many of the voucher seats end up being so good. they come from unsold/unused tickets that were set aside for workers and players etc to give to their families - so they're a mix of the worst seats and also some really nice seats. because i'm an unforgivable weirdo, i asked him to give me a rough probability distribution. he told me that about ...he paused for a long time here to calculate...three out of ten were 100-level, meaning field level. another 3-4 out of ten in the mid-tier levels, and only 2-3 out of ten were nosebleed/standing room only.

for a game like tonight, with the cubs and the oldsters (who are my age) playing, the chances are very high that i'll get standing room only. but for an early season game against teams that are not the Cubs, Brewers, Yankees, or Red Sox, apparently the chances of getting a great seat are very good. For $5.50 a seat! the only catch is you have to live near Missouri, which is fucking terrible

it's extremely cheesy and i don't think i would participate irl, but i think it would be kind of neat if the fans started chanting MVP as goldschmidt bats, and then continue with no interruption to chant it with Arenado hitting after him

(i don't think Arenado has a chance of winning, and will probably end up more like 3rd or 4th or 5th. for those that don't get to see them play every day, amazing, superlative defense is hard to demonstrate with numbers in the same way that a triple crown level season does)

because i live in the world of regression to the mean, i never expected to see a mvp-like year from goldschmidt or arenado. it is very cool to see them do it in the same year, and to be equally as wrong about pujols

also, in the continued mea culpa that is my life, i was extremely wrong about wainwright. i wanted him to retire circa 2019. what a doof

I saw the play he made on that incredibly high chopper--amazing.

wait, hold that.

peninsula. penin.

hmm

sorry, wrong thread

If Goldschmidt doesn't get the Triple Crown, I hope it's because Freeman overtakes him in BA, rather than Schwarber winning HR--he's such a one-dimensional player.

dang, wish i would have gotten cheap-ass tickets for today's game, too! this is probably low on the list of notable career records, but wainwright and molina are tying the record for most starts as a battery. which is pretty cool. but also, alec burleson is making his debut in RF. probably not a household name, possibly DH bound, but he's a good hitter and will probably (hopefully) stick around for a while.

Not related to the Rooster, I'm sorry to say.

dang. i should gone. Burleson, it is clear to me from watching him track down (1) ball on the right-field line, is just too slow to be even an average fielder. he is a DH. bummer.

however, he took an easy 4-pitch walk in his first PA and then got to score on a Yadier Molina HR to Big Mac Land, which is what the upperdeck area is called on the LF line where McGwire once sent home runs with startling regularity. it is owned by mcdonalds

by bWAR, the cardinals have the top 3 position players in the NL

the outfield has been weird and catcher has been a black hole, but the infield production has been pretty phenomenal this year

Goldschmidt, arenado, and the best of them all albert pujols

https://i.imgur.com/nLexRNR.png

I was not expecting Wainwright to sing the national anthem

So wait the Cardinals have players named Hudson, Hicks, and Gorman

Not something I normally observe, but it turned up on my FB wall: 41 years ago today, the debut of a certain fleet-footed outfielder.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLN/SLN198205100.shtml

getting ugly for waino : /

Just idle trade-deadline chatter to fill space, but interesting:

https://www.mlb.com/news/paul-goldschmidt-trade-could-be-right-for-cardinals

I shouldn't be saying this as a Jays fan, but it'd be exciting if he ended up with the Orioles.

it's shocking that they're at 27-41 and haven't had a resurgence yet. i know the pitching is bad but they've got so much talent and the division is so weak. time to fire the manager? that always works

Noticed that Edman has been terrible... until today when he hit a grand slam.

david freese declining induction into the cardinals HOF is absolutely legendary BFIB/cardinal way stuff

yesterday (thursday) was willie mcgee's 65th birthday

<3 <3 <3

I hope the Cardinals have a great year in 2024. I figure that's the best way to get Karl Malone posting in ILB again.

Willie McGee made his MLB debut on this date in 1982. #Cardinals pic.twitter.com/W6ijskFIV6

— Gummy Arts (@gummyarts) May 11, 2024

happy 66th to the legend <3

Just noticed something when I looked up Willie's BRef page: they've moved WAR into the Standard Batting part of each player's page (first column, actually, before even games played). I'm pretty sure that's a recent change--it was always confined to the Player Value section. Willie in 1985: 8.2.

Useful Willie Immaculate Grid stuff: 100 runs, 200 hits, 10 triples, 100 RBI (1987, with 11 HR), 50 SB (of course), .300 (of course), 6.0 WAR season, 2000 career hits, #1 pick, MVP, AS, GG, SS, all three outfield positions.

also: look at him