Don't focus on the long ball kids, be Tony Gwynn

Don't focus on the long ball kids, be Tony Gwynn...

Gwynn never hit more than 17 homers, and only tallied more than 100 RBIs once in his career. But this is the guy you want to be. Be Tony Gwynn.

Gwynn wasn't the best physical specimen and if you saw him on the street chances are you'd pay him little mind and walk right bye. But Gwynn was drafted to play baseball and basketball. You want to be Tony Gwynn.

In your trading, be Tony Gwynn. Don't worry about the sex appeal of monster moves and touting of 1000% gains. Don't get me wrong, that's great. But be Tony Gwynn.

The average MLB career is just over 5 seasons. Gwynn played 20. The average MLB batting average is near .296. Gwynn's worse average for his career was .289 in his rookie year. He never hit below .309 after that, with a .338 career average. Be Tony Gwynn.

Gwynn faced 18 Hall of Fame pitchers over his career with 541 plate appearances, he batted better than .330 against those pitchers. Be Tony Gwynn.

Tony Gwynn only struck out 434 times his entire career, an average of fewer than 22 strikeouts per season. When the job got tough, and Gwynn was trailing in the count with two strikes, he hit .302. Be Tony Gwynn.

Hopefully, you see where I'm going with this. Limit your strikeouts, single them to death for as long as you play the game. Stay green, and be Tony Gwynn!