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154 major league batters struck out 100+ times last year. Tony Gwynn struck out 434 times in 20 years.
Of his era, my standard bearer beast pitcher was Greg Maddux. He could tell you what he was gonna pitch, where he was gonna pitch it and you'd still ground out to second. Amongst the best I've ever seen. Gwynn hit .415 with an OPS of .997 against him and never struck out.
And while we're on the Braves Gwynn hit .381 vs Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux (Murderers row). (101 for 265).
A hitting genius. A kind man and a pure class act. May he continue to rest in peace.
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The on base percentage of Barry Bonds always floored me.
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I was a baseball stat junkie when I was a little kid. Wynn was after my time, but I once spent a day looking at his numbers and they were astonishing. THE BEST hitter of his day. Perhaps the best since Ted Williams.
Those random stats you posted are pretty damned amazing. Batting .381 against THOSE guys over a career is ridiculous!
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freeradical wrote:
The on base percentage of Barry Bonds always floored me.
The ultimate goal is to make contact with the ball and hit 'em where they ain't. He specialized in that. He also had unbelievable battles with Greg Maddux.
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hal wrote:
I was a baseball stat junkie when I was a little kid. Wynn was after my time, but I once spent a day looking at his numbers and they were astonishing. THE BEST hitter of his day. Perhaps the best since Ted Williams.
Those random stats you posted are pretty damned amazing. Batting .381 against THOSE guys over a career is ridiculous!
Unbelievable. I was going over his stats this morning and was just blown away.
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raz wrote:
[quote=vision63]
Of his era, my standard bearer beast pitcher was Greg Maddux. He could tell you what he was gonna pitch, where he was gonna pitch it and you'd still ground out to second.
It did help that the umpires routinely gave him 12 inches off the plate as a strike. He'd start nibbling in the first, and by the sixth anything the catcher could reach was fair game.
It was kinda liquid. Batters weren't patient or confident against him. The best ones knew there were going to probably only get one chance to place the ball. Guys like Luis Gonzalez, expert at working an at-bat was pretty successful against him.
