The closest anyone has come after World War II are Wade Boggs and Rod Carew at .328, a full 10 points behind Gwynn. On April 30, 1996, three San Francisco pitchers held Gwynn hitless. Thank you for reading and commenting, Christian. In fact, he added 37.9 percent to the Padres' win probability that day. Anthony Keith Gwynn, 1960 59 - 2014 616 . Throughout his 20 years in the league, Gwynn would wield his bat and give opposing pitchers nightmares while putting up astounding numbers on the stat sheet. It dropped to 4.9% in 1993 and was only higher than 5% in one of his remaining seasons (2002). Position: Pitcher Bats: Right Throws: Right 6-0, 170lb (183cm, 77kg) . He was the second batter in the top of the first inning, as his Giants took on the Houston Astros. I've updated those numbers now, in the wake of the awful news of Tony Gwynn's death. Tony Gwynn and Greg Maddux. Maddux didnt strike Gwynn out a single time NOT ONCE. No 3,000-hit man who was born after 1900 had a higher lifetime batting average than Gwynn (.338). In this installment of Baseball Mythbusters, we will look at Greg Maddux and the 30 count. One split for pitchers is Count/Balls-Strikes. This shows opposing batter stats in situations that can be grouped into three categories: plate appearances that ended on a certain count, plate appearances that go beyond a certain count, and plate appearances with certain miscellaneous characteristics. Gregory Alan Maddux (born April 14, 1966) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for four teams. Tony Gwynn is my favorite baseball player and he always will be. Mike Mussina stifled Ken Griffey Jr. Against Randy Johnson, however, Gwynn slashed .111/.111/.167 for a .278 OPS with no walks and five strikeouts . Gwynn played both baseball and basketball at San Diego State, and he still owns several records in basketball for the Aztecs. Thats essentially a full seasons worth of plate appearances exclusively against Hall of Famers. *Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times in a season. Greg Maddux could put a baseball through a Life Saver if you asked him. . Would love your thoughts, please comment. Greg Maddux debuted on 9/3/1986 and was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 by the BBWAA. He told The Washington Post that if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. This leaves 845 batters unaccounted for. There were two strikeout specialists who got Gwynn on strikes more than a few times: Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden. Gwynn was hitting .390 as late as August 5, 1997, but cooled in late August and September and settled for a .372 average and his eighth batting title. Despite the respect shown in the above comment, Tony Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 103 times in regular-season games - and never struck out (and another four times in the post-season without a whiff. Position: Rightfielder Bats: Left Throws: Left 5-11, 185lb (180cm, 83kg) . Among the 38 pitchers he faced at least 50 times, his lowest average was a .243 mark against Dwight Gooden. Gwynn hit .400 for a stretch as long as a season: from July 3, 1993 to May 9, 1995, he batted .403 over a 179-game stretch. He walked very little, which means his singles make up a lot of his batting average and on-base percentage. A few years ago, a meme surfaced featuring a crazy Greg . The stat: Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his time in the league. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Log in. Tony Gwynn hit .415 against Greg Maddux and (expletive) did not strike out even once in 107 plate appearances! Also, right or wrong, bWAR sees Gwynn as an average defensive outfielder. Yes, he hit better against RHP in his career (.345 as opposed to .325 against southpaws), but as Gwynn got older, he got better, not worse, at hitting left-handers. Thats how you maintain an astronomical batting average year after year. But Gwynn got every one of his hits in the National League. Only 644 (that we know of; we are missing data for 1,166 batters) saw a 3-0 count and 153 came on intentional walks. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Dodgers' Friedman hopes to retain Urias: 'We love having Jul Report: Padres expected to approach Soto, Hader about extens Maeda throws 2 scoreless innings despite Rays hearing PitchC Tatis: 'No wrong answers' for how Padres construct lineup, Report: Britton, Hand among relievers Cubs considering, Yankees' Boone: Stanton can have 'massive season' if healthy, Royals sign Jackie Bradley Jr. to minor-league contract. Speaking of average, Gwynn's career mark of .338 ranks 17th among the all-time leaders. On 45 separate occasions, Gwynn recorded four hits in a game 11 more times than he recorded a multi-strikeout game. I read earlier that in 323 combined career PAs against Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez, Gwynn struck out only three times. Gwynn was without question the best pure hitter in the game of baseball in the 1980s and 1990s. Only 310 saw a 30 count, and 177 of those were intentional walks. Then again, he also didn't play baseball in an age when we were obsessed with walks, or on-base-percentage, or wRC+. He was intentionally walked by Maddux six times, the most intentional walks that Gwynn received from any enemy pitcher. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for BASEBALL MLB Legends Sports Magazine Cards ALL VARIATIONS YOU PICK at the best online prices at eBay! So how many batters probably saw a 30 count in 1986 and 1987? Aztec Ticket Exchange. Tony Gwynn, then going on 26 and . He finished his illustrious Hall of Fame career with a 3.16 ERA, 3,371 strikeouts, 17 Gold Gloves, and one of the best two-seamers ever thrown. We will never know, but he was hitting like a demon as the weather got warmer and he seemed to have as good a chance as any batter in several decades. The baseball world is mourning the loss of Hall of Famer and "Mr. Padre" Tony Gywnn the best way it knows how: by remembering how incredible a player he was. He was 39-for-91 off the right-hander, with eight doubles and a triple. In addition, Gwynns nine five-hit games rank second all-time to Pete Rose, who had 10. Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career more than any other pitcher. How about .444 career average with the bases loaded. Would Gwynn have hit .400 that season? ], Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox. So mind-blowing, in fact, that it seems too good to be true. Greg Maddux' Command. However, since this is speculative, we cannot include that in the verdict. Reality: Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career. He faced Greg Maddux more than any other pitcher, 107 . 7. In 103 plate appearances, Gwynn put the ball in play 93 times and walked 10 times. He played in an era when it was big news if anyone even got within 50 points of that. There are so many great stretches, but amazingly in 1997, he got maybe as hot as hes ever been with the stick for a long stretch of time, and he did it twice. Yeah, you read that right. From 1991-1999, he struck out more than 20 times once. Here are nine incredible facts and stats from the career of Tony Gwynn. Pete Rose vs Tony Gwynn Comparison. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. So maybe, if someone like Tony Gwynn arrived in the big leagues tomorrow, we wouldn't value him quite the way we appreciated him in his own time. In 35 games against Maddux, Gwynn hit a Ty Cobb-like .429. Greg Maddux had my favorite . You gotta figure, to load up the bases the pitcher has already got to be fucking up. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. Against Nolan Ryan, Gwynn hit .302, and he famously never struck out against Maddux in 91 at-bats. For the eight-week period from mid-May to mid-July, Gwynn hit a sizzling .430 and collected at least one hit in 44 of 46 games. Doing the math shows us that only 3.2% of all hitters to face Greg Maddux from 1988 onward saw a 30 count, and one fourth of those were intentional walks. That was the first time in THREE YEARS that Gwynn had gone more than two games without a hit, and the first time in FIVE YEARS that he had gone more than 11 at-bats without getting a base hit. NAME AB H HR RBI K AVG; Gwynn: 94: 39: 0: 9: 0.415: Maddux is indisputably one of the top pitchers in MLB history, racking up 355 career victories, four Cy Young Awards . He could have stuck around the big leagues and gone 0-for-1172 and still had a .300 career batting average. Cards available for trade are listed below. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. No one else whose career started after World War II has even gotten closer than 10 points of him -- at least no one with 5,000 plate appearances or more. The greatest lineups ever? On 45 separate occasions, Gwynn recorded four hits in a game -- 11 more times than he recorded a multi-strikeout game. We all know that batting average is not the only way (or even the best way) to measure a hitters effectiveness. In the fifth inning he lined sharply into the glove of first baseman Will Clark. Mike Trout Right-handed batters hit worse against righties and left-handed batters hit worse against lefties. Padres fans have called the second game of the season, "Tony Gwynn Opening Day" for years, because of Gwynn's affection for the fans who showed up for Game 2. If you were going to do it you had to get him the first time you saw him (through lack of unfamiliarity) or by having a trick pitch of some sort. He struck out 3 times and hit .381. Think about that: for five years from July of 1991 to April 1996, Gwynn never had an 0-for-12 at any time. His 4.9% walk rate is the second-lowest among Hall of Fame pitchers who pitched solely in the Live Ball Era (Robin Roberts, 4.7%). He was that good. That will include, among pitchers, Greg M. Madduxs walk rate during those two seasons was 10.1%, more than twice as high as the rest of his career. Mike Hampton, a hard-throwing lefty who finished second in Cy Young voting one season, faced Gwynn 38 times and never struck him out. Special to ESPN.com. As we outlined in #2 above, Gwynn tore apart Greg Maddux to the tune of a .429 career average and he NEVER struck out against the Hall of Fame hurler. But we were lucky enough to see Tony Gwynn fire baseballs all over the field, into open spaces from coast to coast, for 20 years. How incredible was Gwynns career batting mark? One more thing: I took the top four vote-getters and went back to Twitter to post a couple of polls. He started in 25 games. In fact, Maddux saw Gwynn more than anyone. Wade Boggs comes in second at .262. For more details, review our, a fantastic quote that Maddux once had about Gwynn, Padres 16-year-old prospect turning heads in spring training, Kyle Busch addresses his surprising newfound fan support, Embarrassing graphic of Russell Westbrook goes viral, Mike McCarthy reveals where he and Kellen Moore clashed, Ex-World Series champion likely to make Dodgers roster, LeBron James inserts himself into tweet wishing reporter well. Evan is the owner and sole contributor of Thompson Talks, a website discussing the Big Four North American Pro Sports as well as soccer. Greg Maddux has made a habit of handling hitters and even breaking their bats, as he did to five Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the World Series. Gwynn has hit .342 against those elite pitchers, including .364 against those still active and .406 against Atlanta's Tri-Young winners, Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. But all I know is this: I've never seen anyone, in my years covering baseball, who mastered the art of bat meeting ball as brilliantly, or as artfully, as Tony Gwynn. . Runs scored is an opportunity stat, and it really has little to do with how good a player is. Who did Tony Gwynn never strike out against? On this date (April 8) in, 1986, Will Clark, a 22-year-old rookie, stepped into the batter's box for his first-ever major league at bat. Greg Maddux once explained that you could trick any hitter into not being able to read the speed of a pitch"Except for that fucking Tony Gwynn." G/O Media may get a commission 13% off OK, got all that digested. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. 1994 Quality Starts. Goes to show just how dominant the Big Unit could be, even against one of the best hitters in baseball history. You can check out the most watched Tony Gwynn cards of all years currently at auction through the live list below. Gwynn had six straight seasons (and eight altogether) in which he struck out fewer than 20 times. He hit .400 or better against eight different Cy Young winners -- Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Bret Saberhagen, Vida Blue, John Denny, Dennis Eckersley, Mark Davis and Doug Drabek -- and batted at . I would appreciate someone to clarify this for me. Even against hitters who can hurt them, they rarely change much from how they approach every hitter. Draft: Drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 3rd round of the 1981 MLB June Amateur Draft from San Diego State University (San Diego, CA). Born: April 14, 1966 in San Angelo, TX us Draft: Drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 2nd round of the 1984 MLB June Amateur Draft from Valley HS (Las Vegas, NV).. High School: Valley HS (Las Vegas, NV) Debut: September 2, 1986 (Age 20-141d, 15,231st in major league history) Aztec Game Videos. Maddux is a Hall of Famer and he struck out more than 3,000 batters in his career, but the one batter he faced the most often San Diegos #19 never fanned against him. Greg Maddux faced Tony Gwynn 107 times, walked him intentionally 7 times, and never once struck him out. Tony Gwynn: Maddux's Greatest Challenger. On the mound was the imposing presence of the Astros' right-handed flamethrower 38-year-old future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan - who already had 241 MLB wins . Results of Baseball Roundtable Survey on 2023 MLB Rules Changes, Book Review The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the 73 Season Changed Us Forever, Triple Crown Moundsmen Big Names with Big Seasons, A Look at MLB Triple Crown Winners Starting with Three-for-Three Oscar Charleston. Finally, in 1998, the Padres advanced past the Houston Astros in the NLDS (this was the year Houston traded at the deadline for Randy Johnson), then beat the Atlanta Braves and their troika of aces in Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz in the NLCS, before getting swept in the World Series by the New York Yankees; Gwynn only batted .200 . Find the newest tony gwynn meme. Free shipping for many products! Rather famously, Gwynn struck out three times in a game only once -- against Bob Welch and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986. Aztec Mesa Archives. No hitter who has played his entire career since the invention of the designated hitter has accumulated as many hits as Gwynn (3,141) without spending a large portion of his career in the American League. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. Everybody in the stadium is shocked. Tony Gwynn is the greatest pure hitter I have ever witnessed. Nolan Ryan struck out Tony Gwynn more than any other pitcher with 9. than of two or more strikeouts (34). Reggie Jackson's Record-breaking Strikeouts The last player to finish his career with a higher average was Ted Williams' .344 mark. It was the third straight game he failed to get a hit (even though he had been on fire that month and his batting average was still at .403 after the three hitless games). 25 bids - Price: $170.50 - Watchers: 86. They can be viewed by season or over an entire career. Against the Braves' Hall of Fame trio, Gwynn fared pretty well. During his career, Tony won batting titles by 32 points (1987), 30 points (1984), 28 points (1994), 22 points (1995), and 17 points (1996). He thinks he might have an idea of why hes receiving some newfound fan support., An embarrassing graphic involving Russell Westbrook has gone viral. Gwynn has seven of those seasons . Even in his era, Gwynns contact rate was far and away the best of the great hitters. Gwynn hit .415 in those 107 PAs. And in the only season he didn't -- in 1990 -- he missed by one hit. He is ranked 74th on the Baseball Reference website on position players, he also had a relatively long career. My Have List is linked in my signature. Bonds is batting .313 (25-for-80) with 13 walks and 13 strikeouts. The latest stats, facts, news and notes on Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Finally, what does it mean to have piled up a .338 batting average over a 20-year career, over 9,288 at-bats? So let's talk Gwynn's hitting. How great was Gwynns 1994 season? . But his feats are as amazing today as they were back then. 2004 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection ~ Game Patch ~ Tony Gwynn /75 BeautyF Patch! It can be no coincidence that Gwynn developed a strong friendship with another one of the all-time great hitters, Ted Williams. Two vs. Glavine. Even better man and family man. The great players are usually the ones who are able to maintain their skills later than their contemporaries. * Andres Galarraga (61 at-bats) and Howard Johnson (74 at-bats, five home runs) have struck out the most, 18 times each. Gwynn's .334 career second-half batting average is the third best in the last 50 years. Reality: Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career. Related. Why? They can identify pitches if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitcher's hand. Neither Pedro Martinez nor Greg Maddux ever struck him out.Maddux faced Gwynn 107 times and Gwynn hit .415 off Maddux. We kid you not. April 11, 2020 6:05 AM PT. With Maddux it always seemed that batters were either being fooled as they watched a pitch nip the corner of the plate, or they were getting a bad swing on a pitch that dove away from their bat at the last second. He released his first book, Volume I of A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs, in October of 2021. As Yahoo Sports' Eric Edholm dug up: Gwynn had 323 career at-bats against Maddux, Martinez, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz and struck out only . Only 310 saw a 3-0 count, and 177 of those were intentional walks. I'm sure a lot of you had heard this stat before, but no matter how many times I hear it, it's unbelievable to me. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426. The primary advantage for Gwynn, however, was longevity. He hit .395 in April, .392 in May, .387 in June, and .370 in July. tony gwynn Than Had Was Toni The Todays Greates And Walked Into . The Padres' Hall-of-Fame right fielder faced the Braves' Hall of Famer more than any other pitcher in his career . Maddux is best known for his accomplishments while playing for the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs.With the Braves, he won the 1995 World Series over the Cleveland Indians.The first to achieve a number of feats and records, he . In addition to his pitching skills, Maddux was an excellent fielding pitcher. Manny Machado vs Jose Ramirez Comparison. They signed Xander Bogaerts, re-signed Manny Machado, and last year they pulled off trades for Juan Soto and, Kyle Busch is in a new car and part of a new racing team this year, and he seems to also have some new fans. It means that there are 312 plate appearances that ended on a 30 count. From 1992-95, he won four-straight NL Cy Youngs. These miscellaneous characteristics include all counts with a certain number of balls or strikes as well as first pitch, pitcher ahead, count even, and batter ahead. MLB: Tony Gwynn y sus increbles nmeros vs Pedro Martnez y Greg Maddux. And I have a feeling that won't change -- for about the next 12 centuries: Gwynn hit .338 over a 20-year career. Gwynn doubled in the first off Greg Brummett (who was making one of his only 13 starts in the major leagues). Except for that (expletive) Tony Gwynn." -Greg Maddux. Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times in a season. Hall of Famer Greg Maddux is one of the greatest pitchers of the Live Ball Era. Gwynn faced Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz a combined 323 times. Last Saturday, Gwynn faced a pitcher, Livan Hernandez, who was born 31 years after Jenkins and who was pitching for a franchise and a wild-card spot that did not exist when . For two decades, Tony Gwynn was also the best friend those of us in the media-genius prediction business ever had. Seven of those 19 times, the batter notched a base hit; the other 12 times, the batter made an out. He racked up 39 hits off Maddux (39-for-94, .415), 32 against Smoltz (32-for-72, .444) and 30 against Tom Glavine (30-for-99, .303). Well, heres the thing though: runs scored is not factored in WAR. Greg Maddux, Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, Orel Hershiser. Gwynn's 60th celebrated all day, Sat. Those 13 walks are the most anyone has drawn. Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. Mr. Padre Captain Video . The next closest guy only got him 6 times. But baseball is a funny game, and so sometimes, a superstar finds His 45 games with at least four hits is 10th all-time (since 1954), and ranks fourth among left-handed batters behind Wade Boggs, George Brett, and Rod Carew. You just cant do it, Maddux said. You never feel like youre getting in a real good swing, a swing youre happy with, a swing with follow-through, the San Diego star said. His 590 career assists are the most in school history and his 221 assists in the 1979-80 season are also a record. * Marquis Grissom, now Madduxs teammate, batted .405 (17-for-42). The LA Clippers entered Friday 0-4 since adding Westbrook. I did a cursory study of different good hitters vs. good pitchers on several dimensions. While most left-handed batters are declining and being rested against southpaws in their twilight years, Gwynn was punishing them. The Los Angeles slugger is 0-for-17 lifetime against Maddux. . Otherwise, you werent going to strike him out. He would have to go 0 for his next 1,183 at-bats to fall under .300. Greg Maddux got to see that firsthand. His 6-for-7 performance raised Gwynns average to .357, though he would lose the batting title that season to Andres Galarraga, who batted .370 for Colorado. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. The bad news is they are all in slightly cryptic puzzles. Did you know there were 97 hitters in the big leagues who whiffed at least 20 times just last month? Tony Gwynn collected more regular season hits against Greg Maddux than any other batter (39 in 33 games). But Gwynn played a pivotal role in that game, nonetheless, singling in the eighth, and scoring the tying run in the 10th after reaching on an error. He gets more of the bat on the ball on some pitches than anyone else, Maddux said.
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