Team Ht(In) ---- ------ Yankees 74.11 (72.67 with Giambi, IRod and Cabrera) Rays 73.89 (73.66 with Navarro and Longoria) ChiSox 73.78 A's 73.78 Red Sox 73.67 (73.33 with Youkilis) Rangers 73.33 (73.56 with Catalanotto) Twins 73.00 (73.33 with Gomez) Royals 73.00 (72.78 with DeJesus) Indians 72.67 Mariners 72.67 Angels 72.55 Orioles 72.44 (72.11 with Hernandez and Scott) Jays 72.22 Tigers 71.89 (72.11 with Guillen)
The Yankees started an odd lineup on Sunday, with Molina, Sexton and Christian playing instead of IRod, Giambi and Cabrera. That's 13" difference, primarily because Sexton is the tallest hitter in baseball at 6'8". So even though they top this list, they are really middle of the pack. The Tigers are the shortest no matter how you slice it, although the normal starting lineup ties with the Orioles.
Needless to say, David Eckstein is the shortest hitter in baseball at 5'6".
Here they are sorted by starting lineup height (assuming a "normal" starting lineup), and the number of wins.
Team Wins ---- ------ ChiSox 67 A's 55 Rays 72 Rangers 61 Red Sox 70 Twins 67 Royals 54 Yankees 64 Indians 54 Mariners 46 Angels 75 Jays 62 Tigers 58 Orioles 57
Height does not correlate nearly as well in the American League, at only .30.
However, wins are a factor of both hitting and pitching, and these height analyses only focus on the hitters. So how would height correlate with team performance if I gave them all an average pitching staff and calculated their pythagorean wins?
Actually, worse. The correlation b/w the starting lineup height and actual wins for MLB is 0.485 (between the NL and AL correlation figures). The correlation b/w the starting lineup height and wins if you only take offense into account is only 0.408. Still fairly correlative, but not much to go on. :)
