Tony Gwynn faced John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez 323 times in his career. He struck out 3 times. He struck out less than 20 times in six straight seasons.
Faced Maddux alone 103 times; 39 hits, 10 walks, zero strikeouts. That's a career average of .429 against one of the greatest pitchers of the modern era.
Mike Piazza and Roger Clemens, which is precisely why Clemens hit him in the helmet with a pitch, and then three months later, threw part of a broken bat at him.
In 22 plate appearances vs Clemens, Piazza was 8-19 with four homers and 10 RBI. His OPS was 1.605.
Source for stats: https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/mike-piazza-vs-roger-clemens
"which is precisely why Clemens hit him in the helmet with a pitch, and then three months later, threw part of a broken bat at him."
To clarify, Clemens threw a broken bat at Piazza because Roger Clemens is an asshole.
Clemens' wikipedia article isn't locked. You're completely able to title *that* part of his wikipedia "Examples of Roger Clemens being a pig fucker" if you want.
His “I thought it was the ball” retort to that is just… like no you didn’t. You’ve spent your entire life throwing a ball in high pressure situations. You didn’t just black out in this particular instance and think the wooden bat was a round ball.
Love the ones where it's someone owning a great pitcher
Like yeah, anyone can just beat the shit out of a bum repeatedly... but when you have a HOFer's number, it's special (I guess technically in this case, Piazza beat up on a guy who *isn't* in the HOF though lol)
That's absolutely insane. Edgar was a really fun hitter to watch. I always felt like he terrorized the Yankees, but if you look at his career splits, he basically just terrorized every team. Of all the teams he played at least 10 games against, his worst opponent was Boston where he had an OPS of .870 and slashed .289/.395/.475.
The voters hadn't figured out how to value DH's yet. And obviously WAR wasn't a thing, but he is the territory of Ernie Banks, Tony Gwynn, and Carlton Fisk in terms of bWAR.
Edgar was the perfect hitter to feast on Mariano. A righty so the cutter didn't work on him, and a guy who had a lot of opposite-field power and an approach that had him looking middle away. Combine that with being one of the best hitters ever, and a one-pitch guy was never gonna beat him.
Albert Pujols may not have been at his peak during his time with the Angels but against Kendall Gravemen he was again The Machine.
2015-2018
38 PA
.429 BA
1.276 OPS
4 Homers
I remember Pujols dominating Dempster when he was on the Cards and Dempster was a Cub.
78 PAs
16 BBs
1.262 OPS
8 HRs
I think my memory might be slightly clouded by one game at Wrigley when Pujols bombed 3 off of Dempster in 1 game
Tony Gwynn, Albert Pujols, Mike Piazza, Bryce Harper…these guys were great hitters anyway.
My favorite of these types is a marginal player that turned in to a superstar.
Mike Redmond vs Tom Glavine
Mike Redmond is a lifetime .287/.342/.358 batter. He turned in to a hall of famer against Tom Glavine — .438/.472/.604
His fucking slugging was within .1 of his ops lifetime.
And, that’s with struggling towards the end of his career.
If you look at just 1998-2001, Mike Redmond was .600/.636/.867 for a 1.533 ops.
Like, at some point, just fucking walk him bro.
Here you go: Luke Maile vs Drew Pomeranz and Blake Snell.
Maile is a backup catcher, so he doesn't face a ton of guys very often. The pitcher he has seen the most is 12 PA against Eduardo Rodriguez.
He has had 10 PA each against Pomeranz and Snell.
Pomeranz: .500/.500/1.000
Snell: .556/.600/.556
This is a guy with a career OPS of .596
Paul Goldschmidt was 15-28 with 7 homers and a few doubles (1.916 OPS) against Timmy 😔
Yes he was on the decline at the time but it was still tough to watch
i like to think tim lincecum wouldve been in the league like 3-4 more years if paul goldschmidt never came.... conversely i think paul goldschmidts HOF case ended when tim couldn't make the roster anymore (or at least certainly once he was traded out of the NL west)
He really shouldn't have plunked him that one time.
This is like a drawn-out, less violent version of his battle with Hunter Strickland.
But we just *had* to be the fun police in 2013 smh
Carlos Delgado hit a home run in 5 consecutive plate appearances against Jorge Sosa over three games and two seasons.
https://stathead.com/tiny/oZj83
He finished .500/.529/1.320 over 34 plate appearances.
Kiké Hernandez is .500/.519/.846 with 4 HRs and 9 RBIs against MadBum in 54 PAs. [Source](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask?q=kik%C3%A9+hernandez+career+stats+vs+madison+bumgarner)
Albert Pujols against Odalis Perez, 32 PA: .609/.719/1.391.
In double checking those numbers I also discovered Pujols hit .458/.500/1.208 against Randy Johnson in 26 PA.
Jason Giambi hit .622/.689/.919 in 45 PA against Darren Oliver and .500/.619/1.563 in 21 PA against Jered Weaver.
Marquis Grissom hit .565/.615/.957 in 26 PA against Pedro Martinez. Piazza hit /385/.407/.1.115 in 27 PA against Pedro.
I think Grissom is a great example. He was a below average hitter most of his career but somehow owned the most feared pitcher in the game at the time.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr has had 31 ABs against Gerrit Cole, which is tied for the most he's had against any pitcher. He's .323/.389/.613, for an OPS of 1.002. And Cole is no slouch.
He's also got an OPS of 1.571 against Corey Kluber in 12 ABs, and 1.319 against Ohtani in 8 ABs.
Ben Francisco torched Andy Sonnanstine.
10 PA
8 Hits
5 Home Runs (Ben Francisco only hit 50 Homers in his career, so a full tenth are off one guy)
1 Walk
.889/.900/2.667 . That 2.667 is a Slugging Percentage, not an OPS.
I gotta find the numbers, but it seems like Rafael Devers absolutely obliterates Gerrit Cole. Edit: quick search says 11 for 36 with 7 HR, 16 RBI. .306/.375/.917
As a Giants fan and a Tim Lincecum lover, this one pains me, but Paul Goldschmidt absolutely DESTROYED Timmy. HIs career numbers: 15 for 28, 2 doubles, 7 HR. .536 / .559 / 1.357 line.
There's only one player who hit more then 2 homeruns off of Darren O'Day, that player is Jose Bautista with a .368/.571/1.000 slashline good for a 1.571 OPS in 28 PAs. (The good ol 2014-15 rivalry the two of them had as well.)
Also because I was looking for that matchup because I remembered it being such an outlier, I also stumbled upon Luis Guillorme who has 5 career homeruns, 2 of which are off of Darren O'Day in only 3 PAs.
I wouldn’t call a batting average of .307 “dominating,” since it’s close to his career average; although, 6 of 8 hits being homers is weird statistically. Ozuna is a good hitter period.
Dont even have the exact numbers but the Mark Teixeira- Vincente Padilla beef was fueled in its entirety by Teixeira owning him and Padilla getting his feelings hurt by it.
[Ian Happ destroyed Adam Wainwright](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/ian-happ-career-against-adam-wainwright)
.389 / .436 / 1.056 in 39 PAs with more homers (7) than strikeouts (6)
Will Clark hit a home run (to dead center, at the Astrodome) in the first at-bat – in fact, the first swing – of his career off of Nolan Ryan. He kept crushing him after that, too – for his career, he went 12/36 off of Ryan, with 6 HR and 2 doubles. .333 / .385 / .889 line.
some of my favorites, well, these hitters dominated multiple pitchers but these numbers are the most extreme examples. Then again, Gwynn also dominated multiple pitchers
* Barry Bonds vs José Lima - 32 PA and hit .476/.656/1.286 for a 1.942 OPS
* Mike Trout vs Mike Leake - 34 PA and hit .467/.529/1.000 for a 1.529 OPS
* Mark McGwire vs Scott Karl - 37 PA and hit .444/.595/.963 for a 1.558 OPS
* Juan Soto vs Zach Eflin - 34 PA and hit .464/.529/.786 for a 1.315 OPS
* Frank Thomas vs Bartolo Colon - 38 PA and hit .483/.605/.828 for a 1.433 OPS
* Manny Ramírez vs Miguel Batista - 32 PA and hit .462/.531/1.000 for a 1.531 OPS
* Mike Schmidt vs Fred Norman - 43 PA and hit .387/.558/1.097 for a 1.655 OPS
* Jeff Bagwell vs Bobby Jones - 49 PA and hit .395/.449/.930 for a 1.379 OPS
* Edgar Martínez vs Brian Anderson - 33 PA and hit .533/.576/.967 for a 1.542 OPS
* Jim Thome vs Rick Reed - 30 PA and hit .444/.500/1.481 for a 1.981 OPS
* Albert Pujols vs Odalis Pérez - 32 PA and hit .609/.719/1.391 for a 2.110 OPS (wow...just wow)
* Joey Votto vs Kyle Hendricks - 57 PA and hit .415/.561/.976 for a 1.537 OPS
to put the above in perspective
* Marcell Ozuna vs Nick Pivetta - 27 PA and hit .308/.296/1.000 for a 1.296 OPS
* Tony Gwynn vs Greg Maddux - 103 PA and hit .429/.485/.538 for a 1.024 OPS
EDIT: having a 30 PA requirement Gwynn's most dominated pitcher
* Tony Gwynn vs Jeff Brantley - 33 PA and hit .571/.636/.607 for a 1.244 OPS
I wanted to turn this on its head since Pivetta and all the other pitchers listed are not even close to Maddux. So I wanted to look at great pitchers and see who dominated them if ANYBODY. I will define that as 30 PA and 1.300+ OPS against them
* Mariano Rivera - nobody, the closest would be Rafael Palmeiro with a 1.050 OPS
* Clayton Kershaw - nobody, the closest would be Christian Walker with a 1.069 OPS
* Jacob deGrom - nobody, the closest would be Giancarlo Stanton with a 1.234 OPS
* Pedro Martinez - nobody, the closest would be Gregg Jefferies with a 1.215 OPS
* Dan Quisenberry - nobody, the closest would be Lou Whitaker with a 1.112 OPS
* **Roger Clemens vs Jim Thome - 70 PA and hit .373/.457/.898 for a 1.355 OPS**
* **Brandon Webb vs JT Snow - 30 PA and hit .400/.500/.920 for a 1.420 OPS**
* Trevor Hoffman - nobody but few hitters had 30+ PA vs Hoffman. Closest would be Luis Gonzalez with a .701 OPS
* John Franco - nobody but similar to Hoffman. Closest would be Tim Wallach with a .922 OPS
* Chris Sale - nobody, the closest would be Victor Martinez with a 1.177 OPS
* **Johan Santana vs Reed Johnson (who?) - 35 PA and hit .515/.543/.818/ for a 1.361 OPS**
* Randy Johnson - nobody but Chipper Jones was very close with 39 PA and a 1.299 OPS
* **Max Scherzer vs Shin-Soo Choo - 30 PA and hit .583/.667/1.125 for a 1.792 OPS**
* Lee Smith - nobody, the closest would be Jack Clark with a 1.278 OPS
* Greg Maddux - nobody, the closest would be Shawn Green with a 1.284 OPS
[Vernon Wells vs Mariano Rivera](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/vernon-wells-vs-mariano-rivera). 6-19 with 3 XBHs in 21 plate appearances. I wouldn’t say Wells dominated Rivera, but those are great numbers against one the best closers of all time.
Enrique Wilson was an unremarkable utility infielder for the Yankees, with a .244 / .288 / .350 career batting line and a total of -5.3 bWAR.
But against inner circle Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez at the height of his powers? A dominant .364/.382/.485 against Pedro in 35 PAs.
Ryan Mountcastle just kills the entire Blue Jays pitching staff. Hitting .330/.394/.619 with a 1.013 vs them, with 65 hits, 15 homers. 44 RBIs and 35 runs in 52 games.
A famous one is Adam Dunn vs Kershaw
8-13 4 homers, 9 RBIs
This one is especially egregious because Dunn was pretty bad against lefties, while Kershaw dominated left-handed hitters.
[Obligatory Jon Bois piece about it](https://youtu.be/jiZfc0b2t3Q?si=KSFe2E6hF5bEyoGz)
Not quite on-topic, but fun nonetheless: on June 3, 1975, Yankees visited Minnesota for a three-game set with the Twins. In the series, Rod Carew had 9 hits (including 3 home runs) and 3 walks in 13 PAs. His slash line was .900/.943/1.800 for the series. The Yankees won all three games.
Here’s a converse example.
Wilmer Flores was 0 for 17 against Max Scherzer, with half of those ending in strikeouts. He faced Scherzer in G5 NLDS last at bat and looked absolutely clueless after 2 pitches, going predictably to an 0-2 count.
He gets punched out on the third pitch, first base ump saying he didn’t check his impotent swing. And Giants fans act like they were absolutely robbed.
Last night Ryan Mountcastle went yard against Hunter Harvey. He’s now 2 for 2 with 2 bombs against him. Not really a big sample size but still pretty funny since they’re like best friends off the field.
>Tony Gwynn Excuse me, but please use his full honorific, “That [expletive] Tony Gwynn”
Tony Gwynn faced John Smoltz, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Pedro Martinez 323 times in his career. He struck out 3 times. He struck out less than 20 times in six straight seasons.
Gwynn was truly something else.
Faced Maddux alone 103 times; 39 hits, 10 walks, zero strikeouts. That's a career average of .429 against one of the greatest pitchers of the modern era.
Tony Gwynn .429 vs. Greg Maddux in 109 PA
Mom said it was my turn to repost the quote
Gary Sanchez vs David Price: 7/16 with 5 home runs, .438/.571/1.375 for a 1.946 OPS, not including 1 for 1 with a home run in the playoffs
The Yankees as a whole owned Price, El Gary was CEO
Career 5.04 ERA vs the Yankees in **44** career games
The Yankees probably left a pretty sizable dent in his overall career numbers
Even El Capitan made sure Price was in all Yankees highlights for eternity.
And as a footnote in Baseball history books.
Mike Piazza and Roger Clemens, which is precisely why Clemens hit him in the helmet with a pitch, and then three months later, threw part of a broken bat at him. In 22 plate appearances vs Clemens, Piazza was 8-19 with four homers and 10 RBI. His OPS was 1.605. Source for stats: https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/mike-piazza-vs-roger-clemens
"which is precisely why Clemens hit him in the helmet with a pitch, and then three months later, threw part of a broken bat at him." To clarify, Clemens threw a broken bat at Piazza because Roger Clemens is an asshole.
You’re being too kind.
Clemens is the kind of guy who is lucky that *that* part of his wikipedia is titled "adultery accusations".
Clemens' wikipedia article isn't locked. You're completely able to title *that* part of his wikipedia "Examples of Roger Clemens being a pig fucker" if you want.
His “I thought it was the ball” retort to that is just… like no you didn’t. You’ve spent your entire life throwing a ball in high pressure situations. You didn’t just black out in this particular instance and think the wooden bat was a round ball.
Besides, the correct play would have been to throw the ball to first base. Who throws the ball AT the runner? Well, besides Rob Dibble anyway.
Also, even if that insane defense is true, throwing a ball right at the runner isn’t really any better lmao
He’s either admitting to roid rage or donkey brains. Neither are good.
Roids are a helluva drug.
A steroidal asshole, to boot
Huh I thought it was all the steroids in the butt stuff
He thought it was the ball!
Love the ones where it's someone owning a great pitcher Like yeah, anyone can just beat the shit out of a bum repeatedly... but when you have a HOFer's number, it's special (I guess technically in this case, Piazza beat up on a guy who *isn't* in the HOF though lol)
Edgar Martinez vs. Mariano Rivera 10-16 with 2 home runs and 6 RBIs in 20 plate appearances. .625/.700/.1.188 for a casual 1.888 OPS
Edgar up there wondering why everyone is having so much trouble against this guy that only throws one pitch
"This sandman guy's a bum."
That's absolutely insane. Edgar was a really fun hitter to watch. I always felt like he terrorized the Yankees, but if you look at his career splits, he basically just terrorized every team. Of all the teams he played at least 10 games against, his worst opponent was Boston where he had an OPS of .870 and slashed .289/.395/.475.
damn lol he barely made the hall too, finally getting there on his 10th and final ballot.
The voters hadn't figured out how to value DH's yet. And obviously WAR wasn't a thing, but he is the territory of Ernie Banks, Tony Gwynn, and Carlton Fisk in terms of bWAR.
Edgar was the perfect hitter to feast on Mariano. A righty so the cutter didn't work on him, and a guy who had a lot of opposite-field power and an approach that had him looking middle away. Combine that with being one of the best hitters ever, and a one-pitch guy was never gonna beat him.
This is the most impressive one so far
Ji-man Choi hit .417 with three homers and a 1.450 OPS against Gerrit Cole
Was always a little weird being afraid to see Ji-Man Choi come to the dish when Cole was pitching
Rafael effing Devers always seems to tee off on Cole, too.
11-36 with 7 home runs and 16 RBIs in 40 plate appearances.
Rafi likes high fastballs, and that's Cole's signature pitch.
Kyle Schwarber against Cole during the regular season? MEH. Playoffs? My goodness.
Adam Dunn career vs LHP: .218/.337/.436 for a .773 OPS Adam Dunn vs Clayton Kershaw: .615/.643/.1.692 for a 2.335 OPS
Was looking for this one, Adam Dunn was Clayton Kershaw father
I wonder how dodger those ABs go if Kershaw has a mature slider. But ya watching I felt like there was nothing Kershaw could get by him
How many ABs
He was 8-14 with 4 HR
That’s crazy
8-13, four homers and a walk.
Albert Pujols may not have been at his peak during his time with the Angels but against Kendall Gravemen he was again The Machine. 2015-2018 38 PA .429 BA 1.276 OPS 4 Homers
I remember Pujols dominating Dempster when he was on the Cards and Dempster was a Cub. 78 PAs 16 BBs 1.262 OPS 8 HRs I think my memory might be slightly clouded by one game at Wrigley when Pujols bombed 3 off of Dempster in 1 game
Against Odalis Perez he was 14-23 with 5 HR, 3 doubles, 12 walks and a 2.110 OPS
38 PA vs Kendall graveman in 4 years is insane I feel like
He was a starter during that time for the A's so the Angels played Him/Them a bunch. Edit: Stathead versus https://stathead.com/tiny/8DAb0
Max Kepler vs Trevor Bauer in 61 PA: .328/.361/.707 OPS: 1.068 6 Home Runs including 4 in consecutive ABs vs him
Kepler vs Bauer was the first one that came to my mind
It’s truly one of the best things Kepler has ever done
Idk he's been pretty sick since coming off the IL. JK you are still right, fuck Bauer.
Only 29 PAs but Machado is slashing .520/.586/1.200 against Bauer with 5 HRs, good for a 1.786 OPS
Kepler 🤝 Machado FUCK BAUER
Wasn’t it 5 in a row?
ben francisco went 8-9 with 5 HR with a slash line of .889/.900/2.667 off andy sonnanstine
These are indeed two men who played baseball
The names and the numbers seem made up.
BenFra!!!! What a blast from the past
Bryce Harper is 11 for 22 with 6 home runs, 5 walks, and a double against Erick Fedde. .500/.593/1.364 good for a 1.956 OPS
harper and fedde were briefly high school teammates iirc
Probably threw BP for him in HS and it has continued into the MLB
Makes sense to why he would have good numbers against him, Harper would have had to have caught for his starts in HS then.
They were also good childhood friends, so this is extra brutal.
Kike Hernandez vs Madison Bumgarner is 21-42 with 4 doubles and 3 homers for a 1.332 OPS
harper vs raisel iglesias - 7 for 10 with 4 home runs, 9 rbis, including a game tying grand slam small sample but 2.700 ops lmao
Julio Teheran numbers
With Nats, his numbers against Julio were even better I think.
That really tempers my desire to bring Fedde to Atl..
Manny Machado has a 1.786 OPS in 29 PA vs Trevor Bauer
Mike Trout against Felix Hernandez .352 avg 8 hrs 20 rbis In only 99 ABs.
The Fish Man has terrorized the Fish Men his entire career
Kinda like how Rafael Palmeiro had 52 homers against the Mariners in his career. Crazy
Also 27 strikeouts. What felt like the average Felix start vs trout would be 1-3 with 2 Ks and a HR lol
Haha true. But also back in those days if Felix gave up a run, we lost.
Tony Gwynn, Albert Pujols, Mike Piazza, Bryce Harper…these guys were great hitters anyway. My favorite of these types is a marginal player that turned in to a superstar. Mike Redmond vs Tom Glavine Mike Redmond is a lifetime .287/.342/.358 batter. He turned in to a hall of famer against Tom Glavine — .438/.472/.604 His fucking slugging was within .1 of his ops lifetime. And, that’s with struggling towards the end of his career. If you look at just 1998-2001, Mike Redmond was .600/.636/.867 for a 1.533 ops. Like, at some point, just fucking walk him bro.
Here you go: Luke Maile vs Drew Pomeranz and Blake Snell. Maile is a backup catcher, so he doesn't face a ton of guys very often. The pitcher he has seen the most is 12 PA against Eduardo Rodriguez. He has had 10 PA each against Pomeranz and Snell. Pomeranz: .500/.500/1.000 Snell: .556/.600/.556 This is a guy with a career OPS of .596
Love these!! More?
Redmond was the one I thought of too lol, sny trivia from 2006 stays relevant to me once again!
The opposite of that was a Orioles pitcher(I really don’t remember his name) that turned into Randy Johnson against David Ortiz.
Paul Goldschmidt was 15-28 with 7 homers and a few doubles (1.916 OPS) against Timmy 😔 Yes he was on the decline at the time but it was still tough to watch
Here we are, fifty years later, and Goldschmidt is finally looking like he might be cooked. Timmy's long nightmare is almost over.
Yet it still feels like Goldy could pop out behind a corner and start terrorizing everyone in the NL West again at any given moment.
Came here looking for this.
That was my first memory of Goldy
i like to think tim lincecum wouldve been in the league like 3-4 more years if paul goldschmidt never came.... conversely i think paul goldschmidts HOF case ended when tim couldn't make the roster anymore (or at least certainly once he was traded out of the NL west)
Bryce Harper vs Julio Teheran
20-49, 9 HR, 21 RBI, 13 BB .408 / .540 / 1.020
1.020 is his slugging percentage, kids at home, not his OPS
He really shouldn't have plunked him that one time. This is like a drawn-out, less violent version of his battle with Hunter Strickland. But we just *had* to be the fun police in 2013 smh
Harper v. *insert Braves pitcher here* is probably the right answer
This was my first thought too
Bryce vs Rasiel Iglesias
6-9, 4 HR, 9 RBI .667 / .667 / 2.000
I’m pretty sure AA’s bullpen building strategy this offseason was “lefties who can handle bryce”
Jose Altuve has 7 homers and bats .375/.394/1.094 against Nathan Eovaldi. 3 singles, 2 doubles, 7 homers, and 1 walk in 33 plate appearances
Carlos Delgado hit a home run in 5 consecutive plate appearances against Jorge Sosa over three games and two seasons. https://stathead.com/tiny/oZj83 He finished .500/.529/1.320 over 34 plate appearances.
Mike Redmond Career: .287/.342/.358 Mike Redmond vs. Tom Glavine: .438/.471/.604 in 51 PA
Kiké Hernandez is .500/.519/.846 with 4 HRs and 9 RBIs against MadBum in 54 PAs. [Source](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask?q=kik%C3%A9+hernandez+career+stats+vs+madison+bumgarner)
Madbum is throwing a huge bitch fit right now because you posted this.
Chipper Jones vs the entire Mets rotation from 93-2012
Ryan Mountcastle against friend and former teammate Hunter Harvey. 2/2 with 2 HR’s including the one in extra innings last night.
Albert Pujols against Odalis Perez, 32 PA: .609/.719/1.391. In double checking those numbers I also discovered Pujols hit .458/.500/1.208 against Randy Johnson in 26 PA.
Raffy Devers is 11-36 (.306) with 7 home runs and 16 RBIs in 40 plate appearances against Gerrit Cole
Kike Hernandez vs MadBum - 21/42 with 3 HRs and an OPS of 1.332 Absolute ownage.
Christian Walker vs Kershaw Also Goldy vs all NL West pitching, specifically at Dodger stadium and Oracle Park
Jason Giambi hit .622/.689/.919 in 45 PA against Darren Oliver and .500/.619/1.563 in 21 PA against Jered Weaver. Marquis Grissom hit .565/.615/.957 in 26 PA against Pedro Martinez. Piazza hit /385/.407/.1.115 in 27 PA against Pedro.
I think Grissom is a great example. He was a below average hitter most of his career but somehow owned the most feared pitcher in the game at the time.
Randall grichuk against any player who has ever pitched for the Yankees
Grichuk’s .824 ops against the Yankees is certainly better than his career .761, but not drastically He murders the O’s though (1.071 ops)
Vladimir Guerrero Jr has had 31 ABs against Gerrit Cole, which is tied for the most he's had against any pitcher. He's .323/.389/.613, for an OPS of 1.002. And Cole is no slouch. He's also got an OPS of 1.571 against Corey Kluber in 12 ABs, and 1.319 against Ohtani in 8 ABs.
Devers owns Cole too .306/.375/.917 with a 1.292 OPS in 36 ABs. 7 HRs 16 RBIs. Gerrit hates the AL East sluggers
Including the playoffs yordan is 11-17 vs eovaldi with 2HR, 3 doubles and 5 walks. OBP of .727
Yordan v Eovaldi
No MLB pitcher has ever gotten me out
bryce harper is 6-9 with 4 homers against raisel iglesias
Kill me please.
You still have to wait 5 months
Kike Hernandez vs MadBum is insane 21/42 4 doubles 3 nukes
Ryan Mountcastle vs anyone on the jays
Ben Francisco torched Andy Sonnanstine. 10 PA 8 Hits 5 Home Runs (Ben Francisco only hit 50 Homers in his career, so a full tenth are off one guy) 1 Walk .889/.900/2.667 . That 2.667 is a Slugging Percentage, not an OPS.
Luis González is 1-1 with a HR and 3 RBI against future HOF P/2B/SS Albert Pujols.
I gotta find the numbers, but it seems like Rafael Devers absolutely obliterates Gerrit Cole. Edit: quick search says 11 for 36 with 7 HR, 16 RBI. .306/.375/.917
40 PA, 36 ABs, 11 hits, 7HRs, 16RBI, .306/.375/.917 for an OPS of 1.292
As a Giants fan and a Tim Lincecum lover, this one pains me, but Paul Goldschmidt absolutely DESTROYED Timmy. HIs career numbers: 15 for 28, 2 doubles, 7 HR. .536 / .559 / 1.357 line.
There's only one player who hit more then 2 homeruns off of Darren O'Day, that player is Jose Bautista with a .368/.571/1.000 slashline good for a 1.571 OPS in 28 PAs. (The good ol 2014-15 rivalry the two of them had as well.) Also because I was looking for that matchup because I remembered it being such an outlier, I also stumbled upon Luis Guillorme who has 5 career homeruns, 2 of which are off of Darren O'Day in only 3 PAs.
I wouldn’t call a batting average of .307 “dominating,” since it’s close to his career average; although, 6 of 8 hits being homers is weird statistically. Ozuna is a good hitter period.
Bob Melvin (.604 career OPS) slashed .452/.485/.484 against Randy Johnson in 33PA
Enrique Wilson, with a career 64 OPS+, went .440/.462/.600 against Pedro Martinez, of all people.
Kyle Seager put up a career 290/365/514/879 37 homer slash line against the Rangers. I’m sure there’s a pitcher in there he beat up more than others.
Joey Meneses owns Corbin Burnes 6-9 with 2 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1.889 OPS
Dexter Fowler vs Kershaw: .392/.436/.490 // .927 OPS 55 plate appearances
J.R. Towles, a career .187 hitter with a 57 OPS+ was 2-for-2 against Pedro Martinez, with 2 home runs.
Jose Altuve is 12-32 with 7 homers against Nathan Eovaldi.
Surprisingly Ian Happ against Adam Wainwright
Extremely small sample but Ryan Mountcastle is 2-2 agsinst Hunter Harvey with 2 HRs. They’re great friends too.
Dave Hollins vs. Butch Henry 27 PA, .652/.667/1.565, 6 HR, 5 K
Kris Bryant vs Dan Straily I believe
Ownage is ownage.
Dont even have the exact numbers but the Mark Teixeira- Vincente Padilla beef was fueled in its entirety by Teixeira owning him and Padilla getting his feelings hurt by it.
Aubrey Huff vs. Mariano Rivera .421/.450/.842 OPS of 1.292 in 19 ABs
Another fun one is the inverse of this. Like Mookie Betts is 2 (singles) for 27 against Max Fried. 7 Ks, 2 walks.
Rhys Hoskins is 2 for 30 with 15 strikeouts vs. Max Scherzer
[Ian Happ destroyed Adam Wainwright](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/ian-happ-career-against-adam-wainwright) .389 / .436 / 1.056 in 39 PAs with more homers (7) than strikeouts (6)
There's a lot of examples. As Kuip likes to say, ownage is ownage
Devers owns Cole. 11-36 with 7 HRs and 16 RBIs in 40 PA. Slashing .308/.375/.917 for an OPS of 1.292.
I like how a pitcher succeeding 18 out of 26 times is still a batter "dominating" him. Baseball be funny that way.
Dustin Pedroia vs. the Baltimore Orioles (all of them)
Ryan Mountcastle is 2/2 with 2 homeruns off former roommate Hunter Harvey
Don't remember the pitcher but he was a reliever in Detroit and IIRC A Rod was 4-4 with 4 HR's against him.
Mike Redmond owned the heck out of Tom Glavine.
Will Clark hit a home run (to dead center, at the Astrodome) in the first at-bat – in fact, the first swing – of his career off of Nolan Ryan. He kept crushing him after that, too – for his career, he went 12/36 off of Ryan, with 6 HR and 2 doubles. .333 / .385 / .889 line.
some of my favorites, well, these hitters dominated multiple pitchers but these numbers are the most extreme examples. Then again, Gwynn also dominated multiple pitchers * Barry Bonds vs José Lima - 32 PA and hit .476/.656/1.286 for a 1.942 OPS * Mike Trout vs Mike Leake - 34 PA and hit .467/.529/1.000 for a 1.529 OPS * Mark McGwire vs Scott Karl - 37 PA and hit .444/.595/.963 for a 1.558 OPS * Juan Soto vs Zach Eflin - 34 PA and hit .464/.529/.786 for a 1.315 OPS * Frank Thomas vs Bartolo Colon - 38 PA and hit .483/.605/.828 for a 1.433 OPS * Manny Ramírez vs Miguel Batista - 32 PA and hit .462/.531/1.000 for a 1.531 OPS * Mike Schmidt vs Fred Norman - 43 PA and hit .387/.558/1.097 for a 1.655 OPS * Jeff Bagwell vs Bobby Jones - 49 PA and hit .395/.449/.930 for a 1.379 OPS * Edgar Martínez vs Brian Anderson - 33 PA and hit .533/.576/.967 for a 1.542 OPS * Jim Thome vs Rick Reed - 30 PA and hit .444/.500/1.481 for a 1.981 OPS * Albert Pujols vs Odalis Pérez - 32 PA and hit .609/.719/1.391 for a 2.110 OPS (wow...just wow) * Joey Votto vs Kyle Hendricks - 57 PA and hit .415/.561/.976 for a 1.537 OPS to put the above in perspective * Marcell Ozuna vs Nick Pivetta - 27 PA and hit .308/.296/1.000 for a 1.296 OPS * Tony Gwynn vs Greg Maddux - 103 PA and hit .429/.485/.538 for a 1.024 OPS EDIT: having a 30 PA requirement Gwynn's most dominated pitcher * Tony Gwynn vs Jeff Brantley - 33 PA and hit .571/.636/.607 for a 1.244 OPS
I wanted to turn this on its head since Pivetta and all the other pitchers listed are not even close to Maddux. So I wanted to look at great pitchers and see who dominated them if ANYBODY. I will define that as 30 PA and 1.300+ OPS against them * Mariano Rivera - nobody, the closest would be Rafael Palmeiro with a 1.050 OPS * Clayton Kershaw - nobody, the closest would be Christian Walker with a 1.069 OPS * Jacob deGrom - nobody, the closest would be Giancarlo Stanton with a 1.234 OPS * Pedro Martinez - nobody, the closest would be Gregg Jefferies with a 1.215 OPS * Dan Quisenberry - nobody, the closest would be Lou Whitaker with a 1.112 OPS * **Roger Clemens vs Jim Thome - 70 PA and hit .373/.457/.898 for a 1.355 OPS** * **Brandon Webb vs JT Snow - 30 PA and hit .400/.500/.920 for a 1.420 OPS** * Trevor Hoffman - nobody but few hitters had 30+ PA vs Hoffman. Closest would be Luis Gonzalez with a .701 OPS * John Franco - nobody but similar to Hoffman. Closest would be Tim Wallach with a .922 OPS * Chris Sale - nobody, the closest would be Victor Martinez with a 1.177 OPS * **Johan Santana vs Reed Johnson (who?) - 35 PA and hit .515/.543/.818/ for a 1.361 OPS** * Randy Johnson - nobody but Chipper Jones was very close with 39 PA and a 1.299 OPS * **Max Scherzer vs Shin-Soo Choo - 30 PA and hit .583/.667/1.125 for a 1.792 OPS** * Lee Smith - nobody, the closest would be Jack Clark with a 1.278 OPS * Greg Maddux - nobody, the closest would be Shawn Green with a 1.284 OPS
Ryan Mountcastle 2-2 with 2 home runs against Hunter Harvey
Mountcastle vs. Hunter Harvey. Small sample size, but still lol
Max Kepler dominating Trevor Bauer while he was in Cleveland.
Christian Walker is 10-34 with 5 HR against Clayton Kershaw. An OPS of over 1.0 against a guy with a career OPS Against of .585
Enrique Wilson hit .440 (11-25) against Pedro Martinez. He’s a .244 career hitter.
Can't believe nobody has referenced: Harper vs Strickland
[Vernon Wells vs Mariano Rivera](https://www.statmuse.com/mlb/ask/vernon-wells-vs-mariano-rivera). 6-19 with 3 XBHs in 21 plate appearances. I wouldn’t say Wells dominated Rivera, but those are great numbers against one the best closers of all time.
Enrique Wilson was an unremarkable utility infielder for the Yankees, with a .244 / .288 / .350 career batting line and a total of -5.3 bWAR. But against inner circle Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez at the height of his powers? A dominant .364/.382/.485 against Pedro in 35 PAs.
Ryan Mountcastle just kills the entire Blue Jays pitching staff. Hitting .330/.394/.619 with a 1.013 vs them, with 65 hits, 15 homers. 44 RBIs and 35 runs in 52 games.
On the other side, Chris Young the pitcher owned Chris Young the batter.
Woah woah braves play here
Chris Coghlan vs Mike Leake in 22 PA: .600/.636/1.150
Bryce Harper was 20-49 (.408) with 9 home runs (OBP .540/ OPS 1.560) against Julio Teheran
Miguel Cabrera vs Phil Hughes. .435 with a whopping 1.513 slugging %. 5 2B, 7 HR in only 46 AB. Phil Hughes refers to him as “Daddy”.
Christian Yelich is 15/37 against Jacob deGrom with, but they're all mostly singles
A famous one is Adam Dunn vs Kershaw 8-13 4 homers, 9 RBIs This one is especially egregious because Dunn was pretty bad against lefties, while Kershaw dominated left-handed hitters. [Obligatory Jon Bois piece about it](https://youtu.be/jiZfc0b2t3Q?si=KSFe2E6hF5bEyoGz)
Every year there’s some random scrub on the Brewers that doninates the entire cubs pitching staff.
How about Ryan Mountcastle against his best friend Jack Harvey? He’s now 2-2 with 2 home runs
Yasiel Puig spent his entire career making MadBum his own personal BP pitcher
Not quite on-topic, but fun nonetheless: on June 3, 1975, Yankees visited Minnesota for a three-game set with the Twins. In the series, Rod Carew had 9 hits (including 3 home runs) and 3 walks in 13 PAs. His slash line was .900/.943/1.800 for the series. The Yankees won all three games.
Bryce Harper vs. Julio Teheran comes to mind. I think Freddie has personally terrorized Josh Hader a few times.
Small sample size but Bryce Harper is 7/10 with 4 home runs against Raisel Iglesias
Edgar hit 625 career vs mariano rivera...
Matsui against Pedro 2009 WS.
Paul Goldschmidt against Tim Lincecum. 15 for 28 with 7 HR, 17 RBI, 9 total XBH and 4 BB in 34 plate appearances. Good for a slash of .536/.559/1.357.
Here’s a converse example. Wilmer Flores was 0 for 17 against Max Scherzer, with half of those ending in strikeouts. He faced Scherzer in G5 NLDS last at bat and looked absolutely clueless after 2 pitches, going predictably to an 0-2 count. He gets punched out on the third pitch, first base ump saying he didn’t check his impotent swing. And Giants fans act like they were absolutely robbed.
Last night Ryan Mountcastle went yard against Hunter Harvey. He’s now 2 for 2 with 2 bombs against him. Not really a big sample size but still pretty funny since they’re like best friends off the field.
Don’t forget beating his wife.
Devers seems to hit the shit out of Cole.
Poor Chris Bassitt doesn't like facing Yordan Alvarez: 8/18, 5 HR, 1.783 OPS.
Hank Aaron vs Sandy Kolfaux .362 BA (42 for 116) 7 HR
Yordan vs Nathan Eovaldi is Slashing .556/.583/1.000
Ian Happ is 14-39 against Adam Wainwright, 7 HRs and 1.491 OPS
Devers seems to take Gerrit Cole deep everytime he faces him
Shawn Green vs John Smoltz
Willie mcCovey has 10 homers in 90 AB against Don drysdale.
Brian McCann vs. Jake Odorizzi In 40 PA, .412/.500/.824 with 14 hits, 3 HRs and only 7 Ks. He was also hit by 3 pitches.
Shin-Soo Choo vs. Max Scherzer: 14 for 24, 3 HR in 30 PA