Last season, 129 players had struck out 22 times by the end of April. The only season he didn't was 1990, in which he missed the crown by one hit. From 1993-2001, the last nine years of his career, when he was 33-41 years old, Gwynn hit .349 against left-handed pitching. Gwynn played both baseball and basketball at San Diego State, and he still owns several records in basketball for the Aztecs. Mets fan tries to induce balk by incorrectly counting down p Blue Jays' Guerrero leaves spring game with knee discomfort. Barry Bonds TONY GWYNN Jeff Bagwell Ozzie Smith Greg Maddux PSA Auto Baseball. One more thing: I took the top four vote-getters and went back to Twitter to post a couple of polls. He struck out 15 times during the entire 1995 season a year in which he batted .368. No hitter born after 1900 reached 3,000 hits in fewer games (2,284) or at-bats (8,874) than Gywnn. Maddux won four Cy Young awards and ranks as one of the ten greatest pitchers in history. From 1988 to 2001, Gwynn hit .302 in two-strike counts. Tony Gwynn hit .415 against Greg Maddux and (expletive) did not strike out even once in 107 plate appearances! Sorry Bronson Arroyo Maddux allowed as many home runs in his first five seasons with the Braves (1156 innings) as Bronson Arroyo did in 2011. Ronald Acuna vs Juan Soto Comparison. 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. See his various events you wish you could of seen. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. What's the Dodgers' plan at shortstop? We kid you not. 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. Greg Maddux got to see that firsthand. In other words, the last pitch of the plate appearance came on a 30 count. In the past 100 years, nobody has more batting titles than Gwynn's eight. Gwynn's 60th celebrated all day, Sat. His first and biggest love is baseball. He had little home run power. Another foot either way and it would have been a hit. Of his 18 total awards, Maddux won 10 with the Braves, five with the Cubs, two with the Dodgers and one with the Padres. Its mind-blowing. In his entire 20-year career, Gwynn struck out 434 times -- an average of 21.7 K's per season. 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. 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. In 293 of those, the batter walked; 153 were intentional. Gwynns career batting mark was .338, the highest mark by any player who started his career after 1939. 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. Ace of MLB Stats (@AceballStats) June 16, 2014. With the All-Star game in San Diego this season, it's impossible not to think about San Diego . 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 . But his feats are as amazing today as they were back then. MLB analyst John Smoltz was talking about facing Gwynn, which sent me to Baseball Reference. Runs scored is an opportunity stat, and it really has little to do with how good a player is. 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. * Bip Roberts, now in Kansas City, hit .471 (16-for-34) with seven walks. However, since this is speculative, we cannot include that in the verdict. * Dante Bichette is 1-for-9 and Colorado teammate Vinny Castilla is 0-for-8. 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. 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. Gwynn, a Hall of Famer and 15-time All Star, is one of the greatest pure hitters to ever play the game. 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? "Mr Padre" is one of the best and most consistent contact hitters in the history of baseball. 3: Gwynn never struck out against arguably the two greatest pitchers of his generation. Gwynn is a .431 career hitter (25-for-58) against the Atlanta ace. There is also a line called Unknown count there are 321 plate appearances where we dont know what the count was on the final pitch. For two decades, Tony Gwynn was also the best friend those of us in the media-genius prediction business ever had. In his 20 seasons, Gwynn posted 45 games in which he had at least four hits: 35 with four hits, nine with five hits, and one with six hits. 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 . You just cant do it, Maddux said. Aztec Ticket Exchange. On Monday, ESPNs Ethan Strauss reminded us about a fantastic quote that Maddux once had about Gwynn that summed up his sensational career. He torched just about every pitcher he faced. Greg Maddux could put a baseball through a Life Saver if you asked him. Nolan Ryan struck out Tony Gwynn more than any other pitcher with 9. In his entire 20-year career, Gwynn struck out 434 times -- an average of 21.7 K's per season. As a DBacks fan I've always hated mark reynolds, Maddux on Tony Gwynn. No 3,000-hit man who was born after 1900 had a higher lifetime batting average than Gwynn (.338). 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. Maddux was a tough competitor, earning the nickname Mad Dog for his intense focus. THREE 72 AB vs Smoltz he hit .444 with a .697 slug% and 1 strikeout 99 AB vs Maddux and hit .415 and never struck out. He wasnt just slapping the ball either, Gwynn had eight doubles, two triples, and two home runs off Smoltz. 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 . Get the latest news, stats, videos, highlights and more about starting pitcher Greg Maddux on ESPN. Gwynn's .338 career batting average is the highest in the expansion era -- and it's not even that close, as Gwynn sits 10 points ahead of Boggs, in second. Against Randy Johnson, however, Gwynn slashed .111/.111/.167 for a .278 OPS with no walks and five strikeouts . Players. Do not let the reality fool you this is still nothing short of amazing. I'd have to do some digging to find the exact players, but assume the best hitters and pitchers among Gwynn's playing cohort. Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles and hit .300 in 19 of his 20 major league seasons. There are batting, pitching, and fielding stats available for every player on the site. 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. * Andres Galarraga (61 at-bats) and Howard Johnson (74 at-bats, five home runs) have struck out the most, 18 times each. Fun/impressive fact: In 107 PAs, Maddux never struck out Tony Gwynn. Maddux was one of several pitchers who deftly described the challenge of retiring Gwynn at the plate. He was the second batter in the top of the first inning, as his Giants took on the Houston Astros. Against the Braves' Hall of Fame trio, Gwynn fared pretty well. Thus, naturally, Maddux and his machine-like control generated some truly ridiculous numbers. Theres no need to add myths to the equation. 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). On April 30, 1996, three San Francisco pitchers held Gwynn hitless. By Tony Gwynn. The bad news is they are all in slightly cryptic puzzles. Evan Thompson is a member of the Roland Hemond (AZ) Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=81411994, Yankees Free Agency Push Needed Post-Lockout, Ten Greatest Comebacks in MLB History: #3 (2), A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs. While most left-handed batters are declining and being rested against southpaws in their twilight years, Gwynn was punishing them. Aztec Sports and Conference Discussions. More on Gwynn's lack of strikeouts: He faced some great pitchers, but even the cream of the crop had trouble getting him out. 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. I read earlier that in 323 combined career PAs against Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez, Gwynn struck out only three times. As we outlined in #2 above, Gwynn tore apart Greg Maddux to the tune of a . Part of HuffPost News. On May 19, 1997, Gwynn was hitting .368, not to shabby for sure. He would have to go 0 for his next 1,183 at-bats to fall under .300. In 1994, Gwynn had his best season at the plate. He was a great player when Wade was only a good player. . Tony Gwynn: Maddux's Greatest Challenger. 1994 Quality Starts. Regular season data is complete back to 1973, mostly complete back to 1950, and somewhat complete back to 1915. You can check out the most watched Tony Gwynn cards of all years currently at auction through the live list below. The historic 1994 season in which Gwynn batted .394 -- the closest anyone has come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams did so -- was cut short by the strike. Defensively Wade was very underrated as a third baseman. 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. Hall of Famer Greg Maddux is one of the greatest pitchers of the Live Ball Era. Related. 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. 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. As Howell broke for second, Gwynn put his picture-perfect swing into a Maddux slider and lifted it into center field . Well, heres the thing though: runs scored is not factored in WAR. He didn't play baseball in an age when men routinely hit .424 or .404. Maddux is also one of only ten pitchers who has both 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts. Only Ty Cobb, who won 12, all before 1920, had more. Greg Maddux, Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, Orel Hershiser. He was that good. We will see what makes this claim false, what the true number is, and the mistake made by the original creator of the meme. Mark Loretta had 208 hits in 2004. Thank you for reading and commenting, Christian. And here's Ryan on the same thing. It was very, very hard to fool Tony Gwynn. Born: May 9, 1960 in Los Angeles, CA us Died: June 16, 2014 in Poway, CA Buried: Dearborn Memorial Park, Poway, CA . 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. He faced Greg Maddux 107 times, hit .415, and never struck out. 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.