MLB Park Factors

By Dalton Del Don – Senior Writer

With the help of ESPN’s “park factor,” which compares the rate of stats at home vs. the rate of stats on the road, let’s take a quick look around the league to see how different ballparks have been playing over the first half of the 2007 season.

Fenway Park (Boston) – As far as runs scored go, this ballpark is the most advantageous in all of baseball. In a bit of a shocker, Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City) comes in second place, while unsurprisingly, Great American (Cincinnati) is ranked third. Coors Field (Colorado) currently sits at No. 6. Fenway Park easily paces the league in doubles, which makes sense because of the Green Monster.

Petco Park (San Diego) – Plain and simple, it’s baseball’s toughest park to score runs in.

Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia) – It allows the most home runs in the league, with Great American a close second. In fact, these two stadiums are head and shoulders above the rest of the league in the dinger department. Camden Yards (Baltimore), Kauffman Stadium (K.C.), Chase Field (Arizona) and U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago) round out the top six as far as parks being susceptible to big flies.

Safeco Field (Seattle) – For some reason, hitting a triple at Safeco is one of the rarest feats in the game this season, but the stadium plays fairly neutral when it comes to homers and doubles.

Turner Field (Atlanta) – It’s playing like a huge pitcher’s park over the first half of 2007. Is ranked dead last among hits allowed, and tied with Petco Park as far as runs scored are concerned.

AT&T Park (San Francisco) – Hasn’t suppressed runs like in years past (ranked No. 16), but home runs continue to be hard to come by, as it’s been the toughest stadium to hit a homer in through the first three months of the season. Also, according to the Bill James handbook, AT&T Park has been the toughest power ballpark on right-handers the last three years. Should be a fun home run derby this All-Star break. Other parks limiting power include: RFK Stadium (Washington), PNC Park (Pittsburgh), Petco Park (San Diego), Angel Stadium (Anaheim) and Busch Stadium (St. Louis).


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *