What are the top 5 bats you want during Gwynn's era? Here's mine.
1. Frank Thomas
2. Rickey Henderson
3. George Brett
4. Wade Boggs
5. Tony Gwynn
Removing a lot of steroid users from this list obviously.
I have him above Molitor, Griffey Jr. and McGriff. Whom i don't think have much steroid allegations surrounding them so they would qualify on the list.
edit: using an "era" of careers that fell between late 70s and 2000. Since gwynn was 1982 to 2001.
Yeah I forgot to disclaim that my list was National League only. I would still take Schmidt over Gwynn. If talking roids allowed, Bonds and Bagwell.
AL, I agree Big Hurt/Brett for power/average combo, Rickey because of amazing speed (still had a 5 point lower OPS+), but not Wade Boggs. After adjusting for Fenway, Gwynn edges out Boggs in OPS+. You can argue WAR but Boggs' WAR is high because he played premium third base. Gwynn was still better with the bat overall and wins at OPS+.
I still contend that Tony was the hardest-working smartest gifted control hitters to have ever lived. Perhaps second only to Cobb, but such a more modest and nice guy.
Ted Williams gave Gwynn so much credit and could have given so much more. In fact, Ted would have loved playing by Tony's side.... just as Ted rated Ralph Kiner so much higher than most, simply because he played against him often. There are just some intangibles the numbers cannot tell us.
Again, Tony was an extremely smart guy and knew what it took to reach powerhitter status. He could have just as easily fell in love with gaining the power needed to hit the right field fences as with his ultimate goal of 5.5. With extreme modesty and humility he hit that 5.5 hole better than anyone in baseball history.
While Tony had the most control of his bat of any hitter, he allowed others to call the shots for his career. I would be interested to read the story of the choice/decision behind Tony playing the outfield. I bet it's another example of modesty and then he eventually just became comfortable in that position. Because no way does an athletic someone go directly from basketball point guard to baseball outfield without some consternation.
Place Tony at an infield position with Yanks (perhaps 1st base) and suddenly we're talking about a different player. Incidentally a left-handed Gehrig and Mattingly played SS and 2nd base respectively. I guess WAR also punishes left-handers as well.
In fact, the more I read about Tony, the more I place him above many other players of his generation. Yet, he made it look so incredibly easy enough to where some place him amongst the wallpaper instead of being the Cobb (nice version) of his generation.
I'm talking about at bats that on a statistically averaged out basis, turn into runs.
weighted on base average, weight runs created, offensive WAR.
Here's a quick breakdown using statistical averages of the run production value of a few at-bat outcomes.
source: http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/btf/scholars/visiting/articles/RPA_explanation.htm
This is part of the reason why Tony Gwynn has such a low WAR despite being a very good hitter. To call him the best hitter of an era is overweighting his offensive production at the plate. His at bats turned into runs scored for his team far less than other players, even discounting dirty roids players.
You do know which team he played for right? If you think about that and that he played on this team for 20 years (most them as bad teams) then look at those numbers again. Think about the many years without someone to protect him at the plate. No decent leadoff, no cleanup. Those number only tell you only part of the story.