Tony Gwynn’s Amazing Stats

Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn passed away June 16th after a battle with cancer. There have been lots of stories published in the last day chronicling his long career with the San Diego Padres, how much he meant to the fans, and generally what a great all-around guy he was.

He's rightfully been called one of the greatest hitters of all-time. That accolade really comes to life when you look at some of the numbers that Tony Gwynn put up over the course of his career.

From Yahoo Sports:

• Gwynn's rookie season, in which he played in 54 games, is the only year of his career that he didn't hit .300. He hit .289. His 19 consecutive .300 seasons are second to only Ty Cobb, who had 23.

 

• Gwynn's career .338 batting average is of a different era. As Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan notes, every other hitter with an average of .338 or above started his career before 1940.

 

• For his career batting average to slip below .300, Gwynn would have needed to add 1,183 hitless at-bats to his total — roughly the equivalent of two full seasons. (Via @AceballStats)

 

• In 1994, Jeff Bagwell hit .368, the 13th best season since 1961, but didn't even win the NL batting title because Gwynn was nearly 30 points better.

 

• Gwynn's 434 career strikeouts are an amazing mark for a player who had 10,232 career plate appearances. Paul Waner is the only member of the 3,000 hit club to do better. He struck out 376 times in 10,766 plate appearances from 1926-1945. (Via ESPN Stats & Info)

 

• For comparison's sake: Adam Dunn has struck out 486 times since the start of 2012. Mark Reynolds struck out exactly 434 times in 2009 and 2010.

 

• Only once in his career did Gwynn have a three-stikeout game. Eerily, it came against Bob Welch on April 14, 1986. Welch died last week at age 57. That was quite a game.

 

Let's take a look at Tony Gwynn in action: