Torii Hunter or Tony Gwynn: Who would you take All-Time?

[HurricaneDij39]

Plenty of similarities here and should make for an interesting debate.

While the advanced stats heavily favor the late Gwynn, the case for Hunter was that he was a middle-of-the-order run producer you could place anywhere from 3-6 in the lineup and compete for division titles year-in and year-out, whereas Gwynn was for the most part a table-setter in the majority 20-year career with the Padres. And San Diego's trip to the 1998 World Series came largely off the heels of teammate Greg Vaughn's career year, even though Gwynn may have been the vocal leader for that team. The Yankees swept the Padres that year, but three of those four games were nail-biters.

Gwynn's insane lifetime batting average is .338, which should surely make the argument for some.

Thoughts?

 

[broncosmitty]

What?

 

[Fountain City Blues]

I just don't see it. Gwynn had a more impressive prime and was a productive hitter late into his career as well. Torii Hunter was a horrible, horrible defender who gave up as many runs as he drove in with the bat and never really had a year that really stood out when making any kind of spliced case for him over Gwynn. In any sense of it bottom line, Gwynn has about 50 points on him in OBP and that's probably enough to offset any power difference.

Any way you try, I think Gwynn wins.

 

[navamind]

Lofl.








(it's Gwynn, and it's not even close. What a stupid question.)

 

[broncosmitty]

you guys aren't going to credit Torii for his "county league" abilities in right field at the end?

I mean, the guy could pretender he was camping out under a lazy fly, only to watch it drop thirty feet in front of him with the best of them.

Could not have been happier to see a player go to the Twins last year. (His career OBP is lower than Tony's career batting average. And he struck out more times in his final four seasons than Gwynn did his entire 20 year career.)

 

[Bolts]

Tony Gwynn.....not even close.

 

[Omar 382]

 

[Voltaire26]

I don't know ... I liked Torii Hunter, but he was no Tony Gwynn (not many are).

 

[Omar 382]

Plenty of similarities here and should make for an interesting debate.

While the advanced stats heavily favor the late Gwynn, the case for Hunter was that he was a middle-of-the-order run producer you could place anywhere from 3-6 in the lineup and compete for division titles year-in and year-out, whereas Gwynn was for the most part a table-setter in the majority 20-year career with the Padres. And San Diego's trip to the 1998 World Series came largely off the heels of teammate Greg Vaughn's career year, even though Gwynn may have been the vocal leader for that team. The Yankees swept the Padres that year, but three of those four games were nail-biters.

Gwynn's insane lifetime batting average is .338, which should surely make the argument for some.

Thoughts?

@HammerDown, @Iffster has made an alt!!!

 

[calsnowskier]

Plenty of similarities here and should make for an interesting debate.

While the advanced stats heavily favor the late Gwynn, the case for Hunter was that he was a middle-of-the-order run producer you could place anywhere from 3-6 in the lineup and compete for division titles year-in and year-out, whereas Gwynn was for the most part a table-setter in the majority 20-year career with the Padres. And San Diego's trip to the 1998 World Series came largely off the heels of teammate Greg Vaughn's career year, even though Gwynn may have been the vocal leader for that team. The Yankees swept the Padres that year, but three of those four games were nail-biters.

Gwynn's insane lifetime batting average is .338, which should surely make the argument for some.

Thoughts?

 

[tducey]

Gwynn easily.

 

[Iffster]

The problem here, as Omar is keenly aware, is Mr. Hunter was not good at baseball and therefore, did not understand it. Case closed.

For further reading on this subject, please venture to -
Do You Have to Have Been Good at Baseball to Understand It?

 

[mr.hockey4242]

Well, you are in the clear for your Wiggins/butler trade proposal.

Problem is, you've now dug a bigger hole with this one.

 

[DHoey]

A fun fact: Torii Hunter made 171 million dollars playing baseball.

 

[navamind]

you guys aren't going to credit Torii for his "county league" abilities in right field at the end?

I mean, the guy could pretender he was camping out under a lazy fly, only to watch it drop thirty feet in front of him with the best of them.

Could not have been happier to see a player go to the Twins last year. (His career OBP is lower than Tony's career batting average. And he struck out more times in his final four seasons than Gwynn did his entire 20 year career.)

Even in his prime, he made plays look much more difficult than necessary. Just like Edmonds. He was still a pretty good defender for a while, but some of those Gloves were won on reputation.

 

[Villain]

This thread is stupid so I'm going to hijack it to say that Tony Gwynn Jr is an awesome guy on TV. He does some post-game, in-studio stuff for SportsNet LA (Dodgers' channel).

Also this:

 

[calsnowskier]

This thread is stupid so I'm going to hijack it to say that Tony Gwynn Jr is an awesome guy on TV. He does some post-game, in-studio stuff for SportsNet LA (Dodgers' channel).

Also this:

That us how you deal with hecklers and earn fans fr life.

Well done, TJ

 

[romeo212000]

Gwynn never let his 8 year old kid decide what teams he'd play for, so obvious answer is obvious.

 

[femurov]

Oh, you meant TG JR? Ok, this might be close...

 

[HurricaneDij39]

Since literally everyone else went Gwynn here, I guess that means I'm forced to go Hunter.

The Twins won multiple division titles while Hunter was there, and he's a guy you could do just that with batting him anywhere between third and sixth in the order. In contrast, the Padres had the worst record in the national league during the strike-shortened 1994 season in spite of Gwynn batting .394.

Gwynn was an icon and rightfully so, but Hunter could do more.