Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 11, 2006
Fat Pitchers

Ken Rosenthal makes a point about Humberto Sanchez, whom the Yankees acquired from Detroit Friday:

Sanchez, 23, throws 94-96 MPH with a big curveball and developing changeup, but his weight and durability are concerns. Listed as 6-foot-6, 230 pounds, he has battled a variety of injuries the past two seasons. But he was good enough to start the Futures Game last season, and it's still possible that he could wind up as a middle-of-the-rotation starter.

Ken obviously doesn't read The Hardball Times.

Tall pitchers, we find, are slightly worse-off than short pitchers, and overweight pitchers tend to perform better than their skinny brethren. Given that overweight pitchers also survive for much longer time periods in the major leagues, all else being equal, invest in fat guys. But generally, all else is not equal, in which the case the answer should be obvious: Go for the better ballplayer, always.

Bring on the pounds!


Posted by David Pinto at 12:02 PM | Trades | TrackBack (0)
Comments

How the hell is 6 6 230 overweight? Sure, it's not skinny, but it's no where near fat.

Posted by: Dan at November 11, 2006 01:37 PM

Nevermind, I guess it is a bit chunky, 26.6 is overweight according to BMI. I was just up in arms because I'm 6 3 235, but then again, I'm real fat.

Posted by: Dan at November 11, 2006 01:39 PM

Only in America would we go by numbers and not look at the person. There are a lot of factors that go into your fitness level, ie: bone structure, overall health, genetics, etc. 6'6 and 230 is not fat.

Posted by: Cheryl at November 11, 2006 01:53 PM

did anyone see the all-kruk team on baseball tonight he got like all big guys i couldnt figure out if he was joking or serious the other guys laughed at him he just read of the stats for guys like wickman and sabathia.

Posted by: hotcorner at November 11, 2006 02:36 PM

BMI is a terrible way to determine if someone is fat, because it doesn't take into account muscle.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is fat if you go by BMI.

For an athlete in particular, 6'6 230 is hardly fat. Unless the dude has no muscles to speak of.

Posted by: steve at November 11, 2006 04:51 PM

Right. My formula for predicting weight from height, which is based on a sample of only major league pitchers, shows Sanchez to be about 15 pounds overweight, which isn't very much at all, and could be muscle just as easily as it could be fat. He's not Bartolo Colon (70 pounds overweight) by any stretch of the imagination.

Posted by: David Gassko at November 11, 2006 05:21 PM
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