Cardinals' Jordan Walker is on Mark McGwire's 70-HR pace

TL;DR

Jordan Walker of the St. Louis Cardinals is matching Mark McGwire's historic pace, hitting eight home runs in his first 16 games this season, just like McGwire did in 1998.

Cardinals' Jordan Walker is on Mark McGwire's 70-HR pace originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The most famous home run hitting season in the history of the St. Louis Cardinals happened in that famous summer of 1998.

Mark McGwire, 70 homers, history. And right now, Jordan Walker is keeping pace.

In 1998, McGwire had eight home runs through 16 games.

Walker's homer on Monday night against the Guardians was his eighth of the season through 16 games.

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Clearly, McGwire got even hotter for a stretch later in that season. But homering in half of your games would send you on the way to setting the all-time single-season record.

Walker only hit six home runs in more than 100 games last season, so this is also a pace that he'll be quite happy with personally.

He was once a top prospect, and then he fell way off the map. Now, Walker is back and slugging at an impressive level.

It's rare to get a Cardinals home run hitter in a conversation with McGwire (and also the other names above Pujols, Rolen and Musial). But right now, that's exactly what Walker is doing.