Are You Too Small to be a Great Pitcher?

Height and weight might not be as important in baseball as in other sports, but you’re fooling yourself if you don’t think it matters.

Over the winter, I took my undersized 11U son for pitching lessons, and each time I Venmo’d the instructor $50 for a half-hour session, I couldn’t escape the feeling that I was being taken for a fool P. T. Barnum-style. Yes, my son has an above average arm, rarely walks anybody, and has proven himself to be unflappable in high pressure situations.

But he doesn’t look like a pitcher, and if he winds up playing college ball, it’ll almost surely going to be at another position. So why waste money on pitching lessons?

Size Matters in Youth Baseball, Too

There’s a kid on my son’s 11U club team whose father was an offensive lineman at Penn State. The kid’s huge, both in height and girth. The father once told me that his kid already weighs 180 pounds, amounting to about 90 pounds more than my son.

It’s just not realistic to think my son can throw harder than a kid who’s that much bigger, and he doesn’t. Currently:

• My son tops out at 53
• The lineman’s son can hit 60 plus

My son’s a better pitcher now, but that’s just because he’s accurate. If that lineman’s son ever gets his act together, he’d be hands-down the better option.

Plus, there are other big kids out there who don’t have control issues. We’ve competed against them.

The Depressing Literature on the Importance of Height for Baseball Pitchers

If you ever want to feel down in the dumps, check out what’s been written on the importance of size for pitchers:

In a 2015 article on ESPN, Howard Bryant tell us what we already knew: with extremely rare exceptions, professional baseball players are tall.

In a Bleacher Report story, Zachary Rymer cautions that height doesn’t matter for velocity in MLB pitchers. But read the article, and you’ll see he’s only saying that a 6’11” giant won’t always throw harder than a 6’4″ sort-of giant.

Head over to Fall 2010 Baseball Research Journal for a nerdy statistical inquiry on the subject of height and pitching that includes “p-values” and “r-squares.” But soon you’ll see that the author, Glenn Greenberg, is only studying pitchers that have been drafted by professional teams—you know, the tall ones.

So you can watch Moneyball as much as you want, but the truth is the vast majority of college and professional pitchers are well over six feet tall. Size matters.

But Pedro Martinez was a Short Pitcher

https://youtu.be/tAxHfL-bqUI

Yes, it’s true Pedro Martinez, Hall of Famer, and one of the best pitchers ever, was about 5′ 9″, even though he’s officially listed as 5′ 11″. And Marcus Stroman and Tim Lincecum were also “short” pitcher under six feet.

But these players were clearly outliers, the one-in-a-million bet at the casino. And most college coaches and even high school coaches are going to gravitate toward the kids who “look like pitchers” even if the small kid has better stuff, believing the ceiling for the bigger player is just much higher. They’re also covering their ass, not wanting to deal with the consequences of taking a chance on a kid who doesn’t look like the typical pitcher and having it not work out.

What You Should Do if Your Kid is a Short Pitcher

If your kid loves pitching and he’s good at it, you should obviously let him pitch and even spring for some lessons. Just know that there will likely come a time when he’ll have to transition to another position. If he’s stocky like my kid, you’ll probably have to invest in one of these before too long.

But the good news is you’ll be able to rationalize all the money you spent on pitching lessons by thinking his time on the bump made him a better catcher by giving him insight into the mind of a pitcher.

DO YOU THINK SMALL KIDS SHOULD BE STEERED AWAY FROM PITCHING? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS.

For more on pitching, see:

• What You Need to Know About Little League Elbow
• 4 Ways To Increase Your Kid’s Pitching Velocity
• Is the Circle Change Dangerous for Youth Pitchers?
• Why I Don’t Let My Son Pitch in Little League
• Pitching and Head Injuries: What You Need to Know
• How to Make Sure Your Kid Isn’t Overpitched in Baseball

For information about the emotional side of baseball, see:

• How to Manage Your Kid’s Baseball Tantrums and Meltdowns
• 4 Ways to Respond to a Coach Playing Favorites
• How to Stop Being a Crazy Baseball Dad
• How to Be a Good Baseball Dad in the Backyard
• Is It Now Fashionable to Hate On Baseball Dads?
• Are Local Little Leagues Bad for Baseball?

For information on hitting, see:

• How to Get Out of a Hitting Slump
• 4 Best Baseball Batting Aids (No. 3 is Free)
• 4 Hitting Drills You Need to Do Before Every Game
• 4 Old School Baseball Drills You Need to Be Using
• 6 Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Baseball Bat

For baseball speed drills, see:

• How to Make Your Kid Faster for Baseball