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Big Unit of Measure
2006-05-16 22:19
by Mike Carminati

What's up with Randy Johnson?

For a pitcher that won the Cy Young four years straight, 1999-2002, and then after an injury-abbreviated season, came back to almost the same peerless level (171 adjusted ERA) in 2003, his Yankee career is getting less memorable all the time.

Last year he did go 17-8 with 3.79 ERA but that was the highest he had recorded in a full season in 15 years. Even though it was 17 points better than the park-adjusted league average (his worst adjusted ERA in 14 seasons). This season, his ERA is almost double what it was before he came to the Yankees (5.13). He's had two starts in ? in which he has failed to get out of the fourth inning and has not finished the seventh since beating the O's 7-1 with eight innings on April 23.

And if that weren't bad enough, his strikeout have been plummeting. After recording at least ten strikeouts per nine innings in every full season from 1991 to 2004(with a high of 13.41 in 2001), he fell to 8.42 Ks per nine innings last year, which should have been a large red flag going into this season. His current rate (6.15) would be the lowest of his 19-year career by a full strikeout per nine innings.

All of this made me wonder if his rapid (apparent) decline had anything to do with his almost freakish height. Maybe by looking at comparable players throughout baseball history, we could have predicted that Johnson was a candidate for career deterioration. But there are only a handful of players that are comparable in stature to the 6'10" Sr. Unit. Then again, maybe a pitcher who was 6'5" in the Twenties would stand out as much.

So what I did was I adjusted the height of all pitchers throughout baseball history based on the average height. I based it on the player's height adjusted for the average height in the year in which he debuted. Those at least one standard deviation above the average height will be the comparable pitchers to Johnson. They are the "Tall" group (type of 1). The ones at least one standard deviation less than average are the "Short" group (type 3). The rest are just "Average" (i.e., type 2, except ones with no reported height, which are type 0).

Given all that, here are the twenty tallest pitchers in baseball history based on adjusted height:

PitcherDebut yrHeightAvg heightStDev heightHt TypeAdj Ht
Jon Rauch20028374.332.121111.66
Johnny Gee19398172.881.781111.14
Randy Johnson19888274.292.051110.38
Chris Young20048274.372.101110.25
Andrew Sisco20058274.382.121110.24
Eric Hillman19928274.392.001110.24
Cy Swaim18977870.812.271110.15
Mike Naymick19398072.881.781109.77
Slim Love19137972.011.891109.71
Gene Conley19528072.972.031109.63
Terry Bross19918174.232.041109.12
Mark Hendrickson20028174.332.121108.97
Gus Yost18937770.742.301108.85
Oscar Streit18997770.922.211108.57
J.R. Richard19718073.832.021108.35
Bob Keating18877670.152.171108.34
Dave Davenport19147872.081.971108.21
John Tener18857670.242.341108.19
Jim Weaver19287872.101.781108.18
Hans Rasmussen19157872.232.031107.98

See, the aptly named Johnny Gee comes out ahead of Johnson even though he is an inch shorter because he played almost seventy years ago when players were, on average, about an inch and one half shorter than today.

Now here are the shortest, headed by another aptly named player:

PitcherDebut yrHeightAvg heightStDev heightHt TypeAdj Ht
Dinty Gearin19236471.951.90388.96
Takahito Nomura20026774.332.12390.13
Kenny Robinson19956774.232.02390.26
Gene Krapp19116571.941.91390.35
Frank Morrissey19016470.752.12390.46
Bill Atkinson19766773.972.11390.58
Bobby Shantz19496672.852.04390.60
Carlos Pascual19506672.822.19390.63
John Doran18916470.442.37390.86
Jose Acosta19206672.262.09391.33
Lee Viau18886470.072.50391.33
Ed McNichol19046571.122.04391.39
Shane Nance20026874.332.12391.48
Huck Wallace19126672.131.92391.50
Dan Sherman19146672.081.97391.56
Danny Boone19816874.232.05391.61
Jay Heard19546773.012.06391.77
Stubby Overmire19436772.961.92391.84
Max Wilson19406772.901.72391.91
Jackie Collum19516772.892.02391.92

Next, I ran the total numbers by height class by age ranges. Below are the results. Note how the "Tall" players take longer to develop, have a shorter by better peak (especially in strikeouts) and then rapidly decline (even in strikeouts). Remind you of anyone?

AgeHt TypePCTERAWHIPK/9IPK/BBHR/9IP% G% IP% W
Under 25NA.472 3.59 1.37 3.58 1.21 0.27 9.71%13.06%12.73%
Under 25Short.498 3.83 1.38 4.83 1.39 0.61 15.65%16.22%16.87%
Under 25Avg.480 3.88 1.38 4.81 1.36 0.63 62.66%59.87%59.73%
Under 25Tall.475 3.91 1.40 4.68 1.32 0.59 11.97%10.85%10.67%
Under 25Total.481 3.84 1.38 4.64 1.35 0.57 100.00%100.00%100.00%
25-29NA.509 3.56 1.35 3.61 1.21 0.36 6.83%9.93%10.13%
25-29Short.500 3.79 1.36 4.93 1.53 0.65 14.65%15.82%15.83%
25-29Avg.500 3.83 1.36 4.73 1.46 0.68 64.86%62.77%62.55%
25-29Tall.508 3.79 1.35 5.01 1.53 0.70 13.66%11.48%11.48%
25-29Total.501 3.79 1.36 4.68 1.46 0.64 100.00%100.00%100.00%
30-34NA.502 3.66 1.34 3.47 1.24 0.45 7.51%10.64%10.53%
30-34Short.516 3.69 1.33 4.78 1.61 0.65 13.87%15.14%15.44%
30-34Avg.509 3.82 1.35 4.59 1.52 0.71 63.69%62.21%61.85%
30-34Tall.524 3.77 1.33 4.95 1.60 0.77 14.93%12.01%12.17%
30-34Total.511 3.78 1.34 4.54 1.51 0.68 100.00%100.00%100.00%
35-38NA.514 3.59 1.34 3.59 1.28 0.53 7.38%9.87%9.92%
35-38Short.524 3.65 1.32 5.04 1.78 0.69 15.39%15.61%15.88%
35-38Avg.517 3.80 1.34 4.62 1.61 0.75 61.52%61.64%61.47%
35-38Tall.513 3.86 1.34 4.85 1.68 0.83 15.71%12.88%12.73%
35-38Total.517 3.76 1.33 4.61 1.62 0.73 100.00%100.00%100.00%
39 or olderNA.513 3.73 1.35 3.33 1.22 0.53 7.76%8.98%8.80%
39 or olderShort.500 3.56 1.29 4.77 1.84 0.62 15.79%16.56%15.97%
39 or olderAvg.515 3.82 1.33 4.79 1.67 0.77 63.53%65.36%66.22%
39 or olderTall.494 3.92 1.36 4.34 1.45 0.83 12.91%9.11%9.01%
39 or olderTotal.510 3.78 1.33 4.62 1.63 0.73 100.00%100.00%100.00%
Comments
2006-05-16 23:30:52
1.   das411
So this Johnny Gee, was he the GIGANTOR of the 1930s?
2006-05-17 05:38:42
2.   Mike Carminati
Gee was the tallest player until Johnson and Eric Hillman. He was, in fact, too tall to be drafted in WWII, which was why the Giants traded for him in 1944.

Here's his NY Times obit: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DC1030F935A15752C0A96E948260

And he is in the Syracuse Hall of Fame for playing with Syracuse Chiefs in the IL and the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philly 76ers) in the BAA/NBA: http://www.syracusehalloffame.com/pages/inductees/1998/johnny_gee.html

And here I thought he was just the inspiration for a Hooters song (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:56rsa9qgb2d0)

2006-05-18 15:19:49
3.   operablogger
Remarkably interesting stats! But is it possible that you meant Camilo Pascual, not "Carlos" Pasqual? He pitched for the Senators in the 1950s and moved with the team to Minnesota, if we're talking about the same guy.
2006-05-19 17:53:23
4.   Mike Carminati
No, Carlos also pitched for the Senators for one year (1950). He's here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pascuca01.shtml

Carlos was 5'6". Camilio was 5'11".

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