CENTER FIELD :: Sox Are Old And Short (But Not Fat)

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Sox Are Old And Short (But Not Fat)

ESPN has a handy-dandy little tool comparing the rosters of all 30 major league baseball teams - from which I must point out that:

1. The Sox are the oldest team in the league, with an average age of 29.8 (Schil, Wake & Timlin)
2. The Sox are fairly short, with an average height of 6'1" (Dustin)

However:

3. The Sox are reporting in at an average of 202 pounds, so at least they're trim.

I'd expect that to go up slightly once the rosters are updated to reflect reporting at Spring Training - Lester weighs 35 pounds more than last year, Buchholz has put on about 20 pounds of muscle, too... although some of that will be offset because Schilling will report in at a significantly smaller weight than last year. I won't even try to hazard a guess what Manny will report in at.

Fattest team in the league? The Yankees - at 217 pounds (Giambi, Chamberlain). The question is: which team has the fattest craniums from the biggest egos swelling their heads?

hat tip to Boston Dirt Dogs with the link

Comments (7)

[ Piney61 ] says:
on February 6, 2008 11:51 AM

could we chant "Fatty Fatty Fat Fat" when the Yankees are in town? I think that could work so much better than "Yankees suck"

Seems like Schill, Wake, Mirabelli and Timlin kind of skew the age of our team. But all four are just as good of a bet to retire next season. So we may be the oldest now, but that's fine. Next season will probably tell a different story.

[ Anonymous ] says:
on February 6, 2008 12:23 PM

I wonder what the average height would be if dustin wasn't averaged in...

[ Texas Gal ] says:
on February 6, 2008 12:24 PM

I think the better question is: what would the average height be if Dustin's REAL height was averaged in?

[ Anonymous ] says:
on February 6, 2008 12:41 PM

probably about 5'10

[ Margaret ] says:
on February 6, 2008 2:41 PM

I think it's really funny because they're always making this huge deal about the young players--you'd think from hearing the fuss that they wouldn't be the oldest team by a long shot.

While they might be old in years... WE ALL KNOW THEY ARE YOUNG AT HEART. (see: Tek dressing up as a pirate)

[ Margaret ] says:
on February 6, 2008 2:59 PM

OK, let me preface by saying: NERD ALERT. SERIOUSLY.

So I broke it down a little further using the 40 man roster. And from a mathematical standpoint, Schilling, Timlin, and Wakefield actually don't skew the numbers at all-- because the age distribution is actually remarkably close to normal.

The median age for the team is 29, with a standard deviation of around 0.87--meaning that that's a pretty solid normal curve.

Also interesting:
Pitchers average age: 29.7, n=20
Catchers: 32, n=3 (inadequate sample, really)
Infielders: 29.6, n=7
Outfielders: 29.2, n=6

So the age is pretty evenly distributed across the depth chart too... with Moss and Ellsbury in the outfield pulling down that average.

(I could pretty easily find out the influence of Dustin if someone gives me his actual height)

Wow. Never again will I wonder why I'm single...

[ Liza ] says:
on February 6, 2008 5:01 PM

I think Dustin's really about 5'7''. He says he's 5-8 "on a good day".

I love that I'm the same height as a pro baseball player...

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