I was at a spring training game a few days ago and had an interesting conversation with my dad regarding average height of position players. We guessed that middle infielders (shortstop and second basemen) are the shortest players on the field. Being a numbers guy though I wanted to know for sure. I looked at all MLB players since 1960 who played at least 5 games at a position. Thus, if a player played 5 or more games at multiple positions, he was counted at each position. Which position has the tallest players on the field? Pitchers. Which position has the shorts players? 2B.
The average height of MLB players is just over 6’1″. The difference between the tallest players (pitchers) and shortest players (2B) is three inches which relatively seems like quite a bit. With that in mind, I’ll analyze performance based on height in a post tomorrow, in addition to looking at positions by weight. Does the graph show what you expected? What other ways can you look at height within baseball?
Thanks to Sean Lahman’s Baseball1.com database for the information.
What's most interesting to me are the results at 3B. The corners are traditionallly power positions yet 3B employs the shortest average height of any position other than 2B and SS. Since height often coincides with power, I am a bit suprised that 3B ranks so low.
Interesting data as always.
Thanks for the comment, G.C. There are a lot of variables beyond height that determine the success of a particular position but I still found the data to be interesting.
3rd base is usually a more muscle “stocky” posistion
I have to disagree with G.C. in that height has very little to do with power. if that was the case, wouldn’t tall people be the most dominate olympic lifters?
Good point, Pat. My guess (that could be checked with the data) is there is a relationship between height/weight and power. Like you suggest, not all tall people have power, so weight is another variable to consider.