The bias toward tall pitchers in the draft has been discussed on this board before, but there's a pretty good illustration of it again in this week's Baseball America draft preview edition.

Out of the top fifty pitcher draft prospects, not a single one is listed below 6 feet tall. And most of them are 6'3" and above.

The second fifty has a total of two guys listed who are five foot something.

I'm no expert, but size still seems to matter a lot in the evaluation of pitchers.

Whether or not size is that closely correlated to success in MLB - well, that is still open to question. But the bias is most certainly present.

The same is true in just about every major team sport. It does not mean a player cannot make it, but it does mean he/she will have to work and persevere.

Size does matter, but not for the reasons you think. It matters because a 5'9 prospect getting a mil and failing looks alot worse then a 6'5 guy getting a mil and failing.

In over 20 years of scouting the highest grade my Dad ever put on anyone was Tim Lincecum and he is 5'nothing, 100 and nothing...9 players went before him in the draft. IMO the hitter will let you know how good a pitcher is.

In addition the pitchers height started to matter more when the mound was lowered following the 1968 season.

quote:

Originally posted by deemax:
Size does matter, but not for the reasons you think. It matters because a 5'9 prospect getting a mil and failing looks alot worse then a 6'5 guy getting a mil and failing.

Great deal of truth there, dm...

quote:

Originally posted by Rob Kremer:
I'm no expert, but size still seems to matter a lot in the evaluation of pitchers.

Whether or not size is that closely correlated to success in MLB - well, that is still open to question. But the bias is most certainly present.

First, height does still seem to matter to a lot of people. Some people think it increases durability (which I would think has been dispelled by the case of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood). Some people think it increases the plane of the pitch (which doesn't make sense since arm slot determines the height of the release point).

Second, I have studied this at some length using the Lahman database looking for correlations between height and different measures of success and have found no correlation.

PM me and I'll send you the study I did.

There are a number of really solid pitchers this year who are a little on the short side. I'm hoping we'll be able to find some bargains.

A personal friend of my son and I was drafted a few years ago and is still in the Pirate organization.
He was told he was drafted in the 14th round but had 7th round ability. The reason was his hieght according to th scout who drafted him. AnothEr scout told him something very similar. He liusts himself at 6'1 but is morE likE 5'11. He demaned and got 7th round money but his height was a factor. His talent has kept him there.