All these factors make Globe Life Park equally welcoming to hitters from both sides of the plate. Wake Forest's ballpark is smaller compared to others. It typically would rate as a bit more hitter-friendly, but 2022 was the first time since 2015 that PNC posted a sub-100 doubles park factor (at 99). Though the outfield dimensions are among the largest . With the team's offense in the toilet, the St. Louis Cardinals are looking to make Busch Stadium more hitter-friendly . Right-handed sluggers, like Miguel Cabrera, have taken advantage of that redesign, with the two-time defending AL MVP smacking nearly 32 percent of his 366 career home runs at Comerica. Ok, how could the park with the 3rd lowest homer park factor post the 5th highest overall park factor? outfield. Known as the most hitter-friendly stadium in baseball, Coors Field is located amid a plethora of nearby restaurants and bars. While offense at Chase Field has been down so far in 2014, that will pick up as the season progresses, once again putting the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks near the top of the list when it comes to hitter-friendly venues in baseball. I did attempt to examine the impacts, if any, of these exit velocity changes on home run rates, and there was a moderate correlation (r-squared of 0.28) that is important to keep in mind. Those park factors are in stark contrast to the three-year marks of 0.919 for runs and 0.772 for homers. Its always been a great park for triples, and in two of the last three seasons its been one of the best doubles parks in the game outside of Fenway. Obviously, Comerica is a big home run denier. The Rangers opened a new ballpark in 2020, and two parks, Marlins Park and Oracle Park, featured notable renovations. A range-based metric of skill that shows how many outs a #16 - American Family Field (Brewers) - 99.0 Overall Park Factor, 109.4 Fly Ball (7th), 114 Home Run (4th). Because there's no perfect method of figuring out whether a park is hitter-friendly or pitcher-friendly, and it's interesting to compare the results. Even the home runs are very fleeting excitement, followed by bases empty and more strikeouts. A new, albeit abbreviated, season of data provides reason to check in on our updated MLB Park Factors. In data analyzed by Baseball Savant's Statcast from 2019-21 , the 27-year-old stadium generated 14% more offense, compared to fellow MLB ballparks, including 19% more hits, 16% more home runs, and the second most triples (behind Comerica . ALL because the hitters are idiots. Totaling up the ratings in all six categories, then dividing that total by six would give us one, overall park factorwhich we'll call total park factor (TPF)allowing us to see which ballparks truly are "hitter-friendly.". With more foul territory available to defenders than you typically find elsewhere, and with the home team boasting one of the more talented pitching staffs in baseball, it won't be long before offense at Busch Stadium falls back in line with its normal numbers. Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays) (Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports) Located across the bay in St. Petersburg and offering. Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an While doubles are down and triples are up this season, those two categories will even themselves out as the season progresses, as Comerica remains one of the premier destinations for hitters looking for an edge. And none of the single-season 2022 marks were out of whack to the upside - in a given year, this can be a top five hitters park. And this place thwarted grounder production long before Nolan Arenado arrived - its posted a sub-100 grounder factor in 7 of the last 8 seasons. The conclusion was pretty much exactly what youd expect: A bouncier ball with more drag did reduce home runs, particularly among softer-hit balls at lower launch angles. First, and least significantly, pop ups fall in for hits here at over three times the MLB rate. I also only included fly balls hit in games on or before May 31 to control for weather effects. #28 - Busch Stadium III (Cardinals) - 91.7 Overall Park Factor, 93.3 Fly Ball (20th), 91 Home Run (24th). With Texas missing two of its best starting pitchers (Matt Harrison and Derek Holland), along with the addition of players like Shin-Soo Choo and Prince Fielder to the lineup, it's no surprise that offense in Arlington is up in nearly every category so far in 2014. However, with Miami moving into new digs in 2012, that simply wasn't possible. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images. We can only guess which parks now have them, but it is important to keep in mind that the ball is not the only difference. Finally, his Zeile projection of 67 runs, 16 homers, 67. Take a look at both and let us know which you think is the more effective ranking systemand whyin the comments below. The same small sample caveat applies to Marlins Park and the forthcoming Oracle Park, but some data is better than none. That said, we'll still look at the 2014 numbers in order to see how parks are currently playing and also to determine if we should expect more of the same as the season rolls along. But what about 2014, you ask? In the opposite direction, this marked the 9th time in 10 years that Target posted a higher than average singles park factor. Humidors or no humidors, Coors Field has beenand will continue to bethe most extreme hitter-friendly park in baseball due to its high altitude. ET at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado. Showing The likelihood, in percent, that an outfielder will be Marlins Park (Marlins) Absolutely agree. Before we get to the ballparks that pitchers (should) love to pitch in, let's take a look at those that they should try and avoid at all costs: That Citizens Bank Park, Coors Field and Great American Ballpark rank among the most hostile venues for pitchers comes as no surprise, but there's a glaring omission from this list that should jump out at you. #12 - Tropicana Field (Rays) - 99.5 Overall Park Factor, 103.8 Fly Ball (11th), 108 Home Run (9th). It should be noted that Amarillo and Reno play in hitter-friendly ballparks and Thomas had a much better slugging percentage at home (.667) than on the road (.462). In order to access this exclusive content you must have a Baseball America Account. Carlos Rodon (7) How about the Mets and Braves home parks essentially finishing in a dead heat on this list, just like they did in the NL East standings? Thats because of the extreme nature of the two at the top, but I digress. A team striking out 15 times in a game is not a rare occasion when they ran up against great pitching. Even pitchers duals arent exciting anymore because they usually are the result of bad hitting and not great pitching. When it's not flooding with sewage, O.co Coliseum is home to the most expansive foul territory in all of baseballa quirk that lends itself to limiting offense, as current Athletics third base coach and former infielder Mike Gallego explained to USA Today's Seth Livingstone in 2010: You kind of look forward to it (the foul territory) defensively. FC Barcelona Prepare Bombshell Announcement For New Squad: Reports, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins Offer Differing Views Of Domingo Germans Sticky Situation. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. As I do in my other analysis here, I took all batted balls and compared actual performance to projections based on the application of MLB average production to each exit speed/launch angle bucket. So let's go out to the ballgame and take a look at how all 30 parks rank 30. Visit ESPN for MLB live scores, video highlights and latest news. The Guardians won 6-3. On the other hand, it has always been fertile ground for doubles and triples, with 100+ park factors for doubles in 9 and in triples for all 10 of the last 10 seasons. How much time, in seconds, it takes a runner to get from Dylan Cease (14) A new, albeit abbreviated, season of data provides reason to check in on our updatedMLB Park Factors. The chart is sortable, so you are able to examine any changes in fly ball quality within this broader 95109 mph exit velocity, less-than-30 degree launch angle group as you wish. by Retrosheet. As the season progresses and the weather gets warmer and the air more humid, the park figures to continue to be a place where pitchers enjoy toeing the rubber. at Santa Cruz City Schools, Sin City: 15 Dark Facts You Didn't Know About Las Vegas, Why Kiss the Blarney Stone? Its challenging to reach the seats in eight of these nine parks Oracle Park being the exclusion after last years renovations. Hope that these numbers can be the jumping off point for a more robust analysis by someone else! Yes, it inflates run-scoring - but it consistently deflates homer totals. Additionally, the interaction between outfield space and outfield wall height may also play a role, as could climate and, more specifically, weather so far this season. The stadium is amazing and so much history but is actually quite a launching pad. It is something that happens to almost every team once a week. You can follow him on Twitter @DevanFink. The uptick in offense this season can be at least partially attributed to mediocre home performances from pitchers like Paul Maholm (10.1 IP, 9 ER, 16 H) and the nearly season-long absence of Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher on the planet. Parks in this family tend to be doubles-deniers; this one has posted doubles park factors of 95 and 90 in 2022 and 2021. #3 - Fenway Park (Red Sox) - 109.7 Overall Park Factor, 127.6 Fly Ball (3rd), 90 Home Run (25th). On the other hand, it is one of the biggest triples generators in the game, and has averaged a 112.0 grounder park factor since 2017. and, on certain types of batted balls, Sprint Speed. From this point forward, its safe to say that the remaining parks clearly functioned as hitter-friendly in 2022. While symmetrically designed, Kauffman Stadium's expansive power alleys may limit home runs, but they lend themselves to an increase in other extra-base hits, more than making up for the lack of long balls that we normally find in a hitter's park. Fly-ball pitchers make for more enticing streaming options in these venues. as well as any changes to these (such as Anaheim lowering their RF fences or Arizona adding a humidor in 2018). That allows us to understand better how park effects may have been altered to different degrees as a result of MLBs switch to the new baseball. But perhaps more than understanding why were seeing such significant changes at the ballpark level, its first important to acknowledge that some huge differences exist in how the baseball (and potential humidor) is affecting how the ball flies in each environment. The Colorado Rockies' home ballpark has an estimated area of 121,486 square feet in fair play. Park factors are not affected by the quality of a team's hitters or pitchers. The American League's most pitcher-friendly venue, Safeco Field consistenly ranks among the top third of parks when it comes to pitching-friendly factorseven with the changes the club made to the outfield before last season, which were intended to increase offense. Give the full BA article a read here, but the high points on how the Cubs' minor league ballparks played in 2021: Triple-A Iowa: Played 13% more homer-friendly than the average ballpark, and 3% more friendly to balls in play. The Rockies, Diamondbacks, Mariners, Mets, and Red Sox already had humidors in their stadiums pre-2021, but which five teams are new to that list has yet to be disclosed. of his glove and to the base on a stolen base or pickoff (The r-squared between launch angle difference and home run rates was just 0.01.) Not counting openers and ranked by WAR, the White Sox rotation in 2019 (starts): Lucas Giolito (29) It crushes both doubles and triples - no 100+ park factors in either of those categories have been posted in the last decade. I compared the samples of 95109 mph, less-than-30 degree data from 2019 to 21 to evaluate just how pronounced these effects were and found that average exit velocity did not shift by more than 1 mph and that average launch angles did not shift by more than 1 degree. But there's plenty of movement on the list, with Marlins Park making the biggest jump, moving up nine spots to become the fourth-most pitcher-friendly venue in baseball. Small ballparks like Cincinnati play well from both sides, where foul poles are less than 330 feet away. Expected Weighted On-base Average (xwOBA). Coors Field before a baseball game Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, in Denver. 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