Last season, 129 players had struck out 22 times by the end of April. Even in his era, Gwynns contact rate was far and away the best of the great hitters. Also, right or wrong, bWAR sees Gwynn as an average defensive outfielder. Against the Braves' Hall of Fame trio, Gwynn fared pretty well. Pete Rose vs Tony Gwynn Comparison. And Maddux knew it. Reality: Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career. Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career more than any other pitcher. He hit .395 in April, .392 in May, .387 in June, and .370 in July. 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. Winner of eight batting titles, Gwynn finished in the top five for the league's best average 13 times from 1984 through 1997. Bob Gibson et Pedro Martinez et Greg Maddux sont venus vous battre. On the morning of June 11th his mark was at .409 after another three-hit game against St. Louis at Qualcomm Stadium the night before. High School Sports. However, since this is speculative, we cannot include that in the verdict. In 20 seasons he struck out a total of 434 times most hitters today strike out that much in three seasons. CLICK for the full story on how Kris Bryant got pranked by Greg Maddux: http://win.gs/MadduxPrankReigning baseball MVP and World Series hero Kris Bryant th. He dazzled batters with his precision and command. He faced Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, and Pedro Martinez a combined 323 times, and only struck out in 3 of those plate appearances. He is the author of A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs and has covered the Arizona Diamondbacks for Last Word on Baseball since 2019. Answer (1 of 8): I would say Tony Gwynn. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Position: Pitcher Bats: Right Throws: Right 6-0, 170lb (183cm, 77kg) . Across his 23 seasons, he walked 999 hitters. Fun/impressive fact: In 107 PAs, Maddux never struck out Tony Gwynn. 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 . In those three seasons, Maddux faced 3,060 batters, and 158 roughly 5.1% saw a 30 count. And here's Ryan on the same thing. Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn . Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career -- more than any other pitcher. 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. Gwynns four games of five hits or more in 1993 are tied with Ichiro Suzuki (2004) for the most by one player in a season since 1970. Greg Maddux; H. Hack Wilson; Hank Aaron; Hank Greenberg; Hanley Ramrez; Harmon Killebrew; Harold Baines; Honus Wagner; Free shipping for many products! Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. In the 14 seasons from 1984 through 1997, Gwynn finished in the top five in the batting race 13 times. Gwynn's 60th celebrated all day, Sat. He was 39-for-91 off the right-hander, with eight doubles and a triple. The latest stats, facts, news and notes on Tony Gwynn of the San Diego * Bip Roberts, now in Kansas City, hit .471 (16-for-34) with seven walks. Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters in his career. But baseball is a funny game, and so sometimes, a superstar finds To commemorate the occasion, we've compiled a list of 19 facts about No. 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. The righthander was discussing how changing speeds and having control are far more important than velocity, because no hitter can tell the exact speed of a pitch. Share. So let's talk Gwynn's hitting. It can be no coincidence that Gwynn developed a strong friendship with another one of the all-time great hitters, Ted Williams. In the fifth inning he lined sharply into the glove of first baseman Will Clark. 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. tony gwynn. Priode. Mike Hampton, a hard-throwing lefty who finished second in Cy Young voting one season, faced Gwynn 38 times and never struck him out. Mike Trout "Except," Maddux said, "for that [expletive] Tony Gwynn." Gwynn never struck out against Maddux . They can be viewed by season or over an entire career. Get the latest news, stats, videos, highlights and more about starting pitcher Greg Maddux on ESPN. Gwynn had six straight seasons (and eight altogether) in which he struck out fewer than 20 times. Even better man and family man. April 11, 2020 6:05 AM PT. Press J to jump to the feed. The former Atlanta Braves hurler faced Gwynn 107 times during their overlapping Hall-of-Fame careers. That brought up Gwynn, hitting better than .500 lifetime against the Cub ace. The best memes from Instagram, Facebook, Vine, and Twitter about tony gwynn. Related. On May 19, 1997, Gwynn was hitting .368, not to shabby for sure. Gwynn's .334 career second-half batting average is the third best in the last 50 years. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. This row, however, does not mean that there were 312 plate appearances that saw a 30 count. Here's Why Tony Gwynn Was One Of The Greatest Hitters Ever. That season came in the middle of a five-year stretch where he batted .369. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . In fact, according to the Elias Sports Bureau's Steve Hirdt, no hitter born since 1918 (i.e., since Ted Williams) has even gotten 2,000 hits and had an average this high. 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. The numbers he put up are staggering, especially considering he played in an era that was increasingly dominated by big swings and steroid home runs. Manny Machado vs Jose Ramirez Comparison. Why was Greg Maddux good? Against Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Smoltz . Tony Gwynn vs. Pitchers Event data is only available for the American League and National League. He released his first book, Volume I of A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs, in October of 2021. Against Randy Johnson, however, Gwynn slashed .111/.111/.167 for a .278 OPS with no walks and five strikeouts in 18 PAs. Tony Gwynn collected more regular season hits against Greg Maddux than any other batter (39 in 33 games). His streak of 18 consecutive .300 seasons from 1983 until 2000 is only surpassed by Ty Cobb's run of 23 straight years. Evan is the owner and sole contributor of Thompson Talks, a website discussing the Big Four North American Pro Sports as well as soccer. In other words, the last pitch of the plate appearance came on a 30 count. Against Randy Johnson, however, Gwynn slashed .111/.111/.167 for a .278 OPS with no walks and five strikeouts . 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. Scherzer tries to test pitch clock limits, gets balk, 7 Cubs combine for 1st spring no-no since 2017, Jays 'playing it safe' after Guerrero tweaks knee, PitchCom-tipping: Loud device leaks Twins calls, Eflin's first start after $40M deal impresses Rays, Rangers' Leclerc to miss WBC with neck injury, Rockies' Rodgers may need surgery, '23 at risk. If thats not respect, I dont know what is. Greg Maddux could put a baseball through a Life Saver if you asked him. In 35 games against Maddux, Gwynn hit a Ty Cobb-like .429. Gooden used his fastball and curveball to keep Gwynn off-balance, actually holding Mr. Padre to a .243 mark in 77 matchups while fanning him six times. You can check out the most watched Tony Gwynn cards of all years currently at auction through the live list below. Aztec Sports and Conference Discussions. I was actually kind of shocked when I looked up this statistic on the web. Kinda random it was just these two especially Pedro Martinez since it was probably only the beginning of his career when they were facing eachother. Of his 18 total awards, Maddux won 10 with the Braves, five with the Cubs, two with the Dodgers and one with the Padres. Wake up to the day's most important news. He walked very little, which means his singles make up a lot of his batting average and on-base percentage. Maddux was also a good hitting pitcher, with a career . Tony Gwynn is the greatest pure hitter I have ever witnessed. Roy Halladay shut down Derek Jeter. As mentioned earlier, it is impossible to know. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. Amazing. Tony Gwynn was the only player to have struck out Maddux 107 times. Defensively Wade was very underrated as a third baseman. Fantasy baseball: Which prospects have fantasy value in 2023? He had at least two hits in his first five games and hit safely in his first twelve. What Rogers Hornsby and Honus Wagner were to their generation, that's what the late, great Tony Gwynn was to his generation. He didn't play baseball in an age when men routinely hit .424 or .404. Otherwise, you werent going to strike him out. Thus, naturally, Maddux and his machine-like control generated some truly ridiculous numbers. 429 career average and he NEVER struck out against the Hall of Fame hurler. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Combien gagne t il d argent ? Did you know that Greg Maddux is the only pitcher in Major . 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. With the All-Star game in San Diego this season, it's impossible not to think about San Diego . 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. 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). From 1991-1999, he struck out more than 20 times once. Finally, what does it mean to have piled up a .338 batting average over a 20-year career, over 9,288 at-bats? Mike Scott, he of the split-fingered fastball, was one of the best strikeout pitchers of the 1980s, and hes the pitcher that Gwynn faced the most after Maddux and Glavine. His 590 career assists are the most in school history and his 221 assists in the 1979-80 season are also a record. I did a cursory study of different good hitters vs. good pitchers on several dimensions. 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. In those 20,421 at-bats, only 310 hitters saw a 3-0 count. Could Gwynn have reached .400? I read earlier that in 323 combined career PAs against Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez, Gwynn struck out only three times. Gwynn owns all-time Padres records for batting average, runs, hits, total bases, doubles, triples, RBIs, walks, stolen bases and games played. This leaves 845 batters unaccounted for. Tony Gwynn hit .415 against Greg Maddux and (expletive) did not strike out even once in 107 plate appearances! The next day at home against the Dodgers, Gwynn went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles off Ismael Valdez. In fact, he added 37.9 percent to the Padres' win probability that day. So mind-blowing, in fact, that it seems too good to be true. In his entire 20-year career, Gwynn struck out 434 times -- an average of 21.7 K's per season. Gwynn also had incredible success against many of the best strikeout pitchers. The Los Angeles slugger is 0-for-17 lifetime against Maddux. He batted .415/.476/.521 against the four-time Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Famer. I've updated those numbers now, in the wake of the awful news of Tony Gwynn's death. On Thursday night, the Clippers blew a halftime lead and lost 115-91 to the Golden State Warriors. Its really hard to pick a periodin one of Gwynns 20 seasons and say definitively that it was the hottest stretch of his career. Sithi select. Even against hitters who can hurt them, they rarely change much from how they approach every hitter. No 3,000-hit man who was born after 1900 had a higher lifetime batting average than Gwynn (.338). 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. If we apply that percentage to the 845 batters he faced in his first two seasons, that makes 43.6, which rounds up to 44. Para muchos Tony Gwynn es uno de los mejores bateadores en la historia del beisbol de la MLB, razn por la que el premio al champion bat de la Liga Nacional lleva su nombre, pero cmo le fue este grande con el madero contra otras dos leyendas en Pedro Martnez y . Special to ESPN.com. Part of HuffPost News. Maddux was one of the best pitchers who pitched exclusively in the Live Ball Era. Tony Gwynn. The game went into extra innings and Gwynn singled in the tenth, but the Pads were unable to score the winning run. 1: Gwynn's most strikeouts in a season was 40 (1988). Here's Maddux on how he gripped the baseball. 2004 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection ~ Game Patch ~ Tony Gwynn /75 BeautyF Patch! Another foot either way and it would have been a hit. Except for the fact he did that every darned year, no matter what. He started in 25 games. 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. Barry Bonds TONY GWYNN Jeff Bagwell Ozzie Smith Greg Maddux PSA Auto Baseball. As a DBacks fan I've always hated mark reynolds, Maddux on Tony Gwynn. There are few ballplayers in the history of Major League Baseball that were as skilled in the batters box than Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who passed away on Monday. There are batting, pitching, and fielding stats available for every player on the site. That will include, among pitchers, Greg M. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Gwynns career worst strikeout rate was 6.9% in 1988 when he struck out 40 times in 578 at bats. Maddux is also one of only ten pitchers who has both 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts. Except for that (expletive) Tony Gwynn.. Here are seven (and trust us, there are plenty more) ridiculous stats from San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn's incredible 20-year career: [Special shout out to Fox Sports'Erik Malinowski and ESPN's Jayson Stark who dug up most of these incredible statistics. 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. Myth: Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career. The only season he didn't was 1990, in which he missed the crown by one hit. We can make a rough estimate, however, by using the count data from 1988 to 1990, which was the last season Maddux had a walk rate that was 7.0% or higher. Only 310 saw a 3-0 count, and 177 of those were intentional walks. He batted .462 with 12 extra-base hits off John Smoltz. In the other 19, the batter put the ball in play. (posted by /u/Gimmie_dat_cookie on r/cubs). 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. For two decades, Tony Gwynn was also the best friend those of us in the media-genius prediction business ever had. We all know that batting average is not the only way (or even the best way) to measure a hitters effectiveness. In 103 plate appearances, Gwynn put the ball in play 93 times and walked 10 times. Would Gwynn have hit .400 that season? In 1994, Gwynn had his best season at the plate. * Andy Van Slyke, now an ESPN announcer, batted .343 (23-for-67) with four home runs and 11 walks. In this installment of Baseball Mythbusters, we will look at Greg Maddux and the 30 count. The good is, Shawn left his picks. The great players are usually the ones who are able to maintain their skills later than their contemporaries. In the third inning, Gwynn singled to right. They were the 307th set of brothers in Major League Baseball history. Mark Loretta had 208 hits in 2004. As Howell broke for second, Gwynn put his picture-perfect swing into a Maddux slider and lifted it into center field . In 1993, Gwynn had a stellar year when he had three five-hit games and his lone six-hit game. The LA Clippers entered Friday 0-4 since adding Westbrook. *Gwynn hit over .350 five times after the age of 33. 7. A 76 Pitch . But then again, there are force outs everywhere Found this on facebook with other notable pitchers. His first and biggest love is baseball. Tony Gwynn stroked a run-scoring double for the San Diego Padres against the Chicago Cubs in 1994. . As they age, batters platoon splits usually get more pronounced. Born: May 9, 1960 in Los Angeles, CA us Died: June 16, 2014 in Poway, CA Buried: Dearborn Memorial Park, Poway, CA . And thanks to statistic hubs like Baseball Reference, some unbelievable numbers are being shared from Gwynn's career. And I have a feeling that won't change -- for about the next 12 centuries: Gwynn hit .338 over a 20-year career. 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. In 36 pitcher/batter battles, Pedro Martinez never struck out Gwynn. Ryan est venu te frapper. Evan Thompson is a member of the Roland Hemond (AZ) Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). (Some versions say 133 instead of 310 and leave out intentional walks.) He led the league with 220 hits, becoming the oldest player to do so. Since World War II, Gwynn is the only player to bat above .350 in five consecutive seasons (from 1993-97). Gwynn got hits off Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro -- four men who won a combined 1,282 games. Neither Pedro Martinez nor Greg Maddux ever struck him out.Maddux faced Gwynn 107 times and Gwynn hit .415 off Maddux. That was 1997 when he struck out 28 times and hit .372. America's Pastime. In fact, Maddux saw Gwynn more than anyone. Gwynn hit a blistering .444 off Smoltz and only struck out once against the hard thrower. Because, thanks to him, you never had to dread that annual spring assignment of picking the batting champ. Aztec Mesa Archives. Gwynn faced Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz a combined 323 times. He batted .381 with a 101 hits and 3 strikeouts. Then again, he also didn't play baseball in an age when we were obsessed with walks, or on-base-percentage, or wRC+. July 12, 2016, 10:48 PM. He struck out only three times (two to Glavine, two to Smoltz and NEVER against Maddux or Pedro), per Eric Edholm of Yahoo! In addition to his pitching skills, Maddux was an excellent fielding pitcher. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. Greg Maddux vs. Tony Gwynn. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Regular season data is complete back to 1973, mostly complete back to 1950, and somewhat complete back to 1915. So maybe we never saw Hornsby or Wagner or Tris Speaker hit a baseball. 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. Runs scored is an opportunity stat, and it really has little to do with how good a player is. My Have List is linked in my signature. Gwynn has seven of those seasons, the most of any player in that span. 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). "When he strikes out swinging," his old hitting coach, Merv Rettenmund, once told me, "the pitcher's shocked. He struck out 3 times and hit .381. Chris Cwik. Martinez is the current leader with four straight .300-plus seasons. It makes sense that great players tend to provide the biggest challenge to other greats. We could spend all day listing Gwynns mind-boggling career achievements. Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times in a season. Other College Sports (Non-MWC Topics) San Diego Sports. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426. Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. One reason was his pinpoint control, with his ability to notch front-corner strikes leading to claims that umpires gave him a much wider strike zone than the rest of the league. . He hit .303 against fellow lefty Tom Glavine and struck out twice in 105 times at the plate . In fact, in 1994, Gwynn batted an absurd .397 in two-strike counts. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Dan Holmes is the author of three books about baseball, including Ty Cobb: A Biography. Why? 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. Aztec Recruiting. Greg Maddux' Command. He struck out 15 times during the entire 1995 season a year in which he batted .368. Those 13 walks are the most anyone has drawn. He had three different seasons in which he hit .370 or higher. 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. On Monday, ESPNs Ethan Strauss reminded us about a fantastic quote that Maddux once had about Gwynn that summed up his sensational career. He is ranked 74th on the Baseball Reference website on position players, he also had a relatively long career. Tony Gwynn had 287 plate appearances against Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. 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. 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. Gwynn played both baseball and basketball at San Diego State, and he still owns several records in basketball for the Aztecs. Of course, it's not like Gwynn's numbers against Maddux were an anomaly. Players. There were two strikeout specialists who got Gwynn on strikes more than a few times: Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden.