Benny Sieu and Rick Osentoski-Imagn Pictures
Like most individuals with an MLB.television account and no critical duties, I spent a big portion of Wednesday afternoon watching the Pirates-Brewers recreation. This midweek businesspersons’ particular featured one of the hotly anticipated beginning pitching matchups of the season to date: Paul scenes vs. Jacob Misiorowski.
Skenes, as you already know, possesses such electrifying expertise it grew to become attainable for a Pittsburgh Pirate to turn into one of the well-known ballplayers within the league. Misiorowski is simply three begins into his large league profession, however already his prodigious fastball velocity has made him a hipster favourite in baseball circles. Skenesian mainstream movie star is bound to comply with.
As a pure pitchers duel, I’ve seen higher. Misiorowski struck out eight and allowed solely 4 baserunners over 5 scoreless innings, however Skenes bumped into bother within the second inning. He allowed 4 runs and threw 37 pitches within the body; that final quantity left him unable to finish 5 innings for simply the third time in 40 profession begins. The 2 earlier cases had been his first and final appearances of 2024; in each circumstances, he was on a pitch rely, so one may argue that this four-run, four-inning efficiency was the worst of Skenes’ profession.
Which is fairly unbelievable; that is additionally solely the third time Skenes allowed greater than three runs in a significant league begin. He’s by no means allowed greater than 5 earned runs in a pitching look, at the least not in his time as knowledgeable, nor in three seasons in school, nor within the Cape Cod League or in two stints with the collegiate nationwide staff. And that’s way back to I can discover stats.
Anyway, even with Skenes getting crushed (by his requirements), it was fairly the present.
There have been 20 pitches on this recreation clocked at a good 100 mph or sooner (19 for Misiorowski, one for Skenes). And since the Brewers introduced in Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill in aid of their starter, the warmth didn’t dissipate even a bit after Misiorowski’s departure. Right here’s the share of Milwaukee’s pitches on Wednesday that hit varied velocity thresholds.
Normally When the Brewers Carry This A lot Warmth,
All You Get Is Heat Beer
Velo Threshold (mph)
No. of Pitches
% of Pitches Over
Rank in Pitch Monitoring Period
100
19
14.07%
51st
99
35
25.93%
fortieth
98
49
36.30%
77th
97
61
45.19%
T-119th
96
67
49.63%
T-299th
SOURCE: Baseball Savant
And don’t scoff on the Brewers having solely the 51st-highest proportion of pitches at or over 100 mph; that is out of all the pitch monitoring period, courting again to 2008, postseason included. All informed, that’s 51st out of greater than 83,000 video games. Additionally, three of these pitches that got here in at 96-plus had been sliders. You see why persons are so enthusiastic about Misiorowski.
As impressed as I used to be with this show of firepower, awe at the way forward for pitching was not my main takeaway. No, watching Skenes and Misiorowski do battle made me really feel uneasy.
See, these guys are big. Misiorowski is 6-foot-7, however at the least he has the courtesy to be skinny. His best-in-baseball launch extension comes from a construct I’d evaluate to an invasive vine. He’s longer than a timeshare presentation, or the ethical arc of the universe. Skenes, “solely” 6-foot-6, is large in all dimensions. On paper, he has upwards of 60 kilos on Miz, and his NFL left sort out body may in all probability carry much more if he chooses to comply with the indestructible dad bod archetype. He appears like somebody zoomed in too far on him, like J.R. Richard or Aaron Barang.
That is too large. Each of them. The trendy baseball discipline was designed for Scots-Irish immigrants with dangerous childhood diet and kidney illness. When 5-foot-11 Honus Wagner was the largest, strongest participant within the league. For those who informed the founding fathers of baseball that at some point ballplayers would get so large they couldn’t borrow pants from Dave Bautista… properly initially, I suppose you’d have to elucidate Dave Bautista to Abner Doubleday and Alexander Cartwright. You get my level.
At one level through the broadcast, the announcers (I imagine it was the Milwaukee feed, however to be trustworthy I don’t bear in mind which stream I picked) had been musing out loud about whether or not this was the tallest beginning pitching matchup in historical past, or near it.
A good query, given the mass and quantity of the 2 protagonists. Skenes and Misiorowski are actually giants by regular requirements, and greater than most main league pitchers. However issues can get even larger.
There are 11 pitchers in main league historical past who’re listed at 6-foot-9 or taller, and began at the least one recreation. Each single one among them — together with Sean Hjellewho has precisely one begin in his profession — has confronted an opposing starter listed at 6-foot-6 or taller.
The Tallest Beginning Pitchers in Main League Historical past
(I’ll pause right here to precise my immense gratitude to Jon Becker, who labored some database magic that saved me an quantity of labor that may’ve made this put up — which is mainly a bit — extraordinarily not well worth the effort. And on his first day as a full-time FanGraphs worker, no much less! Give the person a promotion!)
As common well being and diet requirements have improved, folks have gotten larger. The inhabitants base {of professional} baseball has grown over time, not simply because the U.S. has grown, however as the sport has unfold throughout the globe over greater than a century. And as coaching requirements improved, individuals who would possibly beforehand have been thought of too tall for baseball have managed to show into main league-quality ballplayers.
The primary 6-foot-7 large league starter was Detroit Tigers hurler Slim Lovewhich can also be the title of my debut R&B report. Love, who debuted in 1913, is one among simply 9 pre-World Struggle II beginning pitchers listed at 6-foot-6 or taller. (4 of them glided by Slim; one other glided by Huge Jim. Maybe baseball nicknames weren’t fairly so creative again then.)
Some 262 starters listed at 6-foot-6 or taller have debuted because the finish of World Struggle II. (Or at the least, because the 1946 season.) Of these, 179 pitched into the twenty first Century and 66 are nonetheless energetic now.
Meaning the super-tall guys have had a chance to run into one another. Two of the 6-foot-9 pitchers — Jeff Niemann and Mark Hendrickson — confronted one another, in order that goes over Skenes and Misiorowski by 5 mixed inches, proper off the bat. That’s not solely the tallest matchup of two starters of the identical peak; it’s additionally tied for the tallest matchup of all time.
The Tallest Beginning Pitcher Matchups of All Time
Date
Pitcher 1
Workforce
Peak
Pitcher 2
Workforce
Peak
Mixed Peak
5/27/2005
Chris Younger
TEX
6-foot-10
Brandon McCarthy
CHW
6-foot-8
13-foot-6
5/15/2007
Randy Johnson
ARI
6-foot-10
Jason Hirsh
COL
6-foot-8
13-foot-6
6/8/2009
Randy Johnson
SFG
6-foot-10
Sean West
FLA
6-foot-8
13-foot-6
9/28/2009
Mark Hendrickson
BAL
6-foot-9
Jeff Niemann
TBR
6-foot-9
13-foot-6
There’s a 28-way tie for second place, together with 4 matchups between Johnson and Ben McDonaldwho’s in all probability the one individual I’ve ever been stunned to study was solely 6-foot-7. He appears method taller. Possibly it’s the flat prime.
“Ought to I run the shortest?” Jon requested after delivering these outcomes. Sure. Clearly.
Our database, with peak and weight information, solely goes again to 1974. That covers all of the tall guys, however clearly misses the nice outdated days, when ballplayers — even pitchers — had been consumptive little Hobbits. A Stathead search reveals not one however three 5-foot-4 starters because the founding of the American League in 1901, and a few of these guys had been fairly good. Bobby Shantzall of 5-foot-6, gained AL MVP in 1952, which is properly into the trendy period.
However up to now 50 years, Marcus Stroman is the most effective we’ve bought.
The Shortest Beginning Pitcher Matchups Since 1974
Date
Pitcher 1
Workforce
Peak
Pitcher 2
Workforce
Peak
Mixed Peak
8/23/2017
Marcus Stroman
TOR
5-foot-7
Austin Pruitt
TBR
5-foot-10
11-foot-5
4/1/2018
Sonny Grey
NYY 5-Foot-10 Marcus Stroman Tor 5-Foot-7 11-Foot-5 8/9/2022
Paolo Espino
WSN
5-foot-10
Marcus Stroman
CHC
5-foot-7
11-foot-5
6/18/1978
Silvio Martinez
STL
5-foot-10
Fred Norman
CIN
5-foot-8
11-foot-6
9/9/1980
Doug Capilla
CHC
5-foot-8
Silvio Martinez
STL
5-foot-10
11-foot-6
8/7/2016
Yordano Ventura
KCR
5-foot-11
Marcus Stroman
TOR
5-foot-7
11-foot-6
5/26/2019
Robbie Erlin
SDP
5-foot-11
Marcus Stroman
TOR
5-foot-7
11-foot-6
7/4/2021
Marcus Stroman
NYM
5-foot-7
Nestor Cortes
Nyy 5-Foot-11 11-Foot-6
If something, this listing illustrates how large trendy athletes are. If Jon and I confronted off in a significant league recreation, we’d truly be the shortest pair of starters within the database by an inch. Stroman is one among solely two energetic pitchers (together with Yuki Matsui) whose listed peak is shorter than 5-foot-9, which is common for an grownup American man.
And you already know what? Matsui isn’t American; the typical grownup Japanese man is barely 5-foot-7, so the 5-foot-8 Matsui is taller than common whenever you account for his nation of origin.
Having examined the 2 extremes, there’s just one factor left to do: Take a look at the most effective odd couple moments. There are few issues on Earth I discover funnier than photos of tall folks subsequent to photos of brief folks.
In 2017, earlier than an Astros-Yankees recreation, I used to be consuming lunch within the press eating room with an area author. His paper’s photographer got here as much as our desk and requested if there was something particular he needed a photograph of that afternoon.
“For those who don’t get anything,” he stated. “Get an image of Aaron Choose standing subsequent to Jose Altuve.”
It didn’t disappoint.
The highest two finishers within the 2017 AL MVP race are separated by 13 inches, which might make them one of many three oddest beginning pitcher {couples} since 1974. In the event that they had been pitchers, which, in fact, they’re not. However Meyer and Stroman are.
Best Peak Variations in Beginning Pitcher Matchups Since 1974
Date
Pitcher 1
Workforce
Peak
Pitcher 2
Workforce
Peak
Peak Distinction (in.)
9/18/2016
Alex Meyer
LAA
6-foot-9
Marcus Stroman
TOR
5-foot-7
14
8/10/2002
Randy Johnson
ARI
6-foot-10
Michael Tejera
FLA
5-foot-9
13
8/1/2016
Doug Fister
HOU
6-foot-8
Marcus Stroman
TOR
5-foot-7
13
Even with a little bit of a renaissance in 6-foot-8-and-taller pitchers, there are solely 19 video games since 1974 with a beginning pitcher peak distinction of 12 inches or extra. And that features quite a lot of repeats: Two Stroman-Mike Pelfrey matchups, two Randy Johnson-Mike Hampton matchups, two Chris Younger-Sonny Grey matchups, and three Johnson-Dennis jumps matchups. Once more, you actually see the paucity of actually brief pitchers coming via right here.
I’d be extra keen to just accept these titans, with their 100-mph fastballs and searing sliders, in the event that they bought assigned a brief pitcher buddy. The Huge Unit confronted Tom Gordon as soon as; that’s the type of factor I’m speaking about. If we’re going to reside in an age of giants, we would as properly have some enjoyable with it.
