ARLINGTON, TEXAS – In the months ahead, they and all of baseball would have ample access to Paul Goldschmidt’s numbers as a junior at Texas State – the school-record homers, his thundering OPS, the 88 RBIs, his weight, his height, the vitals – but a Diamondbacks’ area scout wanted his boss to have something earlier than other teams: access to Paul Goldschmidt.
In January 2009, before a preseason scrimmage, Goldschmidt and a teammate made the 4-minute drive from the Bobcats’ ballpark to a Texas Roadhouse restaurant in San Marcos, Texas, to meet scout Trip Couch and Tom Allison, Arizona’s scouting director.