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.
__________________
Building these sets: T206, 1953 Bowman Color, 1975 Topps.
Great transactions with: piedmont150, Cardboard Junkie, z28jd, t206blogcom, tinkertoeverstochance, trobba, Texxxx, marcdelpercio, t206hound, zachs, tolstoi, IronHorse 2130, AndyG09, BBT206, jtschantz, lug-nut, leaflover, Abravefan11, mpemulis, btcarfagno, BlueSky, and Frankbmd.
|