Tony Gwynn's Minor League Journal

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Tony Gwynn Jr. was a second-round draft pick of the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2003 draft. The son of future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, the center fielder hit .359 in his final season at San Diego State, leading the Mountain West Conference in stolen bases with 25. He finished his college career with a .341 average in three seasons. After signing with the Brewers, Gwynn hit .280 with a .364 OBP and went 14-for-16 in stolen-base attempts in 61 games for Beloit, which made it to the Midwest League playoffs.

Gwynn hopes to make the jump to Double-A Huntsville with fellow prospects Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks for the 2004 season. He's agreed to chronicle his experiences throughout the 2004 season in a journal for MLB.com

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<b><font size=4>Gwynn: Adjusting to a higher level</font>
Second-rounder shares early impressions in journal</b>

Hey everyone,

I'm very excited about the opportunity to share my season with you in this journal for MLB.com. If you ever have any questions throughout the year, please email me and I'll answer some questions in future journals.

So far my spring has been going pretty well here in Arizona. It's been a little difficult to get up as early as we have to in the morning, though. We're usually up at around 5:30 a.m. or 6:30 a.m., but both are too early for me.

That doesn't leave much time for anything but baseball. As much as you want to go out and have fun, we're not here to do that. You have to make sacrifices in order to get where you want to go. So it doesn't bother me. But it'd be better if we started at nine or 10 instead of six. But I guess the rewards for the hard work are far greater than anything else.

Other than the early wake-up calls, the hardest thing for me has been hitting. The pitchers are much smarter than where I was in the Midwest League last year. I've just been practicing with the Double-A guys, and it's a challenge. You're not going to see any fastballs down the middle here. They put their pitches where they want to put it.

I'm practicing with Double-A players, but I don't know where I'm going yet. I do hope that's where I end up, in Huntsville. But we'll have to wait and see.

It's been pretty laid back here in camp. It's been easy to get through the day. Playing in minor-league camp, we don't get too many reporters coming to talk to us.

Probably the highlight of the spring has been when I had a day off and I got to go to PETCO Park in San Diego to watch my college team, San Diego St., play. It was my first time seeing the stadium and it was awesome. The team looks OK. They're young, in college years, with lots of freshman and sophomores. By the end of the year, they should be fine. Even though they lost the game, I had a great time.

Back here in camp, the highlight might be watching Prince Fielder hit. He's still going out and impressing everybody. It seems like he hasn't stopped from last year (when he won the Midwest League MVP). Since he got sent to minor-league camp, he's been on a tear. It's been fun to watch him. It's more fun this year because I have a half-season under my belt and feel a little more comfortable. The amazing thing with Prince is that I know what to expect from him because of playing with him in Beloit last year, but he keeps pushing the bar higher.

That's about it from here in Maryvale. Don't forget to email me with any questions or comments. I'll talk to you again in about three weeks.

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<b><font size=4>Gwynn Jr.: Hello from Huntsville</font>
Second-rounder happy to be in Double-A</b>

Hey guys!

Hello from Huntsville, Alabama. It's going really well here. I'm really excited to be here, playing Double-A ball. For a long time this spring, I was really unsure if I was going to make the club. But I'm here now and I'm really excited.

Everything is definitely stepped up to a higher level here. It's challenging to a certain extent. But it's still baseball. I wasn't expecting to get off to a fast start and I haven't. I know they'll start falling soon, though.

My mechanics are really good right now. I'm working on some things that Frank Kremblas, our manager, is helping me with. Once I get those things going, I know I'll be fine. The biggest thing for me is to make sure I don't get too down on myself. I'm not one to get too down on myself, but I do tend to think too much. I'm always analyzing. Before, during and after the game. I'm trying to work on that now, not over-analyzing things. So far it's good. I've struggled in the beginning, but I'm definitely handling it really well, I think.

All my teammates are great people. We've got a lot of clowns, a lot of jokesters on this team, and that keeps things loose. The only bad thing is it's been surprisingly cold. The sun came out and it was 39 degrees here on Wednesday. Being a San Diego native, I'm not quite used to that. Once you get going, you don't notice it that much. I know it'll heat up a bit. I've been here in the summer before. I've got nothing to complain about, because I've heard Beloit, where I played last summer, is unreal cold. I'll take the 39 any day.

The first three days, our whole team was going really well offensively. One through nine, you had to bear down to get anyone out. The last four days we've been slumping, the bats have withhered a bit. Defense has been a little shabby, but I'm sure that'll get better as the season goes on. I was really impressed with our lineup the first three nights. We lived up to the power numbers those days. We run a lot. We're going to hit well. We're going to hit for power well. That's probably been the most impressive thing so far.

I got to see B.J. Upton, the Devil Rays prospect, play and I was really impressed. He's going to be a really good player. He's got great poise at the plate. He must've gone right-center on us three or four times at least. That showed he can really handle the bat and he doesn't panic. He and my teammate Prince (Fielder) have to be the youngest cats who don't act their age as far as their plate approach.

<b>Tony's Mailbag</b>

<b>Gregory writes:</b>
Your father was the greatest hitter of his generation. I'm wondering what kind of expectations you have for your future. Exactly how high do you set your own personal bar? Is simply doing the best you can good enough for you? Or do you take a "second isn't good enough" stance and put extra pressure on yourself to put up extraordinary numbers?

<b>Tony responds:</b>
I don't put any pressure on myself. I know my abilities will take care of itself. But as a Gwynn, you're goal for hitting has to be hitting at least .300. My dad did it for 20 years. My goal going into every year is to hit .300. I may not do it right away.

This year, I've added on some more goals because of the guys in front of me. I want to score close to 100 runs. If I score 100 runs, that means I'm getting on base a lot, which probably means I'm hitting close to .300. I want to steal at least 30 bags. I want to do that every year. But as far as hitting is concerned, I want to hit .300. That's just a Gwynn standard.

<b>Chidi writes:</b>
Last year I made the baseball team because of how hard I worked and in my old school not too many people try out. I'm up in a new school now and I got cut from the team. Last year was my first and I was just learning how to play the game because I came from Africa when I was seven years old. The only sports I understood for the longest time were soccer and basketball, but I really like baseball. I'm working really hard but I wanted to know if you could give me any hitting advice and fielding tips. I'm a second baseman. Thank you for any advice you can give me.

<b>Tony responds:</b>
As far as hitting is concerned, you want to make sure you keep your hands back and your front foot down. You want to be in a 60-40 position -- 60 percent of your weight on the back leg, 40 percent on the front. You want almost even weight on each leg.

Defensively, I can't help you much because I play the outfield. But always stay in front of the ball. You want to always field the ball as far in front of you as possible.

More than anything else, remember that hard work always pays off in the end. So keep at it.

[645]

Hey everyone,

Things are going all right for me so far. I've kind of been in and out of slumps. I'll do well for a couple games, then I'll slump for a couple. We're kind of playing as a team the same way. We'll win a couple, then lose a couple. Still, we're close to the top of the standings (16-15, .5 GB), so that's good.

Personally, I'd say the pitching has been the most difficult part. Everybody here pretty much throws where they want to throw it. Your mechanics and swing have to be so consistent. You can't have bad mechanics and still get hits, like you could at a lower level. They don't make as many mistakes here. So I'm just trying to be consistent with everything .

The up and down is really frustrating. You feel like you're on your way to doing some real damage, then you go 0- for-9. You have to keep your wits about you and keep plugging at it.

One real positive with my game has been my baserunning (9 steals). Even when I' ve been thrown out, I've really only been thrown out twice, and I've been picked off a couple of times. It's been a really good time for me as far as running on the bases. I've been getting good jumps. I hope I can keep getting on base. I went 0-for-2 but got three walks (on Monday). Those are the games I need to keep having.

We're not even playing close to our potential, and we're still managing to stay close to the division lead. Once we get going, we're going to really win a lot of games. We're a young team and a lot of those losses have been close games. We're still learning how to win those close games. Once we do that, we' re going to be in really good shape.

One guy who hasn't had any problems is Prince Fielder. I don't think Prince is from this planet. Some of the stuff he does is ridiculous. It's not fair, almost. He goes out and just hits balls really, really hard. And he doesn't lose focus very often.

Rickie Weeks has been hit 12 times already this year, but I don't think we need to get on him. He must have a magnet in his arm and leg. It's partly because pitchers don't want to miss over the plate and partly because he's in close to the plate. When they come in, they're going to come way in. Because if you miss over the plate, there's a really good chance he's going to hit it really hard.

So far, there are no crazy stories to report on here. We're kind of being low key so far, so no wild road trip tales or anything like that. Maybe next journal.

Thanks for all of the emails. Keep them coming.

<b>Tony's Mailbag

Dan writes:</b>
Hi, I've read your goals for this season, and I was wondering what some of your long-term goals were. When do you expect to compete in the Majors?

<b>Tony responds:</b>
That's not really up to me. As long as I do what I have to do, it can't be too long. I can't put a timetable on it, because I don't make that decision. Hopefully, sooner rather than later.

<b>Allen writes:</b>
Living in Beloit, I saw about three- quarters of the home games. I was quite impressed with you and your teammates. I believe the future of the Brewers are in good hands. I saw you hitting quite a bit in the right-center gap. Is this your normal tendency? Also I don't believe people realize how good you are defensively. Where do you see yourself position-wise and batting order-wise with the Brewer future?

<b>Tony responds:</b>
As far as the first part, the right- center gap isn't really where I make my living. Teams think they can get me in. When we face a team early, and they don't really know me, they want to come in. If I'm aware of it, that's where I put the ball. Usually, I'm up the middle to the left-center gap.

For the second part, I see myself in center field, definitely, and hitting No. 1 or 2. I think those would be the ideal spots for me.