3 Cardinals players who have been horrifically unlucky this year

Baseball can be a game where you do not get rewarded despite doing everything right and vice versa. Some players have been very unlucky and are performing better than what their numbers say.

Pittsburgh Pirates v St. Louis Cardinals
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2. Paul Goldschmidt .353 wOBA and 369 xwOBA-16 point difference

The expectations were pretty high for Goldschmidt after bringing home the NL MVP last season, 2023 has not brought the same amount of fortune for him, and some of that is because of how unlucky he has been.

Overall it has been a solid season for the now 36-year-old, a .271/.363/.453 slash line with 25 home runs and 78 RBI in 145 games. His batting average is not where he has been unlucky, His expected batting average is actually 3 points lower than his actual, which shows how unlucky he's been in his expected SLG. Goldschmidt's current SLG is at .453 but his expected SLG is at .493, a significant difference of 40 points, which is 22nd in all of baseball.

He has been unlucky in the slugging department meaning he is not getting the credit for hitting the ball hard the way he should be. This season Goldschmidt has 214 batted balls hit over 95 MPH, by far the most on the team but he only has 53 extra base hits. Looking at his MVP year, Goldschmidt has more balls hit over 95 MPH this year than in his MVP year. In 2022 Goldschmidt had 201 batted balls over 95 MPH with 76 extra base hits. I guess you can say in a way things have evened out for Goldschmidt this year.

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