Bobby & Tony

The table also purposely ignores hits and batting average, as these two categories, and the two players’ relationships with this particular offensive component – taking a cut and finding a safe place for the ball to land – are instrumental in stepping away from the confluences and considering just how differently Gwynn and Abreu are perceived and celebrated.

Gwynn took one specific and narratively foundational element to the game and painted a rapturous picture with remarkable ability:  pull, push, slash, lace, slice, slam, drive a pitched baseball to where it eluded a glove and couldn’t be converted into an out.  For how many players in history would a reel of just their singles and doubles and triples be enough to captivate an audience?  His Hall of Fame plaque captures this perfectly in its opening phrase: “An artisan with the bat …”  Gwynn rode that artistry to a lifetime .338 mark – the highest for any player since Ted Williams called it quits with a .344 average, a top-20 mark all-time for NL/AL history.  On such a simple platform a legend was raised.  

On a different side of what can happen when a batter steps into the box, Bobby Abreu made his living by letting a lot of baseballs reach the glove behind him.  His patience and recognition were the foundation of his offensive profile, supporting and shaping his swirl of pop and speed.  Unlike Gwynn’s primary draw, Abreu’s is less sexy, more in need of some quality time to perhaps appreciate its rarity and value.  Some perspectives that one can draw from his career stats:

~Abreu’s 1,476 walks are 20th most, with those 3,979 times reaching safely standing as the 49th best.  

~There are 103 players who reached safely at least 3,500 times in their career.  Only 16 of them surpass Abreu when it comes to percentage of their times on base coming from free passes.  It’s an interesting list, with 10 of the 16 men ahead of Abreu also members of the 500-homer club.  The non-club members surpassing Abreu’s percentage are Eddie Yost, Joe Morgan, Darrell Evans, Rickey Henderson, Jason Giambi and Joey Votto.  At 37.09, Abreu’s percentage rests in between two all-time sluggers, Willie McCovey and Mel Ott.

~Abreu is one of 21 players ever to combine at least 1,400 free passes with at least 900 extra-base hits.  Among the other 20, the only non-Hall of Famers are named Barry Bonds, Pete Rose and Gary Sheffield.  

~Abreu is one of 16 players with at least five seasons of 100 walks and 100 RBI.  His comrades with exactly five are Mel Ott, Ralph Kiner, Mike Schmidt, Mark McGwire and Adam Dunn.

~Keeping the pop and replacing the walks with steals, Abreu is one of seven players with at least 900 extra-base hits and 400 thefts, joining Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Paul Molitor, Barry Bonds and Craig Biggio.  

~In pursuit of a single value that could showcase the highlights of Abreu’s batting profile, I came up with this:  

There are 252 players in history with at least 2,000 games played.  If one looks at all 252, tallies their total bases and walks and then divides that sum by games played, Abreu comes in with the 47th best rate.  The chunk around him looks like this:

Jim Edmonds         2.294 TB+BB/Game

Harry Heilmann      2.286 TB+BB/Game

Bobby Abreu         2.269 TB+BB/Game

Billy Williams          2.268 TB+BB/Game

George Brett          2.268 TB+BB/Game

For what it’s worth:  Gwynn is at 2.069 – 103rd among the 252.  Also, because this fascinated me after doing the exercise – Abreu’s rate is jusssssst ahead of Wade Boggs’ (I would not have expected that), with the Hall of Fame third baseman at 2.245.

The approach and realization can be the same for both Gwynn and Abreu – focus on what was special about each of them and draw lines in history that zing through some of the more celebrated careers and names in the game.  It’s just that the exercise with Gwynn – starting with a hit rather than a walk – feels so much more natural and beckoning, more edifying and reflective and significant.  

This is not to argue that Abreu deserves as much attention and consideration for the Hall of Fame as Gwynn, who sailed through the voting process like he was slashing a knock to the left-center gap.  The first-ballot inductee won eight batting titles, he led the league in hits seven times, he generated league-leading numbers elsewhere.  Abreu paced the NL in doubles once and triples once (and led the Majors in walks in 2006, when he split his season between the Phillies and Yankees).  As the table shows, bWAR likes Gwynn more for both offensive and overall value.  This entire consideration of Abreu in relation to Gwynn is more about the incredible gulf between our perceptions of the two, and why that may be a disservice to Abreu.  Yes, there is a gap, but is it as large as to justify Gwynn’s 97.6% on the only Hall of Fame ballot he needed versus Abreu’s cumulative 53.0% on his five ballots?  

Tony Gwynn is an essential part of the story of the 1980s and 1990s – omnipresent, a joyous picture of what the game was like, how it was played, and what resonantly rings about that time and place.  Abreu’s most remembered for … an unexpected and breathtaking performance in the 2005 Home Run Derby?  It should be more than that, though.  For nearly a decade, starting in the late 1990s, Abreu was as much a given for playing every day, compiling 100 runs and 100 RBI and 100 walks and a whole lot of extra-base hits as Gwynn was for batting/hit titles during his magnetic stretch.  String enough of those Abreu seasons together and by the time it’s all said and done, the final tally of numbers can – with no shoulder shrug or bashful lowering of the eyes  – compare to one of the game’s more celebrated hitting savants. 

Thanks to Baseball Reference and its extraordinary research database, Stathead, for help in assembling this piece.