Yankees Rookie Aaron Judge Has History to Overcome: His Height
Yankees Rookie Aaron Judge Has History to Overcome: His Height
Only 11 big-league position players at least 6-foot-7 have ever taken the field, and it’s no coincidence. Baseball isn’t kind to the very tall.
By: Jared Diamond
Updated Aug. 22, 2016 7:32 p.m. ET
When Aaron Judge arrived for his freshman season at Fresno State, Bulldogs pitching coach Steve Rousey all but begged him to pitch for the team. Rousey couldn’t help but drool at the thought of college hitters cowering in the batter’s box as a hulking behemoth fired a steady stream of mid-90s fastballs at them.
Mike Batesole, Fresno State’s head coach, disagreed. He’d spent a little time with Judge in the batting cage, and it had settled the matter in his mind: Judge belonged at the plate with a bat in his hands—all 6-foot-7 of him.
“If [Rousey] were the head coach and I were the assistant coach, he’d probably be pitching in the major leagues right now,” Batesole said of Judge.
In any case, Batesole’s plan worked: Judge, now an outfielder widely considered one of baseball’s best prospects, made his debut for the youth-crazed Yankees earlier this month and immediately demonstrated why Batesole curtailed his pitching career. In just seven career games, Judge entered Monday night’s matchup against the Seattle Mariners hitting .308 (8-for-26) with two home runs, quickly demonstrating why the Yankees consider him a star in the making.
But for that to happen, Judge will need to overcome—quite literally—one enormous obstacle: his height.
Other than Judge, only 10 position players in major-league history have stood 6-foot-7 or taller, according to Stats LLC, and none have been taller than 6-foot-8. Six of the 10 lasted fewer than 200 big-league games. Only three managed to compile more than 307 career hits: former Yankees and Mets first baseman Tony Clark, two-time All-Star Richie Sexson, and Frank Howard, who averaged 32 home runs a year from 1962 through 1971, making him the ideal—maybe even the only—model for Judge.
Baseball history is full of successful pitchers who stood Judge’s height and even taller. Why have the biggest position players struggled so much?
“When you’re that big, there are a lot more holes,” Batesole said. “There’s a lot more ways pitchers can take advantage of you, and it shows up the higher level you go, because guys can throw it where they want to.”
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For starters, baseball struggles to compete with other sports when it comes to attracting tall athletes, since they don’t have any inherent competitive advantage. As Yankees manager Joe Girardi surmised, “maybe football and basketball steal them from us.”
‘It is widely assumed, if not widely accepted, that hitting a baseball is one of the most difficult things you’re going to do in any sport. At that size, there are more challenges than if you are a foot shorter.’
—Tony Clark
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The 6-foot-7-inch Clark, who now serves as the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, knows that as well as anybody. His first love was basketball, and he excelled at the University of Arizona and San Diego State. He played minor-league baseball in the summers, but he didn’t turn his focus to baseball until a back injury derailed his NBA dreams. “Guys that size often find themselves gravitating toward the hardwood and not the baseball field,” he said.
Judge never felt that draw, despite a 275-pound frame that Girardi said resembles that of “an NFL defensive end.” Batesole said he “could probably play tight end in the NFL.” But Judge said he “fell in love with the game of baseball” at a young age, and nobody tried to convince him otherwise.
“My parents always wanted me to go out there and have fun,” Judge said. “They didn’t care what sport it was—football, basketball, baseball. It could have been soccer. They really didn’t care. They just wanted me to go out there and enjoy it.”
As it happened, the sport he chose has been extremely unforgiving to players his size—at least in the batter’s box. After all, there have been 126 pitchers in MLB history listed at 6-foot-7 or taller, a group headlined by Hall-of-Famer Randy Johnson, who stands 6-foot-10.
Loooong Odds
Before Aaron Judge, only 10 MLB position players at least 6-foot-7 had ever taken the field.
PLAYER HEIGHT YEARS GAMES HITS HRS BA
Frank Howard* 6-7 1958-73 1,895 1774 382 .273
Tony Clark* 6-7 1995-2009 1,559 1188 251 .262
Richie Sexson* 6-8 1997-2008 1,367 1286 306 .261
Walt Bond 6-7 1960-67 365 307 41 .256
Ron Jackson 6-7 1954-60 196 116 17 .245
Ryan Minor 6-7 1998-2001 142 56 5 .177
Damon Minor 6-7 2000-04 136 66 13 .232
Nate Freiman 6-8 2013-14 116 71 9 .256
Bill Davis 6-7 1965-69 64 19 1 .181
Desi Wilson 6-7 1996 41 32 2 .271
Source: Stats, LLC *All-Star WSJ
This suggests that somewhere along the line, tall baseball players are pushed away from hitting and toward pitching. Judge was asked to pitch all through high school, in part because at his size, he simply threw harder than the other kids. A taller pitcher’s long reach also shortens the distance between his release point and the batter, making each pitch appear faster than it actually is.
Clark, who also pitched in high school, said that coaches look for tall pitchers “because of the leverage they can create on the mound.” A .262 career hitter in 15 seasons, Clark also acknowledged that hitting is more difficult for the tallest players because it requires extra work “to have all your appendages connected in a fashion that allows you to be consistent.”
“It is widely assumed, if not widely accepted, that hitting a baseball is one of the most difficult things you’re going to do in any sport,” Clark said. “At that size, there are more challenges than if you are a foot shorter.”
Batesole coached a player even taller than Judge: the 6-foot-8 Doug Fister, who transferred to Fresno State after being drafted by the San Francisco Giants as a first baseman. Very quickly, Batesole realized that Fister’s height “would work to his disadvantage” because, among other things, his long arms and legs made it difficult to maintain his mechanics.
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"It's all about just trying to simplify the game and simplify
your mechanics and all your moves."
~Aaron Judge
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Fister was converted into a pitcher, and has gone on to post a winning record in an eight-year major-league career spanning more than 1,200 innings. “It was real interesting to have both those guys and to see one go one way and one go the other,” Batesole said.
To this point, Judge has avoided the pitfalls in large part because of his overwhelming athleticism. In college, he even played center field, a position that requires speed and range. But he isn’t immune to the issues tall hitters face. His swing can get long at times, leading to lots of swings and misses. In the minors, he struck out once every 3.5 at-bats, including 144 times last season. Being so tall also means Judge has a huge strike zone, which benefits the pitcher.
But Judge is confident that he can defy history by ignoring it. In his mind, hitting is hard—whether you’re 6-foot-7 or 5-foot-7.
“I think it’s difficult for anybody,” he said. “It’s all about just trying to simplify the game and simplify your mechanics and all your moves.”
Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com
Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/yankees-rookie-aaron-judge-looks-to-hit-new-heights-1471907473
