Aaron Judge appears to be a very good baseball player. Judge, who turned 25 last week, leads all of baseball in WAR (2.5) and HR (13) this year. After just 104 plate appearances last year, he's eligible for Rookie of the Year and the definitive leader at this point. And if he keeps this up, he might take home the MVP, as well.
Aaron Judge is also an enormous human being. At 6-7, 282 lb, he is the largest active MLB player. Historically, Judge finds himself in a select group; he ranks fifth all-time in HR for players 6-5, 250 and bigger.
| Player | Height | Weight | HR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adam Dunn | 6-6 | 285 | 462 |
| Frank Howard | 6-7 | 255 | 382 |
| Kyle Banks | 6-6 | 265 | 33 |
| Kennys Vargas | 6-5 | 290 | 26 |
| Aaron Judge | 6-7 | 282 | 17 |
His recent run—six homers in his last six games—launched him ahead of slugger and dirt bike rider, Madison Bumgarner, who has 16 career long balls. Speaking of large pitchers, here is a list of using the same criteria, and then sorted by career WAR.
| Player | Height | Weight | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC Sabathia | 6-6 | 300 | 57.7 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 6-5 | 250 | 25.9 |
| Josh Johnson | 6-7 | 250 | 23.8 |
| Aaron Harang | 6-7 | 260 | 23.5 |
| Chris Young | 6-10 | 255 | 17.5 |
There are only 22 active players—18 pitchers and 4 position players—that are bigger than 6-5, 250. Three of Judge's teammates on the Yankees make the list: Dellin Betances (6-8, 265), Michael Pineda (6-7, 260), and Sabathia (6-6, 300). Other interesting names: Kenley Jansen (6-5, 275), Lance Lynn (6-5, 280) and Lucas Giolito (6-6, 255).
I'm sure the data is hard to verify, but according to Baseball-Reference, the heaviest baseball player ever is CC Sabathia. Demitri Young is a close second at 6-2, 295. The tallest player ever is Jon Rauch (6-11), with Randy Johnson second at 6-10, 225.
Lastly, I have a case of basketball fever with the NBA playoffs in full swing. So, I matched a NBA player with a baseball player of the same size.
| NBA | Height | Weight | MLB |
|---|---|---|---|
| LeBron James | 6-8 | 250 | Giancarlo Stanton |
| Kawhi Leonard | 6-7 | 230 | Chris Carpenter |
| Michael Jordan | 6-6 | 195 | Darryl Strawberry |
| James Harden | 6-5 | 220 | Yu Darvish |
| Steph Curry | 6-3 | 190 | Kyle Hendricks |
| Isaiah Thomas | 5-9 | 185 | Kolten Wong |
| Muggsy Bogues | 5-3 | 136 | Yo-Yo Davalillo |
Baseball is here! And more importantly, that means the over/under game is back. It seems as though everyone is an expert this time of year. Somehow we convince ourselves that we are better at predicting baseball outcomes than everyone else. Well, AFITB is putting that to the test for the third year in a row. Think you know more about baseball than us? You probably do. But go ahead and prove it anyway.