Surprising baseball facts

[paul]

How could Wilton Guerrero be 3 1/2 months older than his brother Vlad? Did his mother get pregnant when she already was pregnant? I thought that was impossible.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by paul

How could Wilton Guerrero be 3 1/2 months older than his brother Vlad? Did his mother get pregnant when she already was pregnant? I thought that was impossible.

Papa was a rollin' stone...

[G1911]

Originally Posted by paul

How could Wilton Guerrero be 3 1/2 months older than his brother Vlad? Did his mother get pregnant when she already was pregnant? I thought that was impossible.

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/n...nd-birthdates/

Presumably it’s a result from the brothers lying about birth dates to seem younger and more attractive to MLB, and is not true.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by G1911

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/n...nd-birthdates/

Presumably it’s a result from the brothers lying about birth dates to seem younger and more attractive to MLB, and is not true.

Or they're half-brothers, which would also help explain some of the other discrepancies.

EDIT: Apparently not, just likely an uncorrected false date for Wilton's birth.

[Cory]

Somewhere on Twitter (or Facebook?) I always see crazy Tony Gwynn stats. Haven't committed any to memory, so I had to look some up (link below)-

Gwynn finished his career batting .302 with two strikes. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. Wade Boggs comes in second at .262. In fact, in 1994, Gwynn batted an absurd .397 in two-strike counts. This one is mind-blowing to me - a 300 hitter with 2 strikes over a 20 year career.

Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. That’s essentially a full season’s worth of plate appearances exclusively against Hall of Famers. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426.

Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. J.D. Martinez is the current leader with four straight .300-plus seasons.

Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career -- more than any other pitcher. He batted .415/.476/.521 against the four-time Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Famer. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. - I include this one as everyone needs to google the Maddux interview about Tony Gwynn.

https://www.mlb.com/news/19-facts-ab...ynn-c177069734

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by Cory

Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300.

Cobb had 23 seasons + .300.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Cory

Somewhere on Twitter (or Facebook?) I always see crazy Tony Gwynn stats. Haven't committed any to memory, so I had to look some up (link below)-

Gwynn finished his career batting .302 with two strikes. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. Wade Boggs comes in second at .262. In fact, in 1994, Gwynn batted an absurd .397 in two-strike counts. This one is mind-blowing to me - a 300 hitter with 2 strikes over a 20 year career.

Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. That’s essentially a full season’s worth of plate appearances exclusively against Hall of Famers. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426.

Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. J.D. Martinez is the current leader with four straight .300-plus seasons.

Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career -- more than any other pitcher. He batted .415/.476/.521 against the four-time Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Famer. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. - I include this one as everyone needs to google the Maddux interview about Tony Gwynn.

https://www.mlb.com/news/19-facts-ab...ynn-c177069734

Gwynn has a lot of wild stats.

Maddux and Pedro never managed to strike him out even once in significant sample sizes.

Struck out 3 times in a game only once. Struck out twice in a game only 34 times in 2,440 games.

Went 20 consecutive games or more without a strikeout 11 different times in his career.

Made every all star game from 1984 to 1999 except for 1988, a year in which he won the batting title and was 11th in MVP voting.

He would have to get 0 hits over more than 1,100 at bats to drop below a .300 average.

[Fred]

When it comes to (not) K-ing as a batter, the answer is Joe Sewell. Gwynn is probably the best of his era with avoiding the K, but gotta defer to Sewell as the king of not K-ing.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Fred

When it comes to (not) K-ing as a batter, the answer is Joe Sewell. Gwynn is probably the best of his era with avoiding the K, but gotta defer to Sewell as the king of not K-ing.

It's kind of amazing that with his .014 K rate Sewell only hit .309 in an era when .309 was not that much over the league average. There could be a whole thread for odd Sewell stats and figures alone

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Cory

Somewhere on Twitter (or Facebook?) I always see crazy Tony Gwynn stats. Haven't committed any to memory, so I had to look some up (link below)-

Gwynn finished his career batting .302 with two strikes. That's easily the best mark for any player since numbers were first tracked by count in the mid-1970s. Wade Boggs comes in second at .262. In fact, in 1994, Gwynn batted an absurd .397 in two-strike counts. This one is mind-blowing to me - a 300 hitter with 2 strikes over a 20 year career.

Including postseason play, Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers for a total of 541 plate appearances. That’s essentially a full season’s worth of plate appearances exclusively against Hall of Famers. Gwynn batted .331/.371/.426.

Gwynn batted .300 in every season but his rookie year, giving him a record 19 straight seasons above .300. J.D. Martinez is the current leader with four straight .300-plus seasons.

Gwynn faced Greg Maddux 107 times in his career -- more than any other pitcher. He batted .415/.476/.521 against the four-time Cy Young Award winner and Hall of Famer. That's easily the highest average against Maddux for any player with at least 70 plate appearances. - I include this one as everyone needs to google the Maddux interview about Tony Gwynn.

https://www.mlb.com/news/19-facts-ab...ynn-c177069734

I responded to a blog hosted live by Tony Gwynn while we were living in San Diego and was answered by Tony himself. That is among my treasures. I also was in attendance when his number was retired by the Padres. He was a ballplayer anyone could look up to. He passed away horribly and way, way too young.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by jingram058

I responded to a blog hosted live by Tony Gwynn while we were living in San Diego and was answered by Tony himself. That is among my treasures. I also was in attendance when his number was retired by the Padres. He was a ballplayer anyone could look up to. He passed away horribly and way, way too young.

Learning all these facts about Gwynn has been simultaneously jaw-dropping and heartwarming. He was such a decent guy. I'm afraid I took Gwynn for granted amidst the other stars of his era. Quite ridiculous in retrospect.

[molenick]

It is not an uncommon name, but there have only been two major league players named George Burns and they played at nearly the same time: George Joseph Burns (N.L. George Burns) from 1911-1925 and George Henry "Tioga George" Burns (A.L. George Burns) from 1914-1929.