Philly Front Office

For those not already familiar, you are not ready for Tony Gwynn’s Baseball-Reference page. He is one of the most unassuming athletes you would ever see, but he could hit a baseball like few before him. Let’s just say that there are only two members of the Top-22 all time hitters for average whose portraits aren’t in black and white. It’s only Teddy Ballgame and Mr. Padre. Let’s get into how ridiculous his career stats are.

Monday, June 30 at 6:35p – Zack Wheeler v. Matt Waldron (R)
Tuesday, July 1 at 6:30p – Cristopher Sanchez v. Nick Pivetta (R)
Wednesday, July 2 at 1:05p – Mick Abel v. Dylan Cease (R)

at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia

Anything But Average

.358, .338, .329…these are Gwynn’s three highest batting averages in years he DIDN’T win a batting title…and he won 8 batting titles! His worst single season batting average in a full season (16 years) was .309 in 1990. That’s right, outside of his 54 game, 190 at bat debut in 1982 where he hit .289, Tony Gwynn didn’t just hit higher than .300 in all of them, the lowest was .309. For context, that would be good for 3rd in the NL right now. He would finish his career hitting…you aren’t ready for this, .338! His career batting average would far and away win the NL batting title right now and would have won 7 out of the last 10. He could have gone 0 for another 1,182 at bats and still finished a .300 lifetime hitter.

He won his first batting title in 1984, hitting .351. He was 24 years old. Here is a look at that and the other 7:

1984	.351
1987	.370
1988	.313
1989	.336
1994	.394
1995	.368
1996	.353
1997	.372

That last one in 1997 happened when he was 37, his last of 4 consecutive. His 8 batting titles are the most in the modern era, besting Rod Carew’s 7. Lest you think his .338 average was a product of the time, he is the only player with that kind of average who started his career after World War 2.

Strikeouts

In 1988, Gwynn struck out 40 times all year. That was his most ever strikeouts in a season. Oneil Cruz currently leads the league in Ks and hit 40 on May 6th this season. In 20 seasons, he only finished with 30+ Ks 5 times. That’s a month for most hitters. In the entire decade of the 90s, Gwynn struck out only 188 times. 5 players did that last year alone. For his career, Gwynn struck out 434 times. For the 33 players in the 3000 hit club, only a guy named Paul Waner has less strikeouts.

In all of his 2,440 career games, Gwynn only struck out 3 times once and it was in 1986. He only struck out twice in a game 33 times. He had 4+ hits 45 times. Yes, that means he was more likely to get a 4 hit game than strikeout twice. Next time you watch a baseball game, think about how many guys strikeout twice in the game and then think of Tony Gwynn.

Hits

Gwynn finished with 3141 hits. It would be higher had he not missed so many games in his career. In fact, per 162 games he averaged 209 hits. Had he been more durable (and basically superhuman), that translates to 4,180 hits over a 20 year career.

Not surprisingly, Gwynn led the league in hits 7 times, nabbing over 200 4 times.

Seasons

For his career, Gwynn made 15 All-Star games and received MVP votes 12 times. He finished as high as 3rd in 1984 and still finished 6th in 1997, a 14 year gap.

Statistically, Gwynn’s best all around seasons came in 1986 and 1987 where he led the league in WAR with 6.7 and 8.6. 1986 was good, but everything came together in 1987. He would hit .370 that season and set several career highs including 13 triples, 82 walks, and even 56 stolen bases! Everything went his way that year, but he only finished 8th in MVP voting despite being ahead in WAR by almost 2 whole points including double the winner Andre Dawson. I guess voters liked the Hawk’s 49 homers more than Gwynn’s 7.

On of the saddest things about the 1994 player strike was that some serious records were in jeopardy. I’m sure a lot of people were doing steroids then, but not Tony Gwynn. At the time the strike happened, he was hitting .394 including going 3-5 in his final game of the season which was unfortunately in August. He had about 7 weeks to go to make it to .400, something no one has done since Ted Williams. That year he had a 1.022 OPS and 169 OPS+, his best single season marks.

Unfortunately, Gwynn’s Padres never won the World Series. Not that Gwynn didn’t do his part though. In 1998, the Padres were swept by the Yankees, but that didn’t stop Gwynn from hitting .500 that series.

From 1995 until the day he retired (his last 6 seasons), Gwynn hit .350. What a way to go out.

All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

Some of the cool Tony Gwynn facts are from MLB.com and Yahoo Sports