Goldschmidt earns Aaron Award

When Paul Goldschmidt helped lead The Woodlands High School baseball team to the 2006 UIL Class 5A State Championship and a No. 1 ranking nationally by Baseball America/National High School Baseball Coaches Association poll, he hit .315 with eight homers and 44 RBI as the Highlanders’ senior third baseman.

Fast-forward to 2013 and Goldschmidt led the Arizona Diamondbacks in his third Major League season, hitting .302 as the team’s first baseman. Goldschmidt, now a 26-year-old veteran, led the National League in homers (tied with 36) RBI (125), extra-base hits (75), slugging (.551) OPS (.952) and total bases (332).

He was voted an All-Star for the first time and on Sunday, prior to the World Series Game 4, was named the National League recipient of the 2013 Hank Aaron Award. He joins previous winners Buster Posey, Matt Kemp, Joey Votto, Albert Pujols, Aramis Ramirez, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Andruw Jones, Barry Bonds, Todd Helton and Sammy Sosa.

Goldschmidt was among the most reliable clutch hitters in the league. In addition to walking 99 times and scoring 103 runs, he led the majors in go-ahead homers (20), walk-off homers (3), homers after the eighth inning (7) and tied for the lead in go-ahead RBI (37).

He was not on hand when “Hammerin’ Hank” presented the award to American League winner Miguel Cabrera. Goldschmidt is in Australia promoting the 2014 season opener where the Diamondbacks will play the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He’s come a long way since teaming with Kyle Drabek (14-0, 1.00, 155 Ks), Brett Eibner, Taylor Grote, Steven Maxwell (14-0, 1.27), David Alleman, Mickey Armstrong, Derek Smith, and others to beat Katy, 5-3, complete a 38-1 season and win the 2006 state high school championship – the second of three (2000, 2006, 2013) for the program.