After watching Juan Uribe throw a rocket from deep in the hole at shortstop to nail Ross Gload at first base in the top of the ninth inning last night I wondered via Twitter: “Best throw by a fat shortstop in playoff history?”
In retrospect “fat” is probably too harsh of a term. Pablo Sandoval is fat. Aaron Gleeman is fat. Juan Uribe is fat for a shortstop, but just sort of hefty in general. And that got me thinking, not just about the best playoff throws by a hefty shortstop, but about the best hefty shortstops in baseball history, period.
It’s probably a tough question to answer objectively, because players’ listed weights often aren’t updated as they add pounds. However, according to the listed weights on Baseball-Reference.com Uribe is the heftiest shortstop of all time at 230 pounds. Actually, both Hanley Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez are tied with him at 230 pounds, but they’re both 6-foot-3 while Uribe is six feet even.
Yuniesky Betancourt is listed at 5-foot-11 and 210 pounds, and definitely has the gut to put him in the mix, but aside from Betancourt and Uribe it’s tough to find any chubby shortstops from this era or any other. Which is why I’m now turning to you, the Hardball Talk posse, for help answering this question: Who are the heftiest shortstops in baseball history? You can post your answers in the comments section or send them to me via Twitter, and I’ll be back later with a follow-up post breaking down all the candidates.