hitter friendly ballparks 2021
First and foremost, this place is a dump. Pretty clear that its at least a slight pitchers park, moving harder that way this season due to weather factors. Batters of past generations were SMART. Coors dramatically inflates offense on liners, dramatically inflates doubles and triples, you name it. 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. How hard, in miles per hour, a pitch is thrown. Read on to find out where this world-famous venue landed in our rankings. Beyond our fantasy baseball content, be sure to check out our award-winning slate ofFantasy Baseball Toolsas you navigate your season. #27 - RingCentral Coliseum (Athletics) - 93.5 Overall Park Factor, 85.9 Fly Ball (25th), 92 Home Run (22nd). This season, it's not even closeNationals Park has been one of the more extreme pitcher-friendly parks in baseball. Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. Take a look at both and let us know which you think is the more effective ranking systemand whyin the comments below. Fly-ball pitchers make for more enticing streaming options in these venues. Yes, it inflates run-scoring - but it consistently deflates homer totals. 2022 marked the 10th straight season that PNC recorded a homer park factor below 100. Before that, however, is the 2021 MLB Home Run Derby, which takes place Monday, June 12. Daniel Malin. On the other hand, its posted below average singles park factors in 9 of the last 10 seasons. 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. A new, albeit abbreviated, season of data provides reason to check in on our updated MLB Park Factors. Despite playing like an extreme pitcher's park in 2014 and having deep corners, only the ballpark at No. But there are a few stadiums that are harder to explain. Theres significant overlap in this section with the run-scoring amplifying parks, with Great American Ball Park and Coors Field flip-flop spots at the top. First, here are the raw home run rates for these types of fly balls for each ballpark from 2019 to 21. CINCINNATI, OH - AUGUST 19: General view as the sun sets after a strike out by Trevor Bauer #27 of [+] the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Great American Ball Park on August 19, 2019 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Coors Field gets a 30 for runs scored, a 30 for slugging percentage and a 24 for home runs, giving it an overall score of 84, which we'll call BF (Ballpark Factor). As the season wears on, that number figures to fall back in line with its previously established norms. Sure, "The House that George Built" is one of the more homer-friendly parks in baseballthanks in part to a right field porch that's even shorter than advertised (it's closer to 310 feet than 314 feet, as printed on the wall)but not even that is enough to overcome the pitcher-friendly grades in four of the other six categories. Though it has now posted higher than average homer park factors for five straight seasons, this was a 10-year high-water mark for its fly ball park factor. Let's re-rank the stadiums in baseball using this formula in order to see if anything changes: No matter which way you look at it, PNC Park remains the unquestioned king of the pitcher-friendly parks, one of six parks that remain in the top 10 from our official rankings. Great American Ballpark has above average extra base hit park factors to the right-handed hitters, and extreme home run park factors for both sides of the plate. However, as the season progresses, the offensive output will increase, drawing closer to its previously established levels. Reynaldo Lopez (33) Its singles park factor has been average or higher in 8 of the last 10 seasons. 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? Neither offers across-the-board hit boosts beyond the homer suppression like Kauffman Stadium, though. Not counting openers and ranked by WAR, the White Sox rotation in 2019 (starts): Lucas Giolito (29) The ballpark consistently allows around 200 home runs a season, this season . I also only included fly balls hit in games on or before May 31 to control for weather effects. Login or sign up Additionally, you can subscribe to. A base hit is better than a strikeout, after all. wow! 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. You may opt-out by. The Orioles got way, way better pitchers; the Mets thumpers have all been injured; the Brewers both lost all their thumpers and their pitching got way better. But how much of an impact do certain MLB stadiums really have on a hitters performance? GhostOfDrTobaggan. Its 96 mark was just a notch off of its decade high. Hitter-friendly ballparks The Colorado Rockies' home of Coors Field is a high-altitude haven for hitters. Why are we only focusing on 2012 and 2013? The centerfield pine trees and fountains are a perfect . 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. 9 to No. Another important effect of altitude on baseball is the influence thinner air has on pitching. The likelihood, in percent, that an outfielder will be This is perhaps the king of the Homer But Not Necessarily Run-Friendly parks. Year-round warm temperatures, relatively low humidity, short fences and a lack of foul territory have all contributed to make Globe Life Park in Arlington one of baseball's most notoriously. But its consistently one of the friendliest parks in the game to liners and grounders. As mentioned, we dont know for sure which parks added the humidor. Pretty much a neutral park, except for a couple of factors. We can only guess which. As a result of these hitter-friendly dimensions, specifically down the left field line, Orioles Park led the MLB with 277 home runs hit in 2021 and ranked second only behind the Red's Great American Ball Park in Statcast's HR 'Park Factor' metric from 2019-2021. . In most ballparks, those tough pitches you battle are foul balls souvenirs in the stands. One of baseball's most storied and celebrated ballparks, the subterranean ballpark (fans enter in the middle of the stands, not at ground level) has been home to the sixth-fewest home runs. Since 2015, Petco hasnt had a homer park factor lower than 97. Marlins Park (Marlins) Unlike many of the parks discussed so far, PNC is ripe for some damage in the air, but more from yielding doubles and triples rather than home runs. In order to access this exclusive content you must have a Baseball America Account. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images). 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. Fenways doubles park factor has been 107 or higher each of the last 10 seasons, and 116+ in 9 of them. New York Mets (84) Oakland A's (85) Miami Marlins (89) Seattle Mariners (90) Los Angeles Dodgers (90) Citi Field in New York is relatively neutral in homers (103), but no park has decreased. Average ERA:3.66 (10th in MLB from 2012-13). When you suppress both homers (8 straight years below 100 HR park factor) and singles (10 straight years), there simply arent many avenues to behaving as a hitters park. raw numbers and as a measurement against average. . Dylan Cease (11) Enjoy the high-octane offense while you can, for the park is likely to regress back toward its norms the deeper we get into the season. 390 to Center (Tennessee) is going to be VERY hitter friendly. Its a zero sum game. Trying to express how players are affected by those differences is . It hasnt posted a higher than average doubles or triples park factor over the last decade. Without question, the biggest surprise on this list is the inclusion of Yankee Stadium. 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). ago. #1 - Great American Ball Park (Reds) - 123.9 Overall Park Factor, 134.9 Fly Ball (2nd), 137 Home Run (1st). How far, in feet, a fielder or runner has traveled on a Pay little attention to the team's hitter-friendly TPF in 2014, which has been caused largely by an abnormally high number of triples so far in 2014 (seven in nine games). Manny Banuelos (8), Carlos Rodon (9) So let's go out to the ballgame and take a look at how all 30 parks rank 30. xBA measures the likelihood that a batted ball will How high/low, in degrees, a ball was hit by a batter. To mitigate these effects, I only analyzed a specific slice of fly balls: those hit at an exit velocity at or above 95.0 mph, at an exit velocity below 110.0 mph, and at a launch angle below 30 degrees the very fly balls most impacted by the new baseball in my prior analysis. 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. When the spring and summer isnt unusually warm in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, the California parks (where the temps are always balmy) tend to drift upward on this list. 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. #23 - Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Orioles) - 95.3 Overall Park Factor, 86.0 Fly Ball (24th), 83 Home Run (27th). The traditional run and homer-suppressing park boosted both, with park factors of 1.048 and 1.083, respectively. So, fasten your shoulder harnesses, keep both hands on the bar in front you at all times, and enjoy the ride. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. Do Not Sell My Personal Information, Next Up - FantasyPros Baseball Podcast: Leading Off, Monday, April 17 (2023), 0 K. Are you looking to contact Customer Support about a subscription or account related question? The granular nature of the data being utilized tends to smooth things out and yield very reliable results. 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. All this is to say I would be pretty shocked if AmFam/Miller is not one of the stadiums using a humidor. There were a handful of outstanding questions that I still had, one of which was the impact of the new baseball on a ballpark-by-ballpark basis. So it's come as somewhat of a surprise that he's comfortably slugged above .500 for much of the 2021 season, split between Double-A and Triple-A. A deep center field lends itself to an increase in doubles and triples, as balls that land in the outfield gaps will bounce and rolland continue to rollas the hitter rounds the bases. 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. 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. While "The House that George Built" grades out as a hitter's park in home runs (1.135), runs scored (1.036) and walks (1.045), it falls well short of the mark elsewhere. A late . With the shortest corners in baseball310 feet to the 37-foot-tall Green Monster in left field, 302 feet to Pesky's Pole in rightbaseball's oldest stadium, Fenway Park, which opened in 1912, has been one of the game's most hitter-friendly stadiums for nearly as long. As mentioned on the opening slide, we've got a second set of rankings to take a look at. 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). Throughout Baseball, a given hitter's Home vs Away statistics has always been a crucial aspect of how players are viewed. 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. #3 Fenway Park Fenway Park being towards the top of this list shouldn't stun anyone. Better hitters might be hitting more 29-degree, 109.9-mph fly balls, and worse hitters could be hitting more 23-degree, 95.1-mph fly balls. 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. A pretty predictable park that is a clear #3 behind the two most hitter-friendly ones. It bumped up a bit higher on this years list due to an outlier line drive park factor of 105.4, the highest in the past decade. This was the lowest overall park factor posted by Progressive over the last decade, with its lowest single-season fly ball park factor since 2015. Which group would you expect to give up more homers? Great American Ball Park and Fenway Park are the other parks that boost runs by more than 10%. The small sample enhances the value of keeping tabs on how the ballpark plays during the 2021 season before treating the park factors as gospel. On a year-to-year basis (2022 vs. 2021), my overall park factors had a 0.66 correlation coefficient. 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. Pitcher-Friendly Ballparks 1. 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. Statcast refers to the spin that contributes to movement the fastest reactions and most direct routes in the Doubles totals mushroom here - lots of balls that would otherwise become fly ball outs, or homers, become doubles (and even singles). Very quietly, Nationals Park has been very kind to ground balls - its only posted one below average grounder park factor in the last 10 years, and has averaged 107.4 over that span, 5th highest in MLB. Players know what's fair and what's not. All these factors make Globe Life Park equally welcoming to hitters from both sides of the plate. Dylan Covey (12) It's 347 feet down the left field line, 350 down the right field line and 415 to center field from home plate, though the deepest part of the park is in right-center at 424 feet. #5 - Oracle Park (Giants) - 107.0 Overall Park Factor, 106.2 Fly Ball (10th), 82 Home Run (28th). It crushes both doubles and triples - no 100+ park factors in either of those categories have been posted in the last decade. This is a fairly large range that is impacted by quality of hitters and pitchers. How far off the mound, in feet, a pitcher releases the a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight #16 - American Family Field (Brewers) - 99.0 Overall Park Factor, 109.4 Fly Ball (7th), 114 Home Run (4th). 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. #3 - Fenway Park (Red Sox) - 109.7 Overall Park Factor, 127.6 Fly Ball (3rd), 90 Home Run (25th). This is a BETA experience. Another park that isnt as hitter-friendly as most believe. On a year-to-year basis (2022 vs. 2021), my overall park factors had a 0.66 correlation coefficient. Lowest mark is 145.0, less than two standard deviations above average only once. Lets tackle the more pitcher-friendly half of the 30 MLB parks today, and move on to the hitter-friendly ones tomorrow. 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. Thats because of the extreme nature of the two at the top, but I digress. For transparencys sake, here are all 28 parks average exit velocities and average launch angles on fly balls within this range in both 2019 and 21, excluding the Blue Jays and Rangers, who played in different stadiums in 2019 than they do currently. MLB. 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