Would Nellie Fox Fan More Today?

[Peter_Spaeth]

Amazing a team led by two dink hitters Fox and Aparicio and with not that great pitching (Wynn and a great year from Bob Shaw) beat out the Mantle-Berra etc. etc. etc. Yankees, but they had a horrible year.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Amazing a team led by two dink hitters Fox and Aparicio and with not that great pitching (Wynn and a great year from Bob Shaw) beat out the Mantle-Berra etc. etc. etc. Yankees, but they had a horrible year.

Not that great pitching? They had the best pitching staff in the American League with a 3.29 team ERA. They had Billy Pierce who was still above even though he had an off year. They also had a good bullpen. Their offense was terrible, 6th of 8th in runs, batting average and OPS+.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Amazing a team led by two dink hitters Fox and Aparicio and with not that great pitching (Wynn and a great year from Bob Shaw) beat out the Mantle-Berra etc. etc. etc. Yankees, but they had a horrible year.

Originally Posted by rats60

Not that great pitching? They had the best pitching staff in the American League with a 3.29 team ERA. They had Billy Pierce who was still above even though he had an off year. They also had a good bullpen. Their offense was terrible, 6th of 8th in runs, batting average and OPS+.

And the Sox would have won the World Series were it not for Chuck Essegian's WS OPS of 3.417

[Peter_Spaeth]

That Fox didn't fan is one reason I am a Fox fan. If Fox played today we fans could watch him on Fox and see how much he fanned.

[the 'stache]

Nellie was a good player, but Tony Gwynn's the far more impressive player from a strikeout standpoint. Fox had a career OPS+ of 93. He was 7% below league average as a hitter when SLG and OBP are considered.

Tony Gwynn struck out 434 times in his career. That's in nearly the exact same number of ABs. Yes, he struck out twice as often as Fox, once in every 21.4 ABs, but where Fox was a lifetime .288 hitter, Gwynn hit .338 for his career with a 132 OPS+. Fox hit .300 six times. Gwynn hit .289 in his rookie year of 1982 at age 22, playing in only 54 games. He never hit below .300 again. 19 straight seasons hitting over .309. Eight batting titles. And while he was never exactly a power hitter, after meeting with Ted Williams for the first time at the 1992 All Star Game when Ted told him he could hit for more power with some adjustments to his approach. Well, his last nine seasons, Gwynn did just that. He hit an incredible .356, with a .400 OBP and a .500 SLG.

And he only struck out 143 times in those 3,587 at bats, or once every 27.5 ABs.

Take that, Nellie Fox.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

Nellie was a good player, but Tony Gwynn's the far more impressive player from a strikeout standpoint. Fox had a career OPS+ of 93. He was 7% below league average as a hitter when SLG and OBP are considered.

Tony Gwynn struck out 434 times in his career. That's in nearly the exact same number of ABs. Yes, he struck out twice as often as Fox, once in every 21.4 ABs, but where Fox was a lifetime .288 hitter, Gwynn hit .338 for his career with a 132 OPS+. Fox hit .300 six times. Gwynn hit .289 in his rookie year of 1982 at age 22, playing in only 54 games. He never hit below .300 again. 19 straight seasons hitting over .309. Eight batting titles. And while he was never exactly a power hitter, after meeting with Ted Williams for the first time at the 1992 All Star Game when Ted told him he could hit for more power with some adjustments to his approach. Well, his last nine seasons, Gwynn did just that. He hit an incredible .356, with a .400 OBP and a .500 SLG.

And he only struck out 143 times in those 3,587 at bats, or once every 27.5 ABs.

Take that, Nellie Fox.

Ted wouldn’t talk to Nellie, because they were playing in the same league.

Take that, STACHE.

[Peter_Spaeth]

On my new go to site, Hall of Stats, Gwynn rates pretty well but perhaps not as well as one would expect with that stellar batting average and not terrible power.

Rankings by Hall Rating
129th All Time (Top 0.7%)
116th among Eligible Players
101st among Hall of Famers
12th among Right Fielders

Mr. Fox?
Well.
Rankings by Hall Rating
345th All Time (Top 1.8%)
183rd among Hall of Famers
24th among Second Basemen