Wrote about this here previously regarding Jesus Montero.

It’s important to note it in this Mike Stanton debate, I think, given that Stanton is extremely tall for a righty hitter. This analysis would also suggest that his K-rate is not coming down with experience.

I remember a long talk with Blue Jays scout Kimball Crossley at the Arizona Fall League a few years back when he told me when I was gawking at 6-6 John Mayberry Jr. hit bombs that Mayberry was unlikely to make it because he was a tall righty. The theory goes that tall righties have long swings necessarily and are typically at a platoon disadvantage. Many righties are hard throwers. So these tall righty hitters have too much trouble turning on fastballs.

Tall lefty hitters can make it more easily because they most often have the platoon advantage and fewer lefties throw hard by major league standards.

Let’s put the numbers to the test using Baseball Reference’s great Player and Pitcher Finder. Since 1990, there have been just 13 righties 6-4 or taller who had a .900 or better OPS (43 seasons). During this time 26 hitters that tall or more have had enough at bats to at least qualify for a batting title one year.

In the same time, there have been 12 lefties even though righty hitters outnumber lefty hitters by about 2-to-1. During this time, 28 lefties this tall have at least had one season where they get enough ABs to qualify for a batting title.

It’s not like there aren’t tall baseball players. I found 622 individual seasons for pitchers qualifying for an ERA title during this period (IOW, not including relievers). If we include reliever seasons of at least 60 appearances, that number rises to 1,029 (too many to count individual players). This compares to just 278 tall hitter seasons (both lefty and righty, qualifying for a batting title irrespective of OPS) during the same 1990-2010 period. So, back of the napkin, there are about four tall (6-foot-4 or more) pitchers for every hitter. Hitters do seem to be hurt by height.