But baseball is a funny game, and so sometimes, a superstar finds Gwynn certainly did that. Maddux was one of the best pitchers who pitched exclusively in the Live Ball Era. This row, however, does not mean that there were 312 plate appearances that saw a 30 count. Gwynn hit below .300 just once in his career, Gwynn struck out less than 20 times in six straight seasons with a career-low 15 times in 1995. He had at least two hits in his first five games and hit safely in his first twelve. That brought up Gwynn, hitting better than .500 lifetime against the Cub ace. Rather famously, Gwynn struck out three times in a game only once -- against Bob Welch and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1986. Maddux was also a good hitting pitcher, with a career . And here's Ryan on the same thing. He struck out 15 times during the entire 1995 season a year in which he batted .368. He is ranked 74th on the Baseball Reference website on position players, he also had a relatively long career. 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. On 45 separate occasions, Gwynn recorded four hits in a game -- 11 more times than he recorded a multi-strikeout game. 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. If he hadn't let him go, we probably wouldn't have been able to put together all of those great teams from the 90's, andoh. Hall of Famer Greg Maddux is one of the greatest pitchers of the Live Ball Era. 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 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for BASEBALL MLB Legends Sports Magazine Cards ALL VARIATIONS YOU PICK at the best online prices at eBay! Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and Al Simmons did so before him. Tony Gwynn. And he was proud of that. How incredible was Gwynns career batting mark? ], Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox. 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. By Tony Gwynn. Other College Sports (Non-MWC Topics) San Diego Sports. Pete Rose vs Tony Gwynn Comparison. Chipper Jones pummeled Randy Johnson. In 36 pitcher/batter battles, Pedro Martinez never struck out Gwynn. Two vs. Glavine. *In 323 AB vs. Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux, Tony Gwynn struck out a total of three times. The bad news is they are all in slightly cryptic puzzles. Also, right or wrong, bWAR sees Gwynn as an average defensive outfielder. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Dan Holmes is the author of three books about baseball, including Ty Cobb: A Biography. 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. 429 career average and he NEVER struck out against the Hall of Fame hurler. His batting average stood at .394 and unfortunately, a run at .400 was one of the things lost when the season was cancelled. 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. The LA Clippers entered Friday 0-4 since adding Westbrook. We'll be proud to tell our grandchildren we did. Tony Gwynn had always had Greg Maddux's number. Wake up to the day's most important news. Maddux is also one of only ten pitchers who has both 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts. But his feats are as amazing today as they were back then. Gwynn has seven of those seasons . The first problem with the 310 batters faced a 30 count claim is this: pitch count data is not available until 1988. Regardez le Salaire Mensuel de Npcap Vs Winpcap Wireshark en temps rel. He had three different seasons in which he hit .370 or higher. For his career against all pitchers Gwynn hit .302 with two strikes. Seven of those 19 times, the batter notched a base hit; the other 12 times, the batter made an out. The Padres' Hall-of-Fame right fielder faced the Braves' Hall of Famer more than any other pitcher in his career . Fun/impressive fact: In 107 PAs, Maddux never struck out Tony Gwynn. There are batting, pitching, and fielding stats available for every player on the site. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. He didn't play baseball in an age when men routinely hit .424 or .404. One more thing: I took the top four vote-getters and went back to Twitter to post a couple of polls. Only once. 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. Before signing with the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1993 season, his lowest walk rate for a season was 6.2% (1991). 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. Theres no need to add myths to the equation. . Those 13 walks are the most anyone has drawn. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters in his career. In 35 games against Maddux, Gwynn hit a Ty Cobb-like .429. Lets just make sure were using the right number when describing Madduxs stats. Tony Gwynn stroked a run-scoring double for the San Diego Padres against the Chicago Cubs in 1994. . . The good is, Shawn left his picks. Otherwise, you werent going to strike him out. Gwynn got hits off Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro -- four men who won a combined 1,282 games. 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. When it comes to choosing between two of the greatest pitchers of all time, Greg Maddux and Pedro Martinez, there are a number of factors to consider. There are so many great stretches, but amazingly in 1997, he got maybe as hot as hes ever been with the stick for a long stretch of time, and he did it twice. . The Book on Maddux, Glavine. That jump-started arguably the hottest 20-game streak of his career. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Lakers playoff hopes take another hit after comeback fades vs. Minnesota, Ducks strike with a pair of late power-play goals to defeat Canadiens, With Norman Powell out, Clippers are edged at Sacramento for fifth loss in a row, Desperate mountain residents trapped by snow beg for help; We are coming, sheriff says, Newsom, IRS give Californians until October to file tax returns, 15 arrested across L.A. County in crackdown on fraudulent benefit cards, UCLA stuns top-seeded Stanford in Pac-12 womens basketball tournament semifinals, UCLAs senior trio has persevered in restoring the Bruins to national prominence, Harvard-Westlakes Bryce Rainer fires out 92-mph fastballs in first start since 2021, Hes taken the next step: How Boogie Ellis found his game as USCs point guard, Even after Gavin Lux injury, Andrew Friedman hints at patient approach with roster, Elliott: After trading away Jonathan Quick, Kings make more deals ahead of trade deadline, Hidden, illegal casinos are booming in L.A., with organized crime reaping big profits, Look up: The 32 most spectacular ceilings in Los Angeles. Gwynn hit .415 in those 107 PAs. The great players are usually the ones who are able to maintain their skills later than their contemporaries. In fact, he added 37.9 percent to the Padres' win probability that day. That was hit #4 and it helped spark a three-run rally that helped the Padres tie the score 10-10. It dropped to 4.9% in 1993 and was only higher than 5% in one of his remaining seasons (2002). 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. Gwynn's 60th celebrated all day, Sat. (posted by /u/Gimmie_dat_cookie on r/cubs). He released his first book, Volume I of A Complete History of the Major League Baseball Playoffs, in October of 2021. So mind-blowing, in fact, that it seems too good to be true. Here comes more. That's 49 fewer punchouts than Miguel Cabrera's lowest total in a year. Heck, we knew, he knew and everyone else knew who was going to win that NL batting title before anyone even threw a pitch. 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. Sadly, we lost Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn this week to cancer. Some NFL teams dont make the grade, players say, New era of football begins at Mater Dei under coach Frank McManus. . 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 . He batted .381 with a 101 hits and 3 strikeouts. The last player to finish his career with a higher average was Ted Williams' .344 mark. 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. Right-handed batters hit worse against righties and left-handed batters hit worse against lefties. Chris Cwik. The primary advantage for Gwynn, however, was longevity. Do not let the reality fool you this is still nothing short of amazing. The streak lifted his batting average to .402 as late as July 14th. He could have stuck around the big leagues and gone 0-for-1172 and still had a .300 career batting average. Gwynn faced Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz a combined 323 times. A. Aaron Judge; Aaron Nola; Adam Dunn; Adam Wainwright; Adrian Beltre; . Thats how you maintain an astronomical batting average year after year. Ace of MLB Stats (@AceballStats) June 16, 2014. Last season, 129 players had struck out 22 times by the end of April. This statement further cements his reputation as a control artist. He gets more of the bat on the ball on some pitches than anyone else, Maddux said. 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. I was actually kind of shocked when I looked up this statistic on the web. Nolan Ryan struck out Tony Gwynn more than any other pitcher with 9. He hit .303 against fellow lefty Tom Glavine and struck out twice in 105 times at the plate . on MLBN. As Howell broke for second, Gwynn put his picture-perfect swing into a Maddux slider and lifted it into center field . He was a great player when Wade was only a good player. Hall of Fame outfielder 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. Gwynn hit a blistering .444 off Smoltz and only struck out once against the hard thrower . In 1993, Gwynn had a stellar year when he had three five-hit games and his lone six-hit game. Thus, naturally, Maddux and his machine-like control generated some truly ridiculous numbers. I agree that Mr. Gwynn was a helluva player, and a great man. He dazzled batters with his precision and command. Born: April 14, 1966 in San Angelo, TX us Draft: Drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 2nd round of the 1984 MLB June Amateur Draft from Valley HS (Las Vegas, NV).. High School: Valley HS (Las Vegas, NV) Debut: September 2, 1986 (Age 20-141d, 15,231st in major league history) The San Diego Padres have been one of the most talked about teams over the offseason due to all their big moves. A few moments later, Pedro Martinez (not THAT Pedro, the other Pedro Martinez), laid down a suicide squeeze that scored Ricky Gutierrez with the winning run from third. 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. Get the latest news, stats, videos, highlights and more about starting pitcher Greg Maddux on ESPN. 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 . How Many Times Did Maddux Strike Out Tony Gwynn? Everybody in the stadium is shocked. Westbrook went 3/12 in the, The Dallas Cowboys surprisingly decided to part ways with Kellen Moore after losing in the playoffs. Here are seven crazy stats and facts, in no particular order. Sometimes hitters can pick up differences in spin. tony gwynn Than Had Was Toni The Todays Greates And Walked Into . He's the best hitter I've seen in 35 years.". Tony Gwynn had 287 plate appearances against Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz. By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you're agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. Find the newest tony gwynn meme. In 1995 the baseball season was delayed and didnt start until late April. 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. And thanks to statistic hubs like Baseball Reference, some unbelievable numbers are being shared from Gwynn's career. chaque match, chaque manche, chaque frappeur pendant 25 saisons, Ryan a opt pour le retrait au bton. 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.. Would love your thoughts, please comment. 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. In the third inning, Gwynn singled to right. America's Pastime. Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. In the 73 years since Ted Williams last hit .400, all the other hitters who passed through the big leagues -- a group that includes Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Wade Boggs, yadda, yadda, yadda -- combined to do it only eight times. Why? He had a swing that made pitchers cry themselves to sleep. Maddux is a Hall of Famer and he struck out more than 3,000 batters in his career, but the one batter he faced the most often San Diegos #19 never fanned against him. Against Randy Johnson, however, Gwynn slashed .111/.111/.167 for a .278 OPS with no walks and five strikeouts . Tony Gwynn collected more regular season hits against Greg Maddux than any other batter (39 in 33 games). No hitter born after 1900 reached 3,000 hits in fewer games (2,284) or at-bats (8,874) than Gywnn. Cards available for trade are listed below. Here's Why Tony Gwynn Was One Of The Greatest Hitters Ever. I would appreciate someone to clarify this for me. What did Disney actually lose from its Florida battle with DeSantis? If thats not respect, I dont know what is. In his entire 20-year career, Gwynn struck out 434 times -- an average of 21.7 K's per season. He also is a credentialed member of the Diamondbacks press corps for Last Word on Baseball. Even against hitters who can hurt them, they rarely change much from how they approach every hitter. He was that good. 2004 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection ~ Game Patch ~ Tony Gwynn /75 BeautyF Patch! 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. Then again, he also didn't play baseball in an age when we were obsessed with walks, or on-base-percentage, or wRC+. Finally, what does it mean to have piled up a .338 batting average over a 20-year career, over 9,288 at-bats? *Gwynn never struck out more than 40 times in a season. 1994 Quality Starts. 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. It means that there are 312 plate appearances that ended on a 30 count. 2013 Panini Pinnacle Clear Vision Single 68 Tony Gwynn 1993 Upper Deck Base Set #488 Greg Maddux 1996 Pinnacle Select Certified #32 Greg Maddux Only 310 saw a 30 count, and 177 of those were intentional walks. He led the league with 220 hits, becoming the oldest player to do so. 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. Gwynn had six straight seasons (and eight altogether) in which he struck out fewer than 20 times. No hitter born after 1900 reached 3,000 hits in fewer games (2,284) or at-bats (8,874) than Gwynn. Gwynn hit below .300 just once in his career, his rookie season. Even in his era, Gwynns contact rate was far and away the best of the great hitters. Most players have a disadvantage when they are facing pitchers of the same stripe as them. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. 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). Roy Halladay shut down Derek Jeter. Greg Maddux 3-0 Counts. Hit .372 at the age of 37 in 1997, and only struck out 28 times in 592 at-bats. Since Gwynn debuted in 1982, a hitter has finished a season with a batting average above .350 only 46 times. In fact, Maddux saw Gwynn more than anyone. They were the 307th set of brothers in Major League Baseball history. Pro Sports. 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. And Maddux knew it. During his 20-year career, he struck out 434 times, an average of 21.7 K% At the end of April, 129 players had struck out 22 times, a 49% increase from the previous year. 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 batted .415/.476/.521 against the four-time Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Famer. In 1995 he went 35 games without striking out. 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. Evan Thompson is a member of the Roland Hemond (AZ) Chapter of the Society for American . In 20 seasons he struck out a total of 434 times most hitters today strike out that much in three seasons. The greatest lineups ever? Related. On 45 separate occasions, Gwynn recorded four hits in a game 11 more times than he recorded a multi-strikeout game. Answer (1 of 8): I would say Tony Gwynn. It's pure speculation at this point, but he was batting .423/.472/.613 in the second half that year. 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 . It was the third straight game he failed to get a hit (even though he had been on fire that month and his batting average was still at .403 after the three hitless games). The next day at home against the Dodgers, Gwynn went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles off Ismael Valdez. 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. From 1992-95, he won four-straight NL Cy Youngs. Greg Maddux's long and successful career was defined by his ability to change up his pitches and keep hitters off-balance. MLB analyst John Smoltz was talking about facing Gwynn, which sent me to Baseball Reference. Fun/impressive fact: In 107 PAs, Maddux never struck out Tony Gwynn. My Have List is linked in my signature. They can identify pitches if there are different release points or if a curveball starts with an upward hump as it leaves the pitchers hand. But Gwynn also extended that success to other fine pitchers, such as Maddux's teammate John Smoltz. Despite the fact that Martinez has won 355 games to Maddux's 355, he is still regarded as the game's leader. 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. He batted at least .300 against 32 of those 38 pitchers, including Tom Glavine, Nolan Ryan, John Smoltz and Orel Hershiser. Et il a obtenu le retrait au bton plus que tout autre lanceur n'a jamais fait ou ne le fera jamais. Baseball News, Analysis, History, Schedule, Rumors. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426. It was very, very hard to fool Tony Gwynn. In the other 19, the batter put the ball in play. Except for that (expletive) Tony Gwynn.. Anthony Keith Gwynn, 1960 59 - 2014 616 . Tony Gwynn has the highest career batting average among players whose career started after 1947 (baseball first integrated), no surprises there . Tony Gwynn, then going on 26 and . Amazing strikeout stat No. Maddux made his debut with the Chicago Cubs in 1986, so we do not have any pitch count data for his first two seasons in the majors. With the All-Star game in San Diego this season, it's impossible not to think about San Diego . He told The Washington Post that if a pitcher can change speeds, every hitter is helpless, limited by human vision. Gwynn owns all-time Padres records for batting average, runs, hits, total bases, doubles, triples, RBIs, walks, stolen bases and games played. Against Nolan Ryan, Gwynn hit .302, and he famously never struck out against Maddux in 91 at-bats. In other words, the last pitch of the plate appearance came on a 30 count. Only 644 (that we know of; we are missing data for 1,166 batters) saw a 30 count and 153 came on intentional walks. 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. Speaking of average, Gwynn's career mark of .338 ranks 17th among the all-time leaders. However, since this is speculative, we cannot include that in the verdict. Dude was a craaaazy good hitter. Twins' Balazovic had mouth wired shut after 'sucker punch' f MLB sets up local media group, could broadcast 17 teams, Report: Padres add Odor on minor-league deal, The ultimate, personalized mobile sports experience, 7 Cubs pitchers combine to no-hit Padres in spring game, Red Sox use shift loophole to counter Twins' Gallo, Top plays in World Baseball Classic history, Scherzer tests pitch clock limits, gets quick-pitch balk, Ex-Met Wright: Judge facing 'pressure' with new contract, captaincy. On April 30, 1996, three San Francisco pitchers held Gwynn hitless. Sithi select. . In the fifth inning he lined sharply into the glove of first baseman Will Clark. The closest anyone has come after World War II are Wade Boggs and Rod Carew at .328, a full 10 points behind Gwynn. Yeah, you read that right. In fact, Maddux saw Gwynn more than anyone. Wow. As a DBacks fan I've always hated mark reynolds, Maddux on Tony Gwynn. 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. Share. Greg Maddux (94 ABs) and Pedro Martinex (135 ABs) never recorded a K against the Padres outfielder. He's shocked. 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. 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. Tony Gwynn vs. Pitchers Event data is only available for the American League and National League. Greg Maddux debuted on 9/3/1986 and was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 by the BBWAA. Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. He hit .400 or better against eight different Cy Young winners -- Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Bret Saberhagen, Vida Blue, John Denny, Dennis Eckersley, Mark Davis and Doug Drabek -- and batted at least .300 against seven more. Tony Gwynn was the only player to have struck out Maddux 107 times. "When he strikes out swinging," his old hitting coach, Merv Rettenmund, once told me, "the pitcher's shocked. Reality: Greg Maddux faced 20,421 batters during his career. In the past 100 years, nobody has more batting titles than Gwynn's eight. In this installment of Baseball Mythbusters, we will look at Greg Maddux and the 30 count. So maybe we never saw Hornsby or Wagner or Tris Speaker hit a baseball. He also had the second-most regular-season . 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 Draft: Drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 3rd round of the 1981 MLB June Amateur Draft from San Diego State University (San Diego, CA). . Greg Maddux Stats by Baseball Almanac. Greg Maddux had my favorite . In addition, Gwynns nine five-hit games rank second all-time to Pete Rose, who had 10. For two decades, Tony Gwynn was also the best friend those of us in the media-genius prediction business ever had. 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. Greg Maddux, Robin Roberts, Warren Spahn, Orel Hershiser. He walked very little, which means his singles make up a lot of his batting average and on-base percentage. 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. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine have been two of the game's greatest pitchers for more than a decade because they work with their strengths. 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. Bob Gibson et Pedro Martinez et Greg Maddux sont venus vous battre. Only 310 saw a 3-0 count, and 177 of those were intentional walks. The Los Angeles slugger is 0-for-17 lifetime against Maddux. Aztec Game Videos. See his various events you wish you could of seen. But not with Gwynn. Eric Karros, though, hasnt been so fortunate. Caught that special the other night and enjoyed it. On May 19, 1997, Gwynn was hitting .368, not to shabby for sure. Five of those seasons belong to Gwynn (1984, '86, '87, '89, '97). 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. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. 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 . 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.