Tony Gwynn vs Rod Carew

[Old Sweater]

Years ago I ran a click poll at FB, with Gwynn edging out Carew. These two are the top BA players from my high school days(1967) to my current 72yo.

bWAR/162>Carew 5.3>Gwynn 4.6

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Rk	Player	Age	From	To	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	TB	GIDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB
1	Rod Carew	21-39	1967	1985	2469	10550	9315	1424	3053	445	112	92	1015	353	187	1018	1028	.328	.393	.429	.822	131	3998	216	25	128	64	144
2	Tony Gwynn	22-41	1982	2001	2440	10232	9288	1383	3141	543	85	135	1138	319	125	790	434	.338	.388	.459	.847	132	4259	259	24	45	85	203

[thead] [/thead]

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 3/19/2025.

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Rk	Player	Age	From	To	G	PA	WAR	WAA	oWAR	dWAR	Rbat	Rdp	Rbaser	Rfield
1	Rod Carew	21-39	1967	1985	2469	10550	81.2	46.1	81.0	-1.7	407	17	26	14
2	Tony Gwynn	22-41	1982	2001	2440	10232	69.1	36.8	67.1	-7.6	403	6	23	6

[thead] [/thead]

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 3/19/2025.

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Rk	Player	Age	From	To	G	PA	XBH	TOB	TOBwe	Outs	RC	BAbip	RP	BtRuns	BtWins	ISO	AB/SO	SB%	SBatt
1	Rod Carew	21-39	1967	1985	2469	10550	649	4096	4255	6857	1595	.359	2347	420	42.2	.101	9.1	65.4	540
2	Tony Gwynn	22-41	1982	2001	2440	10232	763	3955	4094	6661	1636	.341	2386	439	42.8	.120	21.4	71.8	444

[thead] [/thead]

Provided by Stathead.com: Found with Stathead. See Full Results.
Generated 3/19/2025.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

kind of shocked that Gwynn would beat Carew.. i would probably guess recency bias...

i dont see one place where Gwynn beats carew...

 

[Old Sweater]

kind of shocked that Gwynn would beat Carew.. i would probably guess recency bias...

i dont see one place where Gwynn beats carew...

Recency bias and Gwynn is one of the most popular players ever. Tim Raines has equal bWAR value compared to Gwynn but only got like 5% of the vote.

 

[Old Sweater]

I found my Tony Gwynn vs Rod Carew FB click poll. I misremembered it being much closer.
Gwynn 56-votes
Carew 38-votes
Tie 25-votes

 

[msgkings322]

kind of shocked that Gwynn would beat Carew.. i would probably guess recency bias...

i dont see one place where Gwynn beats carew...

What? Go back and look again

Gwynn has higher BA, SLG, OPS, OPS+ (barely), far more HRs, SB%, hits, far fewer strikeouts...about the onbly thing Carew was clearly better at was defense.

 

[MilkSpiller22]

What? Go back and look again

Gwynn has higher BA, SLG, OPS, OPS+ (barely), far more HRs, SB%, hits, far fewer strikeouts...about the onbly thing Carew was clearly better at was defense.

I will admit I made the comment without looking at the stats. It was all reactionary to my memory of seeing both players stats.

But i don’t look at ops and ops+ for players who have little power. It’s not there game.

Gwynn was an amazing batting average. Probably the best pure hitter in modern baseball history.

But with so little power, he needed a better obp. And he just didn’t walk enough.

Carew was better at getting on base and base running.

Still would take Carew over Gwynn. But will admit it js closer than my post made it sound.

 

[msgkings322]

I will admit I made the comment without looking at the stats. It was all reactionary to my memory of seeing both players stats.

Classic

But i don’t look at ops and ops+ for players who have little power. It’s not there game.

LOL

Gwynn was an amazing batting average. Probably the best pure hitter in modern baseball history.

But with so little power, he needed a better obp. And he just didn’t walk enough.

He had far more power than Carew dude. Look again. His OBP was .005 less than Carew.

Carew was better at getting on base and base running.

.005 better OBP, and worse SB%

Still would take Carew over Gwynn. But will admit it js closer than my post made it sound.

Gwynn was a better hitter but Carew could play decent defense (which Gwynn could not really)

 

[navamind]

What? Go back and look again

Gwynn has higher BA, SLG, OPS, OPS+ (barely), far more HRs, SB%, hits, far fewer strikeouts...about the onbly thing Carew was clearly better at was defense.

Carew played in the deadball era where the league averages were much lower than during Gwynn's careers. Even the 1980s were a much better hitting environment than the 60s/early 70s. Carew played around half of his games at 2B while Gwynn was an average-ish corner outfielder. Even stolen bases were a lot more difficult to come by in the 60s/70s than the 80s/90s

Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages | Baseball-Reference.com

Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages, Batting Totals and more on Baseball-Reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

 

[msgkings322]

Carew played in the deadball era where the league averages were much lower than during Gwynn's careers. Even the 1980s were a much better hitting environment than the 60s/early 70s. Carew played around half of his games at 2B while Gwynn was an average-ish corner outfielder.

Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages | Baseball-Reference.com

Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages, Batting Totals and more on Baseball-Reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

See the post right above this is basically my take, Gwynn a little better hitter (more power), worse at defense. Overall pretty similar ‘greatness’

 

[chappee11]

Ted Williams said that Tony Gwynn was the “best hitter he’s ever seen”. I’m going to defer to Ted on this one. Gwynn was the best.

 

[msgkings322]

Carew played in the deadball era where the league averages were much lower than during Gwynn's careers. Even the 1980s were a much better hitting environment than the 60s/early 70s. Carew played around half of his games at 2B while Gwynn was an average-ish corner outfielder. Even stolen bases were a lot more difficult to come by in the 60s/70s than the 80s/90s

Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages | Baseball-Reference.com

Major League Batting Year-by-Year Averages, Batting Totals and more on Baseball-Reference.com

www.baseball-reference.com

OK my dad corrected both of us.

I was all embarrassed because I took this post and told my dad Carew was the better fielder LOL...uh, Gwynn won 5 Gold Gloves in right field, Carew only played half his games at 2B because he sucked so they moved him to first base and he DH'd lot after 1973

Gwynn had significantly more power and 8 batting titles to Carew's 7 (which accounts for 'deadball' era as does OPS+

They are really close

 

[broncosmitty]

Tony Gwynn had more assists in his four years as point guard at San Diego State than he had strikeouts in his 20 years as a Padre.

Still the Aztecs alltime leader.

We remember fat and friendly Tony from the end of his career. Not the elite athlete from his younger days.

 

[Janus]

I'll go with Carew, he was Jewish

 

[Old Sweater]

WAR is a baseline stat that adjusts for timeframe and position played.

 

[ducky]

Gwynn had a very interesting career revival from age 34 on when most players are trending down.

Age 34-40 his ops was significantly higher than it was from his “prime” athletic years from 28 to 32.

I wonder what it could have been. Must have been something in the water or the sunlight down in CA in the mid 90’s.

Not saying but I’m saying.

 

[Old Sweater]

Gwynn had a very interesting career revival from age 34 on when most players are trending down.

Age 34-40 his ops was significantly higher than it was from his “prime” athletic years from 28 to 32.

I wonder what it could have been. Must have been something in the water or the sunlight down in CA in the mid 90’s.

Not saying but I’m saying.

You’re right about his Gwynn’s power increasing with age. From ages 22-32 Gwynn slugged .433 then from ages 33-41 he slugged an even .500 which is considered a legitimate slugger. His isolated power went from .106 to .144(35.8%) for the same age spans. IMO, I do think Gwynn was clean.

 

[ducky]

You’re right about his Gwynn’s power increasing with age. From ages 22-32 Gwynn slugged .433 then from ages 33-41 he slugged an even .500 which is considered a legitimate slugger. His isolated power went from .106 to .144(35.8%) for the same age spans. IMO, I do think Gwynn was clean.

Believing that Gwynn was clean is akin to believing the Bible is historically accurate.

I support your right to believe it even though all the evidence there is seems to point contrary to the belief.

Gwynn was one of the first steroid apologists. Always swore he was clean but admitted baseball had a big issue and was one of the 1st guys that brought up the "Greenies were worse" defense.

 

[Kings4OT]

I think both are great and would take either on my team. I guess I would give the nod to Gwynn, .302 with 2 strikes is pretty crazy when the league is .180

 

[Kings4OT]

Gwynn had a very interesting career revival from age 34 on when most players are trending down.

Age 34-40 his ops was significantly higher than it was from his “prime” athletic years from 28 to 32.

I wonder what it could have been. Must have been something in the water or the sunlight down in CA in the mid 90’s.

Not saying but I’m saying.

Ive gotten much bigger and slower as ive gotten older, I also hit a softball with way more power than I used too past my prime years. Anecdotal sure, but this is a lot of guys. You really think he was juicing at that time? Crazy, I dont see it....but Obviously i dont know for sure

 

[eaglesnut]

Tony could hit anything and never struck out.