• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

Christopher Lee

Consumer Behavior and Marketing

  • Blog
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Contact

Baseball Player Height By Position

By Christopher Lee

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.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. G.C. says

    March 26, 2010 at 9:33 am

    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.

    • Christopher Lee says

      January 9, 2012 at 11:44 pm

      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.

      • Justin M says

        May 5, 2012 at 12:01 pm

        3rd base is usually a more muscle “stocky” posistion

    • Buster says

      September 16, 2014 at 11:07 am

      The chart is excellent except for one big thing. 5 games played at the position. Many teams will sub their middle infield sub for defense. Or because of pitching double switches. This would skew the average height of the third baseman, although minimally.

    • belanger says

      June 17, 2015 at 5:31 pm

      There are many contact third basemen, some are as short as 5’8″.

    • Mark says

      September 5, 2015 at 9:47 pm

      You don’t have to be tall to have power. In baseball, all of your power comes from your legs.

  2. pat carey says

    November 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm

    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?

    • Christopher Lee says

      January 9, 2012 at 11:45 pm

      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.

    • Tyler says

      June 9, 2012 at 12:27 pm

      Christopher, I think when he says height coincides with power he means in a baseball swing not overall strength. The taller you are the longer your legs are and the more extension you can get with your arms. However if you are too tall it can be hard to keep a short precise swing, but that is a different topic

      • Tyler says

        June 9, 2012 at 12:28 pm

        Im sorry. Pat had that comment not Christopher

  3. Sally says

    July 15, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    Well I’m curious to know my husband is 5’9 and I’m 5’3 so I don’t think my son will be too tall but I don’t know.. He plays 1st base and but will he not make the position if he’s too short even though he’s a great player?

    • Christopher Lee says

      August 29, 2013 at 6:46 pm

      Not saying that you can’t succeed at any height. Primarily showing trends/data but there are always exceptions. Great players will play regardless of height. πŸ™‚

    • Bobby says

      October 16, 2013 at 8:29 am

      It’s possible your son may break 6′-0″ but if I am a betting man your son will be under 5′-10″.

  4. basil says

    August 18, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    Great info! My math students (6th) will have fun with these stats during our fall baseball unit.

    • Christopher Lee says

      August 29, 2013 at 6:44 pm

      Awesome! Always fun to bring real life examples (i.e. baseball) to math!

  5. john dillon says

    November 4, 2013 at 1:12 pm

    I was wodering who was the tallest shortstop to ever play up to this date.

  6. Yvonne says

    February 24, 2014 at 1:25 pm

    I’m super late to the party on this thread, but I’m a HUGE fan of numbers and this one pans out just as I’d thought, except for the OFers. CF seems right about where my guess would be, but I thought LF and RF would be much the same, not taller than.

    Those who need “fast feet” seem to be on the shorter side.

    I’m going to go see if I can find your follow up post on performance.

    • Christopher Lee says

      March 10, 2014 at 4:15 pm

      Thanks for the comment, Yvonne! The three outfield positions are close enough where it might not represent any meaningful difference.

  7. handsomerandyblackladbrad1953 says

    May 21, 2014 at 6:49 am

    Let me see…I’m less than two months short of my sixty-first birthday,but were I,say,forty years younger,and my current size (five-eight-and-one-half inches,205 lb.,181/4″ biceps) what would MLB scouts and other talent evaluators think of my build?

  8. David Allen says

    June 23, 2014 at 7:48 pm

    Why do so many starters look to be more like 5 feet 7 or so?

  9. Thomas Belanger says

    August 27, 2015 at 11:57 am

    5’11” on average for 2nd baseman? I was thinking more 5’9″ or 5’10″…

  10. Sam Bowerman says

    December 6, 2016 at 1:04 pm

    Being so late to the discussion, it kind of sucks to add to it. I may be wrong and missing some new influx of smaller players, so do not take what I say as definitive. However, I think the real numbers show that the game has become a bigger man’s playground. After the Eckstein, Punto, and Pedroia years it might be an era where there is no short man in the game besides Altuve. It sucks because so many great short players have not only had an impact on the game, but also made history inside of it. The way scouting works now makes it impossible for a short player to even be signed. There is not much hope for boys that aren’t six feet. Even Pedroia was said to be the best player alive at his age and was not drafted until he proved himself on the biggest college stage at Arizona State. Chris Cates is the most extreme example of a tiny ball player that got a limited chance after a great career at Louisville. It really sucks to say it, but no man that is smaller than six feet tall should ever try at this sport for a career anymore. I hope small men still do in spite of the facts, but it is what it is until someone changes this entire trend of MLB having a biased scouting society based on power potential. They do not care about how good a ballplayer is until their sixty yard dash is elite or their power potential is shown. It is what it is, or ain’t what is should be. What a beautiful world it would be if minor league clubs could sign great athletes outside of their MLB potential. They are driving fans away every year just like the NFL. It is sad. I don’t think anyone talking about it can help much. but why not say what is real.

Trackbacks

  1. Tweets that mention Baseball Player Height By Position β€” Sportsologist - Christopher Lee | Sports Business & Marketing -- Topsy.com says:
    March 25, 2010 at 12:15 am

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sportsologist, msklar and Spring Training Fans, Jana. Jana said: RT @sportsologist: Which baseball position has the tallest players? Baseball Player Height By Position: http://bit.ly/9Reg8t […]

  2. » If you bumped into your favorite player at a sporting goods store? says:
    March 25, 2010 at 2:14 am

    […] Baseball Player Height B&#1091 Position β€” Sportsologist – Christopher Lee | Sports Business … […]

  3. Baseball Player Weight By Position β€” Sportsologist - Christopher Lee | Sports Business & Marketing says:
    March 25, 2010 at 9:39 pm

    […] By PositionBaseball Player Weight By PositionBy Christopher Lee Leave a CommentFollowing up on my post from yesterday regarding average height of baseball players, I wanted to look at the average weight.Β  I posed the […]

  4. What To Wear XIII | Ramblings of Baseball says:
    January 9, 2012 at 8:39 am

    […] listed non-pitcher, by the way, was Richie Sexson at 6’8. For pitchers there is an extension (here’s a nifty chart of MLB height by position). For one, they rarely have to worry about their hitting. If having a long swing is the worst of a […]

  5. 2015: The Year of Carlos Correa? says:
    December 19, 2014 at 11:42 am

    […] size that ultimately might see him outgrow a position that is heavily dependent on agility.  The average height of an MLB player is only 6’1″ and, unsurprisingly, SS is the second – ahem – shortest, on […]

  6. Shrinking the Strike Zone: Could Three Fewer Inches Jump-Start MLB Offense? - Cubs Insider says:
    February 17, 2015 at 6:14 am

    […] to the highly scientific method of estimating the distance with a piece of paper). But the average height of an MLB player is about 6’1″, so these strikes are even lower for them. But that doesn’t seem […]

  7. The 11 Reasons it’s Good to be Short | Todd Greene's Personal Crossroads: Non-Business Ramblings says:
    August 21, 2015 at 11:57 am

    […] strike zones make it more difficult for pitchers, who are typically tall, to throw strikes to short hitters. In fact, read up on Eddie Gaedel, the […]

Copyright © 2021