The new ABS system is "shrinking" players

[ghostrunner]

This is pretty funny. They're being strict about height measurements for ABS because the zone is based on it.



This was covered in the other thread some, but some more details about the process here:

https://www.mlb.com/news/brewers-get-me ... nge-system

[Mary1966]

Players lying about their height? Wonder what it says about a player like José Altuve? Sonny Gray doesn’t bat so he’s safe in claiming to be 5’ 10”.

[cardinalkarp]

I thought it was always known that players fudge their height/weight.

[ghostrunner]

Sure, but I think it's interesting to see how much and who was and wasn't. I wouldn't have guessed 3 inches, unless this is just without cleats vs with.

Hadn't thought pitchers, but I'd assume they measure everyone just in case they have to bat for some reason.

[CardsofSTL]

I think they would go ahead and measure pitchers; because you can't just measure one on the fly if they happen to hit in one of those weird situations where the DH is forfeited, etc.

[Popeye_Card]

Looks like they also adjusted the aspect ratio on Gavin Lux's photo to shrink him down a few inches.

[obucard]

I thought it was always known that players fudge their height/weight.

I thought the same thing.

[TGantz]

I think it's an advantage early in careers to fudge their height/weight when they are mostly just a written name in a scouts notebook. A person like Altuve might not get a chance on paper with his real height listed. Then they're stuck living a lie for their careers.

[ghostrunner]

Actually seems like Altuve has stayed the same. It’s the first one I checked after seeing the above examples. Says 5’6” and I think he’s always been listed that way, though I saw some early articles said he was 5’7”

And apparently Ohtani has now had an inch added. 6’3” to 6’4”

I don’t think anyone doubted there were exaggerated heights listed. Pretty common thing for actors to misrepresent their heights too from what I understand. The point is just that the new numbers have to be accurate.