2013 Panini Pinnacle Clear Vision Single 68 Tony Gwynn 1993 Upper Deck Base Set #488 Greg Maddux 1996 Pinnacle Select Certified #32 Greg Maddux That jump-started arguably the hottest 20-game streak of his career. **, Press J to jump to the feed. And one final strikeout-related stat that blows the mind: Tony Gwynn hit .302 with two strikes on him. From 1988 to 2001, Gwynn hit .302 in two-strike counts. 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. A popular meme says that out of the 20,421 batters Maddux faced in his career, only 310 saw a 30 count and 177 were intentional walks. 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. Even in his era, Gwynns contact rate was far and away the best of the great hitters. Gwynn has seven of those seasons, the most of any player in that span. In the 73 years since Ted Williams last hit .400, all the other hitters who passed through the big leagues -- a group that includes Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Wade Boggs, yadda, yadda, yadda -- combined to do it only eight times. No Gavin Lux -- big problem. The former Atlanta Braves hurler faced Gwynn 107 times during their overlapping Hall-of-Fame careers. Mike Trout We kid you not. He is the treasurer for the Hemond-Delhi Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and also is a USSF and AIA soccer referee. Gwynn got hits off Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro -- four men who won a combined 1,282 games. His 590 career assists are the most in school history and his 221 assists in the 1979-80 season are also a record. Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson vs. Hall of Fame hitter Tony Gwynn in the 1998 NLDS: San Diego Padres vs. Houston Astros.Just a great piece of hitting vs.. Evan Thompson is a member of the Roland Hemond (AZ) Chapter of the Society for American . Evan lives in Mesa, Arizona and loves history, especially of sports. 2004 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection ~ Game Patch ~ Tony Gwynn /75 BeautyF Patch! 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. A few years ago, a meme surfaced featuring a crazy Greg . Since Gwynn debuted in 1982, a hitter has finished a season with a batting average above .350 only 46 times. But he was about to really start heating up. My Have List is linked in my signature. The pitcher that Gwynn faced most often was Greg Maddux, which makes sense since the two were in the National League together for 15 seasons. Share. Another foot either way and it would have been a hit. Gwynn certainly did that. Chris Cwik. Also, Mark Reynolds had the same number as strikeouts in 2009 and 2010 that Tony Gwynn had in 20 years. Ronald Acuna vs Juan Soto Comparison. "Except," Maddux said, "for that [expletive] Tony Gwynn." Gwynn never struck out against Maddux . We all know that batting average is not the only way (or even the best way) to measure a hitters effectiveness. Sure enough, while Gwynn and Boggs have nearly equal Offensive RAA according to B-Ref (432/430) and Fangraphs (401.5/399), their contextual offense is much more lopsided, with Tony having a 56/36.8 WPA lead at B-Ref, and a 57.85/36.97 lead at Fangraphs. How We Ranked Baseballs Greatest Players, Best Current and Former MLB Players from New Zealand, A Few of the Greatest Players Who Arent in the Hall of Fame, Wee Willie Keeler: The Best Bunter in Baseball History. He released his first book, Volume I of A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs, in October of 2021. Thank you for reading and commenting, Christian. As mentioned earlier, it is impossible to know. See his various events you wish you could of seen. Scott only fanned Tony three times in 95 matchups. That was hit #4 and it helped spark a three-run rally that helped the Padres tie the score 10-10. In the 14 seasons from 1984 through 1997, Gwynn finished in the top five in the batting race 13 times. Maddux and Glavine are the first pair of Hall of Fame classmates both to record voting percentages in the 90th percentile since 2007 with Cal Ripken Jr. (98.5) and Tony Gwynn (97.6). Gwynn doubled in the first off Greg Brummett (who was making one of his only 13 starts in the major leagues). How does this translate to their WAR/WAA? No surprise, six-time NL batting champion Tony Gwynn is among the best against the four-time Cy Young winner. tony gwynn Than Had Was Toni The Todays Greates And Walked Into . The only pitcher to strike out Gwynn three times in ONE game was Bob Welch, who sadly passed away last week. 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 . The next day at home against the Dodgers, Gwynn went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles off Ismael Valdez. Speaking of average, Gwynn's career mark of .338 ranks 17th among the all-time leaders. He lives in Michigan where he writes, runs, and enjoys a good orange soda now and again. It makes sense that great players tend to provide the biggest challenge to other greats. That season came in the middle of a five-year stretch where he batted .369. From 1993-2001, the last nine years of his career, when he was 33-41 years old, Gwynn hit .349 against left-handed pitching. 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. Pro Sports. They can be viewed by season or over an entire career. Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. In 293 of those, the batter walked; 153 were intentional. than of two or more strikeouts (34). on MLBN. Heyward has looked good early in spring training, which has led to talk that he is likely to make the, LeBron James took some time this week to send positive thoughts to a veteran NBA reporter while also managing to make it about himself. He struck out only three times (two to Glavine, two to Smoltz and NEVER against Maddux or Pedro), per Eric Edholm of Yahoo! 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. Yeah, you read that right. Born: May 9, 1960 in Los Angeles, CA us Died: June 16, 2014 in Poway, CA Buried: Dearborn Memorial Park, Poway, CA . 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. His batting average stood at .394 and unfortunately, a run at .400 was one of the things lost when the season was cancelled. 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. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. In fact, Gwynn owns the top three single-game assist tallies in Aztecs history -- with his 18 dimes against UNLV on Feb. 5, 1980, as the most. Evan Thompson is a member of the Roland Hemond (AZ) Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). The bad news is they are all in slightly cryptic puzzles. The former Atlanta Braves hurler faced Gwynn 107 times during their overlapping Hall-of-Fame careers. Dude was a craaaazy good 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). He hit .415 (in 107 plate appearances) vs. Greg Maddux, .303 against Tom Glavine (105 PA) and .444 against Smoltz (75 PA). That brought up Gwynn, hitting better than .500 lifetime against the Cub ace. 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. Maddux made his debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1986, so we do not have any pitch count data for his first two seasons in the majors. It means Tony Gwynn would have had to go 0-for-his-next-1,183 to get his average to fall under .300 (and even then, it would have "plummeted" to a mere .29997). * Andy Van Slyke, now an ESPN announcer, batted .343 (23-for-67) with four home runs and 11 walks. Going back to 1961, the first year of expansion, that's far and away the highest average for any hitter with at least 3,000 plate . Greg Maddux's long and successful career was defined by his ability to change up his pitches and keep hitters off-balance. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . And here's Ryan on the same thing. He faced Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, and Pedro Martinez a combined 323 times, and only struck out in 3 of those plate appearances. Would Gwynn have hit .400 that season? Keep in mind that this data only goes back to 1988, so we must adjust batters faced to 19,576 and intentional walks to 162. Gwynn's .334 career second-half batting average is the third best in the last 50 years. Ryan faced Gwynn 67 times and fanned Tony nine times (the most by any pitcher), but Gwynn still managed to hit over .300 against The Express. Press J to jump to the feed. And thanks to statistic hubs like Baseball Reference, some unbelievable numbers are being shared from Gwynn's career. In the seventh, Gwynn got his third hit, a double to left field off Dave Righetti. . 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. How incredible was Gwynns career batting mark? To find how many hitters faced a 30 count against Greg Maddux, we must look at the row labeled After 30. This brings us to the correct number 644. I agree that Mr. Gwynn was a helluva player, and a great man. But Gwynn wasnt done showing off his old bat. 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. 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. In the 30-plus years that stat has been tracked, the next-best batting average with two strikes is .260 by Wade Boggs, more than 40 points below Gwynns mark. 7 Cubs pitchers combine for no-hitter vs Machado, Padres, Top moments from Brady, Manning, Jordan and other athletes hosting 'Saturday Night Live', Fantasy baseball rankings, projections, strategy and cheat sheets, Rojas to withdraw from WBC, stay with Dodgers, The best pitcher in MLB? He also had the second-most regular-season . I dont know that much about baseball but I wonder why Tony Gwynns WAR ranking is so low. He hit .303 against fellow lefty Tom Glavine and struck out twice in 105 times at the plate . We'll be proud to tell our grandchildren we did. Gwynns career batting mark was .338, the highest mark by any player who started his career after 1939. It was very, very hard to fool Tony Gwynn. What's the Dodgers' plan at shortstop? Elliott: Kings use their heads over hearts in trading Jonathan Quick, This fabled orchid breeder loves to chat just not about Trader Joes orchids, After four decades, trainer Ed Moger gets his first Triple Crown starter, An exclusive look at details of Chip Kellys two-year contract extension from UCLA, His shoe game is pretty tight. Why Dodgers hope Miguel Rojas play matches his swag, Rats in the laundry? Sucks so much he isn't around for this all-star stuff in San Diego John Smoltz just gave a ridiculous stat of the great GwynnGwynn had a combined 265 career AB vs Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. 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. Sadly, we lost Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn this week to cancer. 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. Aztec Ticket Exchange. This leaves 845 batters unaccounted for. That will include, among pitchers, Greg M. *Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times in a season. One more thing: I took the top four vote-getters and went back to Twitter to post a couple of polls. Maddux won four Cy Young awards and ranks as one of the ten greatest pitchers in history. Basically if you're a legendary pitcher, good luck with Tony Gwynn. Greg Maddux vs. Tony Gwynn. Maddux was one of several pitchers who deftly described the challenge of retiring Gwynn at the plate. Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Al Simmons did so before him. on MLBN. Find the newest tony gwynn meme. San Diego State Aztecs. He faced Greg Maddux 107 times, hit .415, and never struck out. Here's Why Tony Gwynn Was One Of The Greatest Hitters Ever. He had a swing that made pitchers cry themselves to sleep. In the twelfth, San Diego put together a rally, Gwynn lining a single to center for his sixth hit of the game to send the winning run to third base. 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 . Twins' Balazovic had mouth wired shut after 'sucker punch' f MLB sets up local media group, could broadcast 17 teams, Report: Padres add Odor on minor-league deal, The ultimate, personalized mobile sports experience, 7 Cubs pitchers combine to no-hit Padres in spring game, Red Sox use shift loophole to counter Twins' Gallo, Top plays in World Baseball Classic history, Scherzer tests pitch clock limits, gets quick-pitch balk, Ex-Met Wright: Judge facing 'pressure' with new contract, captaincy. Right-handed batters hit worse against righties and left-handed batters hit worse against lefties. But baseball is a funny game, and so sometimes, a superstar finds Of course, it's not like Gwynn's numbers against Maddux were an anomaly. Last season, 129 players had struck out 22 times by the end of April. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Ryan est venu te frapper. Tony Gwynn: man or machine? (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Dan Holmes is the author of three books about baseball, including Ty Cobb: A Biography. He also is a credentialed member of the Diamondbacks press corps for Last Word on Baseball. 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. 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. Even against hitters who can hurt them, they rarely change much from how they approach every hitter. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? Lets just make sure were using the right number when describing Madduxs stats. He thinks he might have an idea of why hes receiving some newfound fan support., An embarrassing graphic involving Russell Westbrook has gone viral. 97 players struck out 20 or more times in May of 2014 alone (, If Gwynn went 0 for 4 for the next 295 games he would still have a career average over .300, per. John Smoltz sums up Tony Gwynn's dominance with one great stat. Neither Pedro Martinez nor Greg Maddux ever struck him out.Maddux faced Gwynn 107 times and Gwynn hit .415 off Maddux. 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. If Maddux was the robot of pitchers, then Tony Gwynn is the robot of hitters. Gwynn hit a blistering .444 off Smoltz and only struck out once against the hard thrower. On Monday, ESPNs Ethan Strauss reminded us about a fantastic quote that Maddux once had about Gwynn that summed up his sensational career. Otherwise, you werent going to strike him out. There were two strikeout specialists who got Gwynn on strikes more than a few times: Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden. Baseball News, Analysis, History, Schedule, Rumors. He previously worked for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Of his 18 total awards, Maddux won 10 with the Braves, five with the Cubs, two with the Dodgers and one with the Padres.