Laroche's weight

by cool hand Charlie on Apr 22, 2007 5:16 PM EDT Comment 4 comments

Upon watching far too much Bucco baseball this season i noticed how much skinnier LaRoche seemed to be than he should be. So i checked his weight and they have him listed at 6'3'' and 185. Is it just me or am i the only one who thinks this is FAR too light for a 1B in today's baseball? He could easily add 40 pounds of muscle and increase his bat speed and HR total. Shouldn't teh pirates encourage him to gain the weight? I couldnt hurt. Not like he's been mashing this year anyway.

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http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/team/roster_active.jsp?c_id=pit

link to the pirates roster where it has him listed at 6'3'' and 185

Beat em Bucs!

by cool hand Charlie on Apr 22, 2007 5:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Bat Speed...

Putting on weight won't necessarily increase bat speed. Often it has exactly the opposite effect.

I think we're all being overreactive in regards to LaRoche. His career pattern is a horrendously slow start followed by a torrid finish. Let's all be patient. At the end of the year his numbers will be there, which means there should be some torrid streaks to come in the summer.

by OmarMoreno18 on Apr 23, 2007 9:12 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

nah

i think you're missing my point. This has ntohing to do with him starting slow, i don't run around yelling that the sky is falling. I realize he'll be fine. This post is about him being 3 inches taller than me and 10 pounds heavier. And I'm a pretty skinny dude. Also, i have no idea where you're getting your correlation of guys not being bigger equaling more power. Jimmy Rollins put on more weight over the summer, look at his nubers? And all those steroid era players put on mass and look what they did. My point is that LaRoche has no business being as skinny as he is, regardless of his slump.

Beat em Bucs!

by cool hand Charlie on Apr 23, 2007 3:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not missing the point...

I just went a little off-tangent and didn't elaborate on what I should have.

Size/strength does not always equal faster bat speed.

I'm not a physicist or biologist (not even close!) but in all sports players have talked about bulking up and losing speed. The added bulk slows down their ability to react quickly. They may ultimately have more power once they "get going", but it takes a longer time to reach that point.

Then there's the whole "quick twitch" muscle thing to factor in. Many "skinny" players -- Eric Davis comes immediately to mind, and even Hank Aaron, who was certainly not an imposing physical specimen -- generated their power by the pure speed they could get the bat through the zone. I don't think either player would have benefitted by adding more bulk; it very well could have hindered their quickness with the bat.

Lots of the steroid meatheads are/were behemoths who mash the ball a mile... if they can hit it. With the increased bulk and better size through science the strikeouts have also increased at an alarming rate. It could be that the players are stronger, but slower, resulting in less contact.

Sounds like a question for Bill Nye the Science Gy to me! :-)

by OmarMoreno18 on Apr 24, 2007 9:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs