ABS and shrinkage

[Frayed Knot]

No, not the Seinfeldian definition of shrinkage*, but actual physical height shrinkage due to the debut -- Opens This Week at a ballpark near you!! -- of the Automatic Ball/Strike system (ABS).

So since the size of home plate never changes (even when the other three bases grew a few years back) the tricky part of balls and strikes has long been the upper and lower limits. ABS 'solves' this by placing those limits at fixed percentages of each player's height. To do this, of course, you need a uniform way of measuring everyone and that's where there's a new sheriff in town since, obviously, individual teams can't be trusted to be their own arbiters. 

The new process run by MLB has strict guidelines: no shoes, no hats, knees exposed, heels together, back against the wall, no slouching. Players are even required to be measured between 10 AM and noon on their scheduled day so as to rule out any normal shrinkage during the day (you are shorter at night than in the morning).

 

So meet the initial poster boy for all this: infielder Gavin Lux and note the difference between his 2025 Cincinnati Reds official bio and his new one with Tampa Bay

 

Severals other players have dropped multiple inches as well.

 

 

* As far as I know, MLB does not measure this particular part of the anatomy although it wouldn't surprise me if this is an actual, though rarely talked about, part of the NFL combine.

 

 

 

[Edgy MD]

Gavin Lux has been downgraded to Gavin Premium.

And he is starting to approach Gavin Affordable.

[metirish]

Players are even required to be measured between 10 AM and noon on their scheduled day so as to rule out any normal shrinkage during the day (you are shorter at night than in the morning

 

I didn't know this, sux for Lux , I'm guessing we will see many players not the height they had listed previously 

[whippoorwill]

wow they think of everything, don't they

[Centerfield]

2 hours ago, Edgy MD said:

Gavin Lux has been downgraded to Gavin Premium.

And he is starting to approach Gavin Affordable.

Stuff like this is why GCM was created 

[Frayed Knot]

4 hours ago, metirish said:

Players are even required to be measured between 10 AM and noon on their scheduled day so as to rule out any normal shrinkage during the day (you are shorter at night than in the morning)

 

I didn't know this,  

The cartilage 'discs' between each vertebrae get pounded thinner by our daily walking and other activities. They then return to normal as we sleep but just 1/16th of an inch thinner per disc can add up to a full inch reduction in height from AM to PM.

At some point they stop bouncing back as readily which is why (well, one reason anyway) we also get shorter as we age.

 

Quote

wow they think of everything, don't they

Well if they didn't, then surely the clubs would think of ways to give their hitter smaller strike zones.

So if Aaron Judge is suddenly listed at 6' 1" we'll know something is rotten and not only in Denmark.

 

[Frayed Knot]

On 3/22/2026 at 8:44 AM, Frayed Knot said:

So since the size of home plate never changes (even when the other three bases grew a few years back) the tricky part of balls and strikes has long been the upper and lower limits. ABS 'solves' this by placing those limits at fixed percentages of each player's height.

Those percentages, btw, are 27% of your height for the lower limit of your zone and 53.5% (not 53%, 53.5 !!) for the upper. Considering how general and fluid the definition of the zone has been over the years it's certainly a change to see things written out so specifically.  

So if you want to discover your personal strike zone and you have a tape measure handy ... go nuts!

My lower limit is right across my patella bones (knee caps) with the upper surprisingly below where I thought, essentially right at the waist button of my jeans, considerably lower than I assumed it would be.

[Edgy MD]

I'm not necessarily down with the percentages.  The ratio of leg length to torso length is widely varied.

[Frayed Knot]

As I mentioned in another thread about Hack Wilson.

[Edgy MD]

And then there's Walt Williams.

[metirish]