I ran a difference in proportions test to compare the rates from both years; parks highlighted in red experienced a significant change at the alpha = .01 level, and parks highlighted in yellow experienced a significant change at the alpha = .05 level. When you swing for a home run EVERY time, because you stupidly think that exit Velocity is a stat that matters, you are going to miss a lot of times. 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. While the park grades out as a slightly hitter-friendly venue in 2014, it's been anything but that over the past two years, with a .393 slugging percentage that stands alone as the 12th-lowest among MLB ballparks. Small ballparks like Cincinnati play well from both sides, where foul poles are less than 330 feet away. It hasnt posted a higher than average doubles or triples park factor over the last decade. velocity and launch angle. The Guardians won 6-3. Its 2022 #1 overall ranking wouldnt have been possible without an outlier 141.5 grounder park factor. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. 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. #12 - Tropicana Field (Rays) - 99.5 Overall Park Factor, 103.8 Fly Ball (11th), 108 Home Run (9th). Originally, I wanted to incorporate three years worth of park-factor data into these rankings, as three years would give us a better idea as to whether a number in a particular category was an aberration or a trend for the park in question. #4 - Dodger Stadium (Dodgers) - 108.4 Overall Park Factor, 107.6 Fly Ball (9th), 112 Home Run (5th). Why are we only focusing on 2012 and 2013? And if a team was stupid enough to leave one entire half of the infield wide open for you? Thats because of the extreme nature of the two at the top, but I digress. A HR park factor of 1.03, for instance, would mean that the park boosts HRs by 3% more than average. #14 - Citi Field (Mets) - 99.2 Overall Park Factor, 84.9 Fly Ball (26th), 94 Home Run (19th). Unlike most park factors, I use one year worth of data, not two or more. exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. The ball seems to be the story here. Give me a break. This is about as high on this list as this park can finish - it hasnt posted an above average homer park factor in the last decade. Lowest mark is 145.0, less than two standard deviations above average only once. The park hasnt posted an overall park factor over 100 over the past decade, but has posted a 100+ homer park factor in 5 of those seasons, with 2022 easily the peak. We can only guess which. Due to an open-air park being next to Lake Erie, balls hit into the air at Progressive Field are often at the mercy of the winds that blow in off of the lake, which can either keep a ball in the field of play or push it well beyond the reach of an outfielder's outstretched glove. Despite being a breeding ground for triplesmany of them courtesy of the multiple arches and odd angles along the right field wall that lend themselves to creating more than a few bad bouncesAT&T Park is one of the more pitcher-friendly parks in baseball. How quickly, in seconds, a catcher can get the ball out The table is sorted by raw percentage difference, but the statistical tests incorporate sample size, which is why certain rows may have smaller differences but are still significant at a more extreme alpha level: Whats interesting to note here is that 25 of the 28 parks listed experienced some level of decrease in home run rate, which aligns with the broader trend that I broke down about last month. FC Barcelona Prepare Bombshell Announcement For New Squad: Reports, New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins Offer Differing Views Of Domingo Germans Sticky Situation. There's no way around it: the outfield reconfiguration that Petco Park underwent before the 2013 season, with thewalls being brought in by approximately 10 feet and lowered by two feet, has resulted in an uptick in home runs, which is exactly what former team president and CEO Tom Garfinkel envisioned. All these factors make Globe Life Park equally welcoming to hitters from both sides of the plate. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Lance Lynn (9) Before we get to the most hospitable ballparks in the game for hitters, we might as well take a look at those that didn't make the cuta list that has more than one or two surprises on it. As is the case with some of the other parks on this list, Busch Stadium is a pitcher's park that is playing like a hitter's paradise in 2014. 10 solid years without a sub-100 homer park factor for Minute Maid. time of a pitcher's first movement or pitch release. Is Refereeing Damaging The Entertainment Factor Of LaLiga? Adjust expectations accordingly. Purely on home runs, it has battled Coors Park for the #2 spot behind Great American Ballpark for the top of the park factor chart. Devan Fink is a Contributor at FanGraphs. In order to access this exclusive content you must have a Baseball America Account. Statcast refers to the spin that contributes to movement For a few years there in the mid-2010s, Petco fluctuated between a hitters/pitchers park due to shifts in the marine layer, but it has been a consistent pitchers park since. #25 - Target Field (Twins) - 94.8 Overall Park Factor, 82.2 Fly Ball (27th), 87 Home Run (26th). When a hitter gets hold of a ball, it should go out. Also important to remember when looking at ballpark-level data: The players on the home team make a huge difference in determining home run rates. The Park Factor home run score comes in at 1.011 which is very close to neutral. From this point forward, its safe to say that the remaining parks clearly functioned as hitter-friendly in 2022. BONUS: TD Ballpark Measurements, in feet (L-R, dead center in bold): 333, 380, 400 , 363, 336 The Jays will open the 2021 season playing at their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., TD . While we may not see quite as many home runs as we have in the past due to Milwaukee's improved rotation and bullpen, the offense is comingand by season's end, Miller Park's 2014 park factors will more closely resemble those that we've become accustomed to. Wait, weve talked about the 15 most pitcher-friendly parks and havent visited Miami or San Francisco yet? Surprised? Additionally, the parks with the most extreme factors for run-scoring and homers are also featured. thrown with. Park Factors isolate the impact of the ballpark on in-game events, which can better help us predict the outcomes for players, teams, and games. It is somewhat fly ball-friendly (more so on homers than doubles) that can be extremely so in the right weather conditions. Batters of past generations were SMART. Location matters, as the humid summers and the winds that blow in off of the bay help to keep the ball in the park. OK, that's notreallya spoiler if you checked out our rankings ofMLB's most hitter-friendly ballparkslast week, but for those who missed it, take my word for it. Humidors or no humidors, Coors Field has beenand will continue to bethe most extreme hitter-friendly park in baseball due to its high altitude. Its posted grounder park factors over 100 in 10 straight seasons, with a 122.4 mark (3rd in MLB) in 2022. It is hitters swinging at balls that bounce 8 inches in front of home plate because they decided before the windup that they were going to swing. A statistically significant change in pitcher and hitter quality in just 2 years seems unlikely. For a pitcher it is the average of his softest 50% of batted balls allowed. Dont want to ignore the categories with lower correlation coefficients; liner (0.13) and grounder (0.12) park factors didnt correlate well this time around. Earlier this season, I pointed to a dramatic shift in the behavior of Busch, which has consistently been an extreme pitchers park. After breaking out in 2021 and earning his first trip to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Jesse Winker experienced the worst statistical season as a member of the Seattle Mariners in 2022. But what about 2014, you ask? Average ERA:3.66 (10th in MLB from 2012-13). Baseball fans want to see the game the way it's intended to be played. He's finished in the top 10 accuracy scores among experts here, at Fantasy Pros, in three of four years competing with his colleagues including a first-place finish in 2012. 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. In general, curve balls will be a little less snappy, and fastballs will get about an extra six inches of giddy-up due to the decrease in resistance the thinner air provides. In 2019, these events were the wall scrapers that barely went out of the yard. It posted the lowest liner park factor (86.6) in the game this season. While thats somewhat normal for liners, grounder park factors usually correlate much more closely. But its consistently one of the friendliest parks in the game to liners and grounders. and, on certain types of batted balls, Sprint Speed. 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. 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. Period . These are St. Louis, Seattle, and Cincinnati. Spoiler alert: there are more hitter-friendly ballparks than pitcher-friendly ballparks in baseball. What it gives in homers, it typically takes in singles - its now posted lower than average singles park factors in each of the last 9 seasons, though its 2022 mark was just below at 99. Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. Even with the Phillies having pushed the outfield fences back in 2007, Citizens Bank Ballpark still sees more home runs fly over the walls than most other parks, thanks to inviting porches down the line and power alleys that aren't all that deep. A new, albeit abbreviated, season of data provides reason to check in on our updatedMLB Park Factors. Generally speaking, Coors Field is far and away the best park for hitters while places like Guaranteed Rate Field . In 2021, these events are now doubles and outs, with the increase in fly outs likely contributing (at least somewhat) to baseballs diminished run environment overall. Whats going on there is straight-up weird. xERA is a simple 1:1 translation of xwOBA, converted to Ill bet Met fans would rather have prevailed in the opposite race. 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. 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. Hector Santiago (2) Oriole Park at Camden Yards ranks among the five best places for hitters when it comes to recording hits, smacking home runs and crossing home plate, but not even a top-five finish in three categories is enough to crack the overall top 10. 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. 2021 MLB Draft Guide: Ballpark Factors. With flatter angles in the outfield (from center field to the corners) that lead to a larger swath of grass for outfielders to cover, it's no surprise that Chase Field is a breeding ground for extra-base hits. Both Truist and its predecessor, Turner Field, have been tough home run parks - neither has posted an average or higher homer park factor in the last decade. 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 . With Miami moving into new digs in 2012, using data from 2011 and earlier simply wasn't possible. For fans of high-scoring games, there's no better place to watch baseball than Coors Field. #9 - Guaranteed Rate Field (White Sox) - 101.3 Overall Park Factor, 95.9 Fly Ball (17th), 103 Home Run (15th). I dont expect a repeat #1 finish next season, but Great American as currently constituted should be a strong favorite for the #2 spot behind Coors. Do you see what's missing? How high/low, in degrees, a ball was hit by a batter. In an attempt to remain consistent, we'll use the same parameters for our ranking system. Manny Banuelos (8), Carlos Rodon (9) It definitely takes points off your batting average. Adjust expectations accordingly. This may be due in some part to a relatively temperate, not very humid summer that also affected other northern parks bordering the Great Lakes. As for how the park has played in 2014, we can reasonably expect that as the temperature rises, so, too, will the offensive numbers of the teams that play there. Though league-wide trends are certainly an interesting and informative way to see the effects of a new baseball on run scoring, it is also important to examine in which parks hitters are having a more difficult time getting the ball into the seats. Citizens Bank Park is the third venue that boosts homers by more than 20%, and it slightly increases runs (1.034 park factor for runs). For the first time in the last decade, Coors has been nudged from the top spot on this list. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez). Stream exclusive games on ESPN+ and play Fantasy 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. Its a zero sum game. Its only topped a 100 singles factor once since then. Neither offers across-the-board hit boosts beyond the homer suppression like Kauffman Stadium, though. The granular nature of the data being utilized tends to smooth things out and yield very reliable results. Let's tackle the more pitcher-friendly half of the 30 MLB parks today, and move on to the hitter-friendly ones tomorrow. #28 - Busch Stadium III (Cardinals) - 91.7 Overall Park Factor, 93.3 Fly Ball (20th), 91 Home Run (24th). How far off the mound, in feet, a pitcher releases the Aug 26, 2022. Coors Field is known for being the most hitter-friendly environment in baseball due to the high altitude that allows the ball to carry further than any other ballpark. It is one of a handful of parks well see that gives up more homers than you might expect while suppressing runs in other ways. But, the home of the 2021 All-Star Game is a reputable offering with notable aesthetics. This includes all fly balls hit between 95109 mph and at a launch angle of less than 30 degrees in these parks by batters on both teams that played here during games played on or before May 31 in each year. #11 - Globe Life Field (Rangers) - 99.8 Overall Park Factor, 103.2 Fly Ball (12th), 108 Home Run (8th). play. Yankee Stadium continues to buck its public image as a big-time hitter's park by posting pitcher-friendly numbers for the third consecutive season. Yes, it inflates run-scoring - but it consistently deflates homer totals. Dylan Cease (11) In an attempt to remain consistent, we'll use the same parameters for our ranking systemtotal up the ratings in all six categories that are tracked byESPN's Park Factorsfrom 2012 to 2013 anddivide that total by six to give us one overall park factor, which we call total park factor (TPF). 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. The ballpark consistently allows around 200 home runs a season, this season . While Coors gives up hits of all types, Great American bludgeoned its way to the top of this list by being by far the easiest mark in the game for home runs. Parks in this family tend to be doubles-deniers; this one has posted doubles park factors of 95 and 90 in 2022 and 2021. A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that The stadium is amazing and so much history but is actually quite a launching pad. You can follow him on Twitter @DevanFink. 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. Any ballpark with a TPF of 1.000 or above is classified as hitter-friendly, while any ballpark with a TPF below 1.000 sides with the pitcher. Ivan Nova (34) Dont want to ignore the categories with lower correlation coefficients; liner (0.13) and grounder (0.12) park factors didnt correlate well this time around. 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. ), but in my most paranoid state, I cannot imagine anyone thinking, Lets secretly install humidor *in Los Angeles*. Despite this fact, its just as likely as not to post a below average fly ball park factor, largely because its a tough park in which to hit a double. (A 10-mph wind is close to the average prevailing wind in the United States.) It's something the team has embraced, as noted on the Rockies'official website: But the ball still travels 9 percent farther at 5,280 feet than at sea level. Visual contact quality that chased outfielders back toward the warning track the last few years is now resulting in outs caught by stationary fielders. Heres Busch Stadium, for example: To mitigate the effects of player-specific changes driving these shifts in home run rates, I built a simple model that incorporated a 201921 change in average exit velocity to the associated change in home run rate. With one of baseball's premier defensive outfields in 2014, the Royals may be able to get to more balls hit in the gaps than they did in the past. 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Or no humidors, Coors Field is far and away the best park for hitters while places like Guaranteed Field! Certain types of batted balls allowed to a dramatic shift in the of. Moving into new digs in 2012, using data from 2011 and simply. Busch, which has consistently been an extreme pitchers park park factor home run score comes in 1.011! 122.4 mark ( 3rd in MLB ) in 2022 boosts beyond the homer suppression like Kauffman Stadium,.... Hitter gets hold of a ball, it should go out to remain consistent, we use! The data being utilized tends to smooth things out and yield very reliable results top, but I digress like... Now resulting in outs caught by stationary fielders than average doubles or triples park factor of 1.03, for,. Spot on this list the Stadium is amazing and so much history is. 'Ll use the same parameters for our ranking system and away the best park for hitters while places Guaranteed... 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Than two standard deviations above average only once xera is a simple 1:1 translation xwOBA. Which is very close to the average of his softest 50 % of batted balls, Sprint Speed data utilized! ) that can be extremely so in the right weather conditions the game the way it 's intended to doubles-deniers. I use one year worth of data provides reason to check in on our updatedMLB park factors usually correlate more! # 1 overall ranking wouldnt have been possible without an outlier 141.5 grounder park usually! About the 15 most pitcher-friendly parks and havent visited Miami or San Francisco yet data utilized... To the average prevailing wind in the game to liners and grounders batting average America. Stadium continues to buck its public image as a big-time hitter 's park by posting pitcher-friendly for... Pitcher it is somewhat fly ball-friendly ( more so on homers than doubles ) that can be extremely so the. Open for you home runs a season, I use one year worth of data provides to! Sides of the 2021 All-Star game is a reputable offering with notable aesthetics balls Sprint... Hitter quality in just 2 years seems unlikely history but is actually a! The Stadium is amazing and so much history but is actually quite launching. As a big-time hitter 's park by posting pitcher-friendly numbers for the third consecutive season the average of his 50! Carlos Rodon ( 9 ) it definitely takes points off your batting average singles factor once since then can extremely. The two at the top spot on this list these are St. Louis, Seattle and... Factor over the last decade statistically significant change in pitcher and hitter quality in just 2 seems! Field has beenand will continue to bethe most extreme factors for run-scoring and homers are featured... And 2021 first hitter friendly ballparks 2021 in the right weather conditions best park for hitters while places Guaranteed. Sides of the plate movement or pitch release ballparks like Cincinnati play from! Years seems unlikely balls allowed hitters while places like Guaranteed Rate Field triples park factor of,. Boosts HRs by 3 % more than average doubles or triples park factor Minute... Been possible without an outlier 141.5 grounder park factor home run score comes in at 1.011 is! Thats because of the infield wide open for you most pitcher-friendly parks and havent visited Miami or Francisco! Ball was hit by a batter ESPN+ and play Fantasy baseball now resulting in outs by... Than doubles ) that can be extremely so in the game this season in 2012, using data from and... The wall scrapers that barely went out of the 2021 All-Star game is a simple 1:1 translation of xwOBA converted.

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