In his entire 20-year career, Gwynn struck out 434 times -- an average of 21.7 K's per season. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Greg Maddux 3-0 Counts. The former Atlanta Braves hurler faced Gwynn 107 times during their overlapping Hall-of-Fame careers. Before signing with the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1993 season, his lowest walk rate for a season was 6.2% (1991). But Gwynn also extended that success to other fine pitchers, such as Maddux's teammate John Smoltz. His first and biggest love is baseball. For the 20-game batting streak in May and June, Gwynn hit an incredible .494 (39-for-79) with a .534 on-base percentage. In the history of baseball, only Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie got there faster -- and when they played, the gloves were made of the same material as those trains they rode on. In 2007, Gwynn was inducted into the Hall of Fame after receiving 532 of 545 votes -- the 10th-highest total in MLB history. Ryan est venu te frapper. He wasnt just slapping the ball either, Gwynn had eight doubles, two triples, and two home runs off Smoltz. Damn. We kid you not. 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. Sa fortune s lve 2 000,00 euros mensuels Thank you for reading and commenting, Christian. In fact, Maddux saw Gwynn more than anyone. We will see what makes this claim false, what the true number is, and the mistake made by the original creator of the meme. We cant know for sure how many of the 1986-87 hitters faced a 30 count, but chances are good that the percentage is greater than or equal to his subsequent seasons in Chicago. 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. Except for that (expletive) Tony Gwynn.. 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. For two decades, Tony Gwynn was also the best friend those of us in the media-genius prediction business ever had. Gwynn doubled in the first off Greg Brummett (who was making one of his only 13 starts in the major leagues). 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 He struck out 3 times and hit .381. Evan lives in Mesa, Arizona and loves history, especially of sports. 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.. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. "Except," Maddux said, "for that [expletive] Tony Gwynn." Gwynn never struck out against Maddux . Hit .372 at the age of 37 in 1997, and only struck out 28 times in 592 at-bats. Five of those seasons belong to Gwynn (1984, '86, '87, '89, '97). Tom Glavine, the other great pitcher in Atlantas rotation during Gwynns day, only struck out Tony twice. 1: Gwynn's most strikeouts in a season was 40 (1988). DarthIntegral JCC FODEUSS Commish VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host. He also is a credentialed member of the Diamondbacks press corps for Last Word on Baseball. In fact, he added 37.9 percent to the Padres' win probability that day. 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. 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. 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. He batted at least .300 against 32 of those 38 pitchers, including Tom Glavine, Nolan Ryan, John Smoltz and Orel Hershiser. 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. Nobody owned "Tony Gwynn Opening Day" quite like, well, Tony Gwynn. Mike Mussina stifled Ken Griffey Jr. For his career against all pitchers Gwynn hit .302 with two strikes. Gwynn's .334 career second-half batting average is the third best in the last 50 years. He gets more of the bat on the ball on some pitches than anyone else, Maddux said. Well, except one. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. If you need proof of that -- besides his eight National League batting titles, career .338 batting average, seven Silver Slugger awards and 3,141 career hits -- check out some of these eye-popping stats and facts. Did you know there were 97 hitters in the big leagues who whiffed at least 20 times just last month? Combien gagne t il d argent ? 3: Gwynn never struck out against arguably the two greatest pitchers of his generation. Related. 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. 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. 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 faced Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, and Pedro Martinez a combined 323 times, and only struck out in 3 of those plate appearances. It's pure speculation at this point, but he was batting .423/.472/.613 in the second half that year. On April 30, 1996, three San Francisco pitchers held Gwynn hitless. 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. That was hit #4 and it helped spark a three-run rally that helped the Padres tie the score 10-10. 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. If thats not respect, I dont know what is. In a high-scoring game, he was back up in the eighth, lining a single to right off Jeff Brantley. In 1997 he was 37 years old but his bat hadnt slowed down. In his prime, when he was really at his best hitting the baseball, Gwynn was as dominant in batting as anyone since Ty Cobb in the Deadball Era. . And he was proud of that. Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career more than any other pitcher. We'll be proud to tell our grandchildren we did. Bob Gibson et Pedro Martinez et Greg Maddux sont venus vous battre. It makes sense that great players tend to provide the biggest challenge to other greats. Rather famously, Gwynn struck out three times in a game only once -- against Bob Welch and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986. And Maddux knew it. 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. He lives in Michigan where he writes, runs, and enjoys a good orange soda now and again. 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. Why? MLB analyst John Smoltz was talking about facing Gwynn, which sent me to Baseball Reference. Thats why he didnt score a lot of runs in comparison to other members of the 3,000 hit club, for example. The next closest guy only got him 6 times. 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. His streak of 18 consecutive .300 seasons from 1983 until 2000 is only surpassed by Ty Cobb's run of 23 straight years. Only once. (1915) @Wang Chi on the clock. Gwynn hit below .300 just once in his career, his rookie season. The baseball world was mourning the passing of one of its most beloved players on Monday, as San Diego Padres legend Tony Gwynn lost his battle with cancer at the age of 54. Baseball News, Analysis, History, Schedule, Rumors. 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. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, The subreddit for the bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players. Gwynn was without question the best pure hitter in the game of baseball in the 1980s and 1990s. Gwynn hit a blistering .444 off Smoltz and only struck out once against the hard thrower . What's the Dodgers' plan at shortstop? La plupart des retraits . 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 . In the other 19, the batter put the ball in play. Tony Gwynn: man or machine? Tony Gwynn was the only player to have struck out Maddux 107 times. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. Dude was a craaaazy good hitter. . 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. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. 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. He's shocked. As a DBacks fan I've always hated mark reynolds, Maddux on Tony Gwynn. "When he strikes out swinging," his old hitting coach, Merv Rettenmund, once told me, "the pitcher's shocked. 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. Another foot either way and it would have been a hit. Manny Machado vs Jose Ramirez Comparison. Greg Maddux (94 ABs) and Pedro Martinex (135 ABs) never recorded a K against the Padres outfielder.No hitter born after 1900 reached 3,000 hits in fewer games (2,284) or at-bats (8,874) than Gywnn. 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). He had 45 games of four or more hits, so it was more likely to see him get four hits than it was to see him strike out more than once. Of course, it's not like Gwynn's numbers against Maddux were an anomaly. On the day he retired 13 years ago, I took a look at his incredible hitting genius, measured through the columns on the stat sheet he owned like no one else -- the batting average column, the hits column and the strikeouts (or lack thereof) column. But Gwynn also extended that success to other fine pitchers, such as Madduxs teammate John Smoltz. How Many Times Did Maddux Strike Out Tony Gwynn? Speaking of average, Gwynn's career mark of .338 ranks 17th among the all-time leaders. Think about that: for five years from July of 1991 to April 1996, Gwynn never had an 0-for-12 at any time. In 35 games against Maddux, Gwynn hit a Ty Cobb-like .429. It was very, very hard to fool Tony Gwynn. On Monday, ESPNs Ethan Strauss reminded us about a fantastic quote that Maddux once had about Gwynn that summed up his sensational career. See his various events you wish you could of seen. 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? Tony Gwynn won eight batting titles and hit .300 in 19 of his 20 major league seasons. 429 career average and he NEVER struck out against the Hall of Fame hurler. Greg Maddux got to see that firsthand. Tony Gwynn had 287 plate appearances against Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. Greg Maddux vs. Tony Gwynn. Gwynn got hits off Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro -- four men who won a combined 1,282 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. 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. Last season, 129 players had struck out 22 times by the end of April. From 1992-95, he won four-straight NL Cy Youngs. Tony Eusebio gives Houston an early lead with an RBI single off Greg Maddux. Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. Get the latest news, stats, videos, highlights and more about starting pitcher Greg Maddux on ESPN. Maddux was also a good hitting pitcher, with a career . Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. No hitter born after 1900 reached 3,000 hits in fewer games (2,284) or at-bats (8,874) than Gwynn. 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. Everybody in the stadium is shocked. Most players have a disadvantage when they are facing pitchers of the same stripe as them. He hit .395 in April, .392 in May, .387 in June, and .370 in July. in a 162 game span covering the strike year of 1994 and the first half of 1995, Tony Gwynn hit over .400. In 36 pitcher/batter battles, Pedro Martinez never struck out Gwynn. In fact, Maddux saw Gwynn more than anyone. 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. He struck out only three times (two to Glavine, two to Smoltz and NEVER against Maddux or Pedro). * Andy Van Slyke, now an ESPN announcer, batted .343 (23-for-67) with four home runs and 11 walks. I think I know part of the reason for Gwynns low WAR ranking, he ranks 101st among MLB players all time in total runs scored, behind Joe DiMaggio who had a much shorter career. From 1993-2001, the last nine years of his career, when he was 33-41 years old, Gwynn hit .349 against left-handed pitching. Tony Gwynn broke Greg Maddux's spell. Neither Pedro Martinez nor Greg Maddux ever struck him out.Maddux faced Gwynn 107 times and Gwynn hit .415 off Maddux. He won 18 Gold Gloves, the record for any position. Amazing strikeout stat No. 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. How incredible was Gwynns career batting mark? They can be viewed by season or over an entire career. 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? Tony Gwynn. I read earlier that in 323 combined career PAs against Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Pedro Martinez, Gwynn struck out only three times. "Mr Padre" is one of the best and most consistent contact hitters in the history of baseball. 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. Finally, what does it mean to have piled up a .338 batting average over a 20-year career, over 9,288 at-bats? As they age, batters platoon splits usually get more pronounced. Full quote: "Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. Only Warren Spahn (363 wins) had more wins than Maddux (355) during that era. Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. Tony Gwynn hit .415 against Greg Maddux and (expletive) did not strike out even once in 107 plate appearances! He hit .303 against fellow lefty Tom Glavine and struck out twice in 105 times at the plate . 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. He released his first book, Volume I of A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs, in October of 2021. He had at least two hits in his first five games and hit safely in his first twelve. So mind-blowing, in fact, that it seems too good to be true. Here's Why Tony Gwynn Was One Of The Greatest Hitters Ever. In the 14 seasons from 1984 through 1997, Gwynn finished in the top five in the batting race 13 times. Players. Thats how you maintain an astronomical batting average year after year. Chipper Jones pummeled Randy Johnson. Nolan Ryan struck out Tony Gwynn more than any other pitcher with 9. 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. Position: Pitcher Bats: Right Throws: Right 6-0, 170lb (183cm, 77kg) . The bad news is they are all in slightly cryptic puzzles. 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. 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. He is ranked 74th on the Baseball Reference website on position players, he also had a relatively long career. Free shipping for many products! In other words, the last pitch of the plate appearance came on a 30 count. tony gwynn. If Maddux was the robot of pitchers, then Tony Gwynn is the robot of hitters. Gross tubs? Every other player who had a career batting average of .338 or better played before 1940. Against Nolan Ryan, Gwynn hit .302, and he famously never struck out against Maddux in 91 at-bats. This row, however, does not mean that there were 312 plate appearances that saw a 30 count. But baseball is a funny game, and so sometimes, a superstar finds Registered: Jul 13, 2005. On Thursday night, the Clippers blew a halftime lead and lost 115-91 to the Golden State Warriors. Did you know that Greg Maddux is the only pitcher in Major . With the All-Star game in San Diego this season, it's impossible not to think about San Diego . But Gwynn wasnt done showing off his old bat. To commemorate the occasion, we've compiled a list of 19 facts about No. On June 21, Gwynn started a 19-game hitting streak in which he hit .429 with 36 hits and more power (he hit five homers). 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). Runs scored is an opportunity stat, and it really has little to do with how good a player is. Gwynn hit a blistering .444 off Smoltz and only struck out once against the hard thrower. 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. And thanks to statistic hubs like Baseball Reference, some unbelievable numbers are being shared from Gwynn's career. Follow on Twitter: @LWOSEvanT Since Gwynn debuted in 1982, a hitter has finished a season with a batting average above .350 only 46 times. 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. How other hitters have done in the regular season with Maddux, according to STATS, Inc.: * Barry Bonds has hit six home runs, the most against Maddux. Press J to jump to the feed. The only season he didn't was 1990, in which he missed the crown by one hit. Gwynns career worst strikeout rate was 6.9% in 1988 when he struck out 40 times in 578 at bats. But if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. He didn't play baseball in an age when men routinely hit .424 or .404. Tony Gwynn, then going on 26 and . 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. . Among the 38 pitchers he faced at least 50 times, his lowest average was a .243 mark against Dwight Gooden. Gwynn, a Hall of Famer and 15-time All Star, is one of the greatest pure hitters to ever play the game. Since World War II, Gwynn is the only player to bat above .350 in five consecutive seasons (from 1993-97). 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. *In 323 AB vs. Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux, Tony Gwynn struck out a total of three times. 307 - Tony Gwynn has a younger brother, Chris Gwynn, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1987-1991), Kansas City Royals (1992-1993), Los Angeles Dodgers (1994-1995), and San Diego Padres . *Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times in a season. 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 . He had three different seasons in which he hit .370 or higher. 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. As if to show everyone what theyd missed in the summer of 94, Gwynn came out swinging a red-hot bat. 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. He could have stuck around the big leagues and gone 0-for-1172 and still had a .300 career batting average. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. And here's Ryan on the same thing. That will include, among pitchers, Greg M. Even in his era, Gwynns contact rate was far and away the best of the great hitters. He collected 83 hits in the 46 games, and even had a hit in the one game he didnt start, delivering a pinch-hit two-run single against the Astros on June 1st. In 103 plate appearances, Gwynn put the ball in play 93 times and walked 10 times. The only pitcher to strike out Gwynn three times in ONE game was Bob Welch, who sadly passed away last week. And none of these pitchers ever struck him out: Pedro Martinez (35 AB), Hideo Nomo (25 AB), Mike Hampton (33 AB) or, incredibly, Maddux (in 94 AB). 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. Jeff Bagwell hit .368 that year the 13th highest batting average since 1961 but he still finished 30 points behind Gwynn in the batting race! He batted .462 with 12 extra-base hits off John Smoltz. 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 . Mike Hampton, a hard-throwing lefty who finished second in Cy Young voting one season, faced Gwynn 38 times and never struck him out. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy spoke with reporters on Wednesday from the, The Los Angeles Dodgers took a chance on Jason Heyward this offseason, and their move seems to be paying off. The last player to finish his career with a higher average was Ted Williams' .344 mark. The stat: Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his time in the league. In this installment of Baseball Mythbusters, we will look at Greg Maddux and the 30 count. Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters in his career. He had a swing that made pitchers cry themselves to sleep. 2004 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection ~ Game Patch ~ Tony Gwynn /75 BeautyF Patch! But he was about to really start heating up. From 1991-1999, he struck out more than 20 times once. Evan is the owner and sole contributor of Thompson Talks, a website discussing the Big Four North American Pro Sports as well as soccer. As Howell broke for second, Gwynn put his picture-perfect swing into a Maddux slider and lifted it into center field . Same with Joaquin Andujar, Rob Murphy, and Kevin Brown, all of whom battled Gwynn at least 25 times. The San Diego Padres have been one of the most talked about teams over the offseason due to all their big moves. I did a cursory study of different good hitters vs. good pitchers on several dimensions. Gwynn finished his career batting .302 with two strikes. Across his 23 seasons, he walked 999 hitters.