from Amazon
Monday, April 20, 2009
3’2” pinch hitters
A human is a human. Isn’t it sad that I actually have to say it? And isn’t it said that someone has to say this:
Tim Purpura, COO of Minor League Baseball, went as far to indicate that he would have been willing to sign a little person to draw walks if major league baseball would have allowed during his tenure as general manager of the Houston Astros.
As Justin said:
It’s probably mostly just a publicity stunt by an indepedent-league team. But the thing is, I can’t work out any reason to be directly opposed to this idea that isn’t blatantly prejudicial.
Whether it’s Manon Rheaume or Hayley Wickenheiser or Eddie Gaedel or Jackie Robinson, it should be irrelevant.
How good would a player who would only get walks have to be? A walk is worth about +.030 wins and an out is -.027 wins. If you can get a .475 OBP, you’d be a league-average hitter, which, for a guy who can’t field (presumably) would be the replacment-level. If we’re looking for a 1 WAR per 162G (700PA) player as our threshhold, our guy needs to have a .500 OBP. He would be an average player if he could get a .530 OBP.
Seeing that MLB pitchers throw ball 4 on 3-0 counts 35% of the time, I can certainly believe that MLB pitchers may have a tough time with the pin-point control they need.
A short American playing in MLB should be as much a non-story as a tall Chinese playing in the NBA.