Tag: Tony Gwynn

Annual batting championships named for Gwynn, Carew

MLB Press Release dated July 12, 2016

SAN DIEGO – Baseball’s annual batting championships have been named in honor of Hall of Famers Tony Gwynn and Rod Carew, Major League Baseball announced during pregame festivities for the 87th All-Star Game, played at Petco Park in San Diego. The players who earn the highest batting averages in each League will now be known as the “Tony Gwynn National League Batting Champion” and the “Rod Carew American League Batting Champion,” paying homage to two of the most accomplished hitters of the modern era. Carew participated in tonight’s ceremonies in San Diego, while the late Gwynn was represented by his family.

Gwynn_TonyGwynn was a .338 career hitter who batted above .300 in 19 of his 20 Major League seasons, all with the San Diego Padres. The record-tying eight-time NL batting champion collected 3,141 hits. Gwynn, a 15-time NL All-Star, batted a career-best .394 in the 1994 season and hit at least .353 in each of the five seasons between 1993 and 1997. The former San Diego State University player and coach drew 790 career walks and struck out only 434 times, including never more than 40 in any single season. Gwynn remains tied with fellow Hall of Famer Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates for the most batting titles in NL history. He led the Padres to their two World Series in franchise history (1984, 1998). His plaque at the National Baseball Hall of Fame calls Gwynn “an artisan with a bat.”

2B Rod Carew played for the Twins from 1967-1978
2B Rod Carew played for the Twins from 1967-1978

Carew was a seven-time American League batting champion who was a lifetime .328 hitter with the Minnesota Twins (1967-78) and the California Angels (1979-85). With this trademark crouched stance, the legend of Panama topped the .300 mark in 15 consecutive seasons (1969-83), and he was an 18-time AL All-Star (each year from 1967-1984). Between 1972-1978, he won six batting crowns in seven years; in the only year he did not win (1976, when he was runner-up to George Brett), he missed a share by .002. Carew batted a career-best .388 with 239 hits in his AL Most Valuable Player-winning season of 1978 (38 2B, 16 3B, 14 HR, 100 RBI, 128 runs, .449 OBP, .570 SLG). His Hall of Fame plaque refers to Carew as a “batting wizard who lined, chopped and bunted his way to 3,053 hits.”

Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. said: “Rod is one of the most highly decorated players in American League history, who made 18 straight All-Star appearances in his Hall of Fame career. Tony is considered one of the greatest hitters in the history of the National League and there is no better place to honor him than in San Diego. Major League Baseball is pleased to recognize their extraordinary careers by naming our batting crowns in their honor.”

According to Elias and a little extra

Kyle Gibson
Kyle Gibson

The biggest pitch Kyle Gibson threw in his seven scoreless innings on Friday night was the one that induced a Miguel Cabrera double-play grounder with the bases loaded in the fifth inning. Cabrera entered the game with a career .417 batting average with the bases loaded which was the second-highest such average for any player who debuted in the expansion era (since 1961) and has at least 100 at-bats with the bases full, behind Tony Gwynn (.444). Twins beat the Tigers 2-0 at Comerica Park. Miguel Cabrera enters today’s game with impressive career numbers vs. Minnesota. Cabrera is batting .314 (139×443) with 31 doubles, 28 home runs and 108 RBI in 118 career games against the Minnesota Twins. He ranks third among all active players with 28 home runs and 108 RBI, fourth with 78 runs scored, sixth with 31 doubles and eighth with 139 hits against the club. Cabrera has hit safely in each of his last six games and 11 of his last 14 contests vs. Minnesota.

Rich Rollins - Twins 3B from 1961 - 1968
Rich Rollins – Twins 3B from 1961 – 1968

When I modified the number of at bats need to qualify from 1oo to 50 then I get an interesting cast of characters that knew how to hit in the clutch but maybe did not have careers as long as Gwynn and Cabrera. Note that former Twins 3B Rich Rollins is very high on the list and that outfielder Jason Kubel was a qualifier too. Phil Nevin was a Twins player too but since he only had 8 hits in a Twins uniform we didn’t see his clutch hitting skills. This list is from 1961-current.

Rk Player G Gtot BA BAtot PA AB R H HR RBI BB SO OBP SLG OPS
1 Pat Tabler 105 1202 .489 .282 109 88 80 43 2 108 11 9 .505 .693 1.198
2 Russ Snyder 70 1365 .483 .271 67 60 77 29 2 68 5 5 .507 .717 1.224
3 Felix Jose 53 747 .481 .280 56 52 39 25 2 60 1 9 .464 .788 1.253
4 Jeff Keppinger 67 818 .456 .282 69 57 55 26 0 65 4 4 .435 .614 1.049
5 Tony Gwynn 153 2440 .444 .338 158 133 211 59 3 143 9 8 .433 .594 1.027
6 Rich Rollins 75 1002 .443 .269 75 70 66 31 4 80 4 4 .467 .714 1.181
7 Ian Desmond 60 682 .434 .270 60 53 41 23 2 51 0 7 .383 .585 .968
8 Rennie Stennett 81 1237 .423 .274 80 71 65 30 1 71 4 3 .425 .521 .946
9 Mike Blowers 89 761 .420 .257 92 81 48 34 7 92 5 20 .424 .827 1.251
10 Rusty Greer 97 1027 .418 .305 98 79 98 33 6 97 10 14 .449 .684 1.133
11 Miguel Cabrera 164 1723 .414 .321 165 140 170 58 4 150 10 28 .418 .614 1.032
12 Joe Orsulak 93 1494 .410 .273 96 78 90 32 2 82 9 7 .448 .564 1.012
13 Mark Grace 163 2245 .402 .303 168 127 173 51 3 156 21 8 .429 .575 1.003
14 Carlos Guillen 148 1305 .402 .285 154 127 122 51 3 140 11 16 .403 .622 1.025
15 Mike Hargrove 109 1666 .402 .290 111 82 136 33 1 101 20 14 .486 .549 1.035
16 Jim Gentile 83 936 .400 .260 86 70 73 28 6 92 11 23 .453 .729 1.182
17 Eddie Murray 298 3026 .399 .287 302 238 285 95 19 299 22 34 .387 .739 1.127
18 Kevin Seitzer 118 1439 .398 .295 116 93 118 37 4 110 17 8 .466 .624 1.089
19 Phil Nevin 125 1217 .397 .270 135 116 106 46 7 120 9 28 .422 .621 1.043
20 Ross Gload 58 795 .396 .281 62 53 29 21 1 50 4 8 .403 .547 .950
21 Mike LaValliere 71 879 .393 .268 72 61 34 24 1 62 5 6 .403 .557 .960
22 Troy Tulowitzki 97 934 .393 .299 102 89 82 35 2 81 4 17 .392 .562 .954
23 Jason Kubel 105 1036 .392 .262 115 97 71 38 8 110 7 22 .391 .732 1.123
24 Richie Zisk 109 1453 .392 .287 110 97 97 38 3 99 6 22 .400 .598 .998
25 Bill Madlock 128 1806 .390 .305 128 105 154 41 3 116 7 7 .383 .600 .983
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/14/2014.

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A few odds and ends about the draft

2013 draftThe 2013 MLB first-year player draft day has finally arrived and later this evening we will learn who the Twins have selected in a draft that many of the “talking head” experts claim has three sure-fire stars, but the Twins draft fourth.

There have been 61,666 players drafted since the draft was instituted in 1965 when the Kansas City Athletics selected Arizona State outfielder Rick Monday with the very first pick. So far, 24 of these players have gone on to become Hall of Fame players. Of these 24 HOF players, eight were selected in round 1 and no first pick overall is on this list. Not to build up hope and put too much pressure on the Twins selection tonight but three HOF players (Carlton Fisk, Dave Winfield, Barry Larkin) have been selected as the fourth pick overall. The Boston Red Sox (Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, Jim Rice) and the San Diego Padres (Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Tony Gwynn) lead the list of HOF players drafted with three each, the Minnesota Twins have selected two Hall of Fame players in Bert Blyleven in 1969 and Kirby Puckett in 1982. The latest round that a HOF has been picked? That would be the Philadelphia Phillies 20th round pick in 1978, Ryne Sandberg.

Just because a player is drafted does not mean that he will be signed. In 2012, 73.74% of the players drafted were signed, between 2000 and 2011 the percentages varied between 56.56% and 64.85%, so why the huge jump in 2012? Probably due to the fact that the draft was reduced from 50 rounds to 40 rounds for the first time. But percentages can be deceiving, in 2012 there were 913 players signed, the lowest number since there were 895 draftees signed in 2006.

Over the years first round picks were often signed to huge ridiculous contracts but now that a slotting system was implemented in 2012, that has changed the landscape for everyone. In addition a bonus pool is assigned to each team limiting them to what they can spend on their first 10 picks. These limits however are only “strong recommendations” and teams can spend more but they have to be prepared to pay a luxury tax and possibly even give up their first rounds selection for next year and/or the year after depending on how much they exceed the slot amount. The Twins bonus pool number for their top 10 picks for this year is $8,264,500 and their fourth overall pick has a slot limit of $4,544,400.

It has been reported that some teams are looking to limit what they pay to their top selections so that they have more pool money to spend on their lower top 10 picks. I find that an interesting concept but not one that I think I would pursue if I was the GM. For me, it is all about quality versus quantity. According to MLB, they looked at how the 2012 opening day rosters were structured and here is what they found.

23.36% were round 1 picks
11.37% were round 2 picks
9.03% were round 3 picks
7.76% were round 4 picks
9.35% were round 5 picks
14.80% were selected in rounds 6-10

It will be interesting to see if the Twins find diamonds with their picks or if their picks turns out to be no more than lumps of coal, but either way the Twins will pay big money to add these new prospects to their organization. Draft picks are no different than baseball in general, you never know what you will get each year. I think someone said some thing like this about a box of chocolates once upon a time…

UPDATE – The Twins selected right-handed pitcher Kohl Stewart who also was a star quarterback at St. Pius X High School in Houston, Texas with their first selection. Stewart throws about 95 MPH and has touched 97 MPH and is widely regarded as having a “high ceiling” but first, the Twins have to sign the high school star so he does not accept his football scholarship to Texas A&M. Stewart is a type 1 diabetic but that should be a non-issue. The Twins then selected right-hander Ryan Eades from LSU with their second pick. Eades is reported to throw a fastball between 90-95 and has a hard breaking ball as part of his arsenal. The down side with Eades is his injury history which reportedly includes a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder in high school.

This Day in Twins History – January 8, 1991

Hall of Famer Rod Carew

Rodney Cline Carew, who was born in Gatun in the Panama Canal Zone on October 1, 1945 becomes only the 22nd player in MLB history to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, garnering 90.5% of the votes.

The left-handed hitting Carew made the Twins team as the starting 2B in the spring of 1967 and went on to win the AL Rookie of the Year award in 1967 and was selected to his first All-Star game that season. Who would know at the time that Carew would be an All-Star for 18 consecutive years, missing out on the All-Star team in only his last season (1985) as an active player. Although Rodney started out as a 2B, a serious knee injury in 1970 started the process of Carew moving to 1B. By the time Carew’s 19 year big league career was over, Carew actually played at more games at 1B than he did at 2B. Carew had a magical season for the Twins in 1977 making a serious run at hitting .400 but finished the season at .388 and won the AL MVP award.

Rod Carew and owner Calvin Griffith frequently disagreed about the salary that Carew was earning with Griffith arguing that Carew was nothing but a singles hitter and Carew arguing that if he wanted to hit for power he could. But it was the ill-fated Lion’s Club speech in Waseca, Minnesota that Griffith made on September 28, 1978 that was the final nail in the coffin as far as Carew was concerned and owner Griffith had no choice but to trade his best player. According to some reports, Griffith first had a trade worked out with the San Francisco Giants but Carew had veto power and nixed that deal so on February 3, 1979 the Twins owner and GM sent Carew to the California Angels for catcher Dave Engle, outfielder Ken Landreaux, and pitchers Paul Hartzell and Brad Havens. Carew finished his career as an Angel playing there from 1979 to 1985.

Rod Carew played in the big leagues for 19 season appearing in 2,469 games finishing with 3,053 hits (2,085 as a Minnesota Twin) and putting up a lifetime .328 average to go along with his 353 stolen bases. Carew stole home seven times in the 1969 season to lead the majors, just missing Ty Cobb’s Major League record of eight and the most in the major leagues since Pete Reiser stole seven for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946. His seven batting titles are surpassed only by Ty Cobb, Tony Gwynn and Honus Wagner, and equaled only by Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial.

Carew’s number is retired by both the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels and he is a member of the Twins and Angels Hall of Fame. Today Carew is a part of the Twins organization making special appearances and taking part in the Twins Spring training as a coach each season.

Another look at Griffith’s Waseca speech can be found here in the Waseca County News.

Make sure you check out my Today in Twins History page to see all the Twins news for this day in history because I only blog about some of the items you can find there.