The Padres have claimed former Orioles “first baseman” Walter Young off waivers. Young is listed at 6′5″, 322 lbs. Yes, you read that right. According to the recently released Lahman Database v. 5.3 (hat tip to Baseball Musings for the reminder on that), Young is the heaviest man ever to play big-league baseball. For the curious among you, here are the top 10:
- Walter Young, 6′5″, 322 lbs.
- Jumbo Brown, 6′4″, 295
- Calvin Pickering, 6′5″, 275
- Andrew Sisco, 6′10″, 270
- Bobby Jenks, 6′3″, 270
- Jeff Juden, 6′8″, 270
- Prince Fielder, 6′0″, 265
- Joey Meyer, 6′3″, 260
- Garland Buckeye, 6′0″, 260
- Steve Rain, 6′6″, 260
Here’s a picture of Young in action (jnevitt.com). Presumably he’ll be battling the likes of Tagg Bozied, Jack Cust, Jon Knott, Greg Sain, and Corey Smith for DH time at Portland.
Ducksnorts Meetup
Pat had an excellent suggestion in the comments the other day. We’re talking about getting together at a USD game sometime in February or March. Check out the schedule and let us know what works for you. Some possibilities include March 11-12 vs SDSU, March 25-26 vs UNLV, or March 31-April 1 vs St. Mary’s. Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Things I’m Pimping
- Ducksnorts: Best of 2005. Take a look back at the season that was. Comment spammers love this entry, so you know it’s good. Free, donations accepted.
- Ducksnorts Online Store. Caps and tees.
- Ducksnorts @ Frappr.com. Add yourself to the Ducksnorts map. Post pix. Free.
- Mental Shrapnel. My music blog. Free, but it may bore you to tears.
Other Stuff
- National League Hot Stove grades (SI.com). John Donovan grades the Padres at C, which seems about right to me. I love how he drops four names when talking about the bullpen but completely misses Scott Linebrink.
- Good with the bad (SI.com). Alex Belth (hey, he’s writing for SI.com – good for him!) lists the Friars’ re-signing of Brian Giles as the best move of this off-season. He puts the Mark Loretta giveaway at #3 on his list of bad moves and the Xavier Nady/Mike Cameron deal at #4 (from the Mets’ perspective).
- Gaslamp Ball meets the Oregon Trail. You can’t teach this kind of funny. Man, I wish I could come up with stuff like this, but instead I give you lists of the heaviest players in big-league history. Anyway, don’t be drinking anything when you read this one.
There you go. Happy weekend and all that.
26 Comments
How does Papa Fielder not make that list? BR lists him at 240. Yeah, right. And they list Mo Vaughn at 230. Someone’s scale is broken.
Speaking of broken, Donovan actually gave the Padres a grade of B. My bad…
From Steve Scholfield’s column in this morning’s North County Times:
“‘We have added some great character guys, something we really lacked,’ Towers said of his ‘05 team….’I have heard nothing but good things about Mike Cameron; he’s a good guy to have in the locker room.’
Towers is pleased that many of the new additions are proven winners, citing third baseman Vinny Castilla, catcher Doug Mirabelli and second baseman Mark Bellhorn.
‘Castilla, Mirabelli and Bellhorn have been on championship ballclubs before and know how to win.’”
See, this is why analysis doesn’t work. Rely on it and you’d never have brought in Castilla or Mirabelli. Ya’ gotta think about “character” and “knowing how to win.” Stupid analysis.
Help us.
Here’s the link:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/20/sports/scholfield/22_07_031_19_06.txt
dprat: Analysis isn’t pretty.
So, with a bunch of minor league and backup catchers heading into Peoria, which would you feel more comfortable with:
Signing Bengie Molina for 1yr deal @ $4-5 million
or
Signing Mike Piazza (from Team Italia) to a minor league deal with incentives up to 2.5 million and the understanding that he’ll catch half your games?
Billy Beane’s opinion on character:
“The first reason our clubhouse has been a good environment is that they’ve been able to come off the field with a lot of wins. That always helps the clubhouse. The personalities have changed dramatically over the years going back to 99. ”
compliments of AthleticsNation.com
Pat:
I agree. Fielder had to be at least 270 at the end of his career. Prince is pretty big too — what’s he listed at?
And as for the “hit dog” — one of my buddies who’s a Mets fan once saw him come out of White Castle with 2 huge bags of sliders (mini-burgers). ‘Nuff said.
Vaughn had to be over three bills at one point. Hell, he probably is.
I like the Young signing from a pure baseball standpoint; it doesn’t hurt that I wouldn’t be the heaviest player in the Padres system were I a player in the Padres system anymore either.
By quittin’ time, Mo Vaughn looked as though he’d eaten the entire cast of “The West Wing”. I’m sure he topped out at over 300. 230? Maybe naked, starved for two weeks, with one foot on the floor.
jesse: I’d take Benji just for the reliability and lower likelihood of complete breakdown. I’m in the chemistry = winning camp along with Beane.
Nick: Prince came in at #7 above, weighing in at 265.
I’m not sure where the weights come from; it might be what they were listed at when they made their debut? For instance, Damian Jackson is given as 160 lbs (about half of Young) in Lahman, but a whopping 185 lbs in places like BJ Handbook and ESPN.com.
There’s a handbook for it now?
Geez, Tom…
I saw #4 Sisco pitch against the Eugene Emeralds … he was one BIG boy …
And if you at all in to HUGE WASTES of time, this is fun … http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html … I got to 25 seconds …
Apparently, Young’s nickname is “The Waltrus.” I don’t know if anybody calls him that, but I am going to.
His hitting music could be “I am the Walrus.”
All right LynchMob, no more posting of stupid web sites…I just wasted 20 minutes on the square site. Best score 30.418. Back to work
Damn, that’s evil. I can’t seem to get past 16 sec.
I LOVE the Walter signing. He should have gotten a shot last season.
Struggling to come up with other, erm, poundage-challenged Padres from the past. Fernando (aka Fatnando)…
See you got some comment spam. Got an infestation on my other blogs, so had to make people sign up to comment. Its a shame.
But hey, did you all catch the article in the UT Sat about the 42 Iranian hostages and what major league baseball did when they got home? Thats right, a card that lets them into any major or minor league game for the rest of thier lives (plus eight freinds). Neat, neat story if you can catch it.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060121/news_1n21ballpass.html
I admit to tearing up reading this account about how the hostages used the free pass to heal from their terrible 444 day ordeal.
Spam gone. Usually I catch that junk before you see it. Thanks for the article. Good stuff.
Yeah, what a great gift from MLB. Imagine going to any game you like. Of course, call ahead first, some teams might not understand. Of course, wouldn’t want to do 444 days as a hostage in Iran and go thru several mock execution to get a pass. But if I ever do something heroic (not likely) and the President asks me what I want, along with a tax-free coupla M annually, I’d ask for The Pass too. You never know.
Padre Mike have rich fantasy life, no?
No time for a full post this morning, so I’ll just keep throwing out new items in the comments. Feel free to do the same.
Here’s one. Remember Jeffrey Maier?
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/060122maier.html
Here are a few other news items of note:
Pads are adding another ex-GM to the fold, Ed Wade, formerly of the Phillies:
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/01/21/sports/professional/padres/23_33_341_20_06.txt
Kevin Towers has nice things to say about former CEO Larry Lucchino, who apparently isn’t the most popular guy in Red Sox Nation:
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2006/01/22/going_to_bat_for_him/
Rumor that Shigetoshi Hasegawa may end up in SD:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/256601_mari23.html
Among Chris Oxspring’s Hanshin Tigers are former Padre Andy Sheets and San Diego native Shane Spencer:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getsp.pl5?sb20060122wg.htm
The son of former Padres outfielder Marvell Wynne was taken No. 1 overall in the MLS draft:
http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20060120-115903-3812r.htm
Scratch the Hasegawa rumor. He’s retired:
http://www.baseballmusings.com/archives/012838.php
After reading Marc Normandin’s article on Russ Branyan in BTB, shouldn’t the Padres be picking him up?