Raising and Deepening The Fences At Oriole Park?

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Enjoy Terror said:

How do park factors account for the Orioles being terrible at pitching?

I do not think playing in Camden Yards disadvantages the team as a whole, though it obviously disadvantages the pitchers.    Here are some O’s home run figures over the last decade:

Homers hit at home: 1,135

Homers allowed at home: 1,105

Homers hit on the road: 929

Homers allowed on the road: 956

So, while its obviously easier to hit homers at OPACY than the average ballpark, we’ve outhomered opponents by 30 at home, while being outhomered on the road by 27.     So it seems to me the dimensions at OPACY have worked to the team’s advantage.    

[wildbillhiccup]

6 hours ago, section18 said:

I think it's time to raise the fences and deepening them where possible at Oriole Park. It would not be a major expense and would reduce the number of home runs that fly out of the park during the summer months. This would obviously benefit the pitchers and team. There are a lot of cheap home runs that make it just over the fences in all parts of the park. We benefit as well as the visiting teams but I think it would be a huge addition and would help lower our team ERA after it's completed. Lets start working on it NOW. It's an easy job for any contractor.

Is it the ballpark or our terrible pitching (over the last few years)? Also, for context....

 

MLB Park Factors - Through December 2, 2019
RK	PARK NAME	RUNS	HR	H	2B	3B	BB
1	Coors Field (Denver, Colorado)	1.394	1.266	1.300	1.314	2.148	1.093
2	Globe Life Park in Arlington (Arlington, Texas)	1.245	1.062	1.142	1.090	1.545	1.092
3	Comerica Park (Detroit, Michigan)	1.107	1.086	1.111	0.928	2.011	0.973
4	Nationals Park (Washington, D.C.)	1.101	1.267	1.097	1.169	0.957	1.016
5	Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Baltimore, Maryland)	1.088	1.262	1.063	1.157	0.931	0.930
6	Marlins Park (Miami, Florida)	1.087	0.828	1.018	1.022	2.000	1.057
7	Minute Maid Park (Houston, Texas)	1.083	1.195	1.024	0.866	0.815	0.969
8	Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City, Missouri)	1.074	0.741	1.086	1.205	1.345	0.937
9	Fenway Park (Boston, Massachusetts)	1.063	0.878	1.010	1.380	1.120	1.108
10	Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)	1.047	1.170	1.028	0.886	0.960	1.026
11	Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati, Ohio)	1.038	1.130	1.027	1.029	0.437	1.052
12	Rogers Centre (Toronto, Ontario)	1.031	1.317	0.993	0.918	0.913	0.988
13	Angel Stadium of Anaheim (Anaheim, California)	1.018	1.081	1.009	1.022	0.815	1.028
14	PNC Park (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)	1.004	0.906	0.997	1.281	1.000	1.161
15	SunTrust Park (Cumberland, GA)	1.003	1.018	0.998	1.137	0.926	0.995
16	Chase Field (Phoenix, Arizona)	0.977	0.888	0.998	1.003	1.654	0.959
17	Miller Park (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)	0.976	1.030	0.913	0.899	0.828	0.992
18	Target Field (Minneapolis, Minnesota)	0.975	0.870	1.007	1.151	1.091	1.092
19	Progressive Field (Cleveland, Ohio)	0.972	1.048	0.952	1.037	0.583	0.979
20	Guaranteed Rate Field (Chicago, Illinois)	0.966	1.238	0.926	0.809	0.349	1.078
21	T-Mobile Park (Seattle, Washington)	0.952	0.934	0.946	0.827	0.486	1.006
22	Wrigley Field (Chicago, Illinois)	0.931	0.871	0.969	0.938	1.429	0.988
23	Busch Stadium (St. Louis, Missouri)	0.917	0.831	0.943	0.871	0.955	0.934
24	Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles, California)	0.905	1.128	0.987	0.898	0.333	0.833
25	Tropicana Field (St. Petersburg, Florida)	0.895	0.904	0.935	0.975	1.200	0.955
26	Citi Field (New York, New York)	0.891	1.000	0.889	0.841	0.500	0.950
27	Oakland Coliseum (Oakland, California)	0.887	0.854	0.954	1.089	0.840	1.037
28	Petco Park (San Diego, California)	0.860	0.871	0.908	0.885	0.704	1.049
29	Yankee Stadium (New York, New York)	0.816	0.865	0.880	0.729	0.591	0.901
30	Oracle Park (San Francisco, California)	0.798	0.691	0.941	0.826	1.423	0.886

Glossary

[wildbillhiccup]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I do not think playing in Camden Yards disadvantages the team as a whole, though it obviously disadvantages the pitchers.    Here are some O’s home run figures over the last decade:

Homers hit at home: 1,135

Homers allowed at home: 1,105

Homers hit on the road: 929

Homers allowed on the road: 956

So, while its obviously easier to hit homers at OPACY than the average ballpark, we’ve outhomered opponents by 30 at home, while being outhomered on the road by 27.     So it seems to me the dimensions at OPACY have worked to the team’s advantage.    

I think we've done a very bad job of tailoring out pitching staff to the ballpark. The focus needs to be on high strike out / ground ball inducing pitchers. If we commit to that approach with farm system, free agents we target, etc. I really think that will level things out a bit. 

[Moose Milligan]

19 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I do not think playing in Camden Yards disadvantages the team as a whole, though it obviously disadvantages the pitchers.    Here are some O’s home run figures over the last decade:

Homers hit at home: 1,135

Homers allowed at home: 1,105

Homers hit on the road: 929

Homers allowed on the road: 956

So, while its obviously easier to hit homers at OPACY than the average ballpark, we’ve outhomered opponents by 30 at home, while being outhomered on the road by 27.     So it seems to me the dimensions at OPACY have worked to the team’s advantage.    

Gleyber Torres is responsible for, like, 50 of those homers allowed just by himself.  

@Enjoy Terror got it correct, the park plays slightly to favor hitters but not by a whopping amount.  Our pitching is the thing that sucks, the homers these guys give up would be out of practically any stadium.  

[DrungoHazewood]

32 minutes ago, Enjoy Terror said:

How do park factors account for the Orioles being terrible at pitching?

Don't you think there's some difference in how a pitcher approaches things if he's in a park like San Francisco or San Diego instead of a place where it's 318 to RF and 364 to LC?  Around the league pitchers are complaining about jamming a hitter, or getting one off the end of the bat and it just sails out fo the park with the new balls.  Oriole pitchers are like "welcome to our world."

[TINSTAAPP]

6 hours ago, andrewochs615 said:

I will never understand the small ballpark excuse. The Red Sox and Yankees play in equally small ballparks and never have the issues to the extent the Orioles have 

The Red Sox and Yankees are two big market teams who have heavily relied on free agent veteran pitching throughout the years. Also, left center field is absolutely enormous in Yankee Stadium. It's 400 feet from home plate. That makes it a lot easier for good left-handed pitchers to suppress homeruns. For example, Andy Pettite never allowed more than 21 HRs in a season for the Yankees.  For comparison's sake, it's 364 feet to left center and 373 feet to right center in Camden Yards. That's a huge difference and really gives pitchers no room for error when they make a mistake. 

[atomic]

54 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

My guess is that it would cost a lot more than they just saved by trading Villar, and if they started now they might be done with the planning and prep work so they could get started and try to squeeze in the actual construction next off season.

The team has a lease end coming up.  I am sure if they signed a new lease they could get this done for free. 

[atomic]

31 minutes ago, wildbillhiccup said:

I think we've done a very bad job of tailoring out pitching staff to the ballpark. The focus needs to be on high strike out / ground ball inducing pitchers. If we commit to that approach with farm system, free agents we target, etc. I really think that will level things out a bit. 

I don't think it helped that until last year Norfolk had a very pitcher friendly park.  

[Enjoy Terror]

9 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Don't you think there's some difference in how a pitcher approaches things if he's in a park like San Francisco or San Diego instead of a place where it's 318 to RF and 364 to LC? 

I actually do not think that, I don’t think stadium dimensions play into pitcher approach at all.

[atomic]

10 minutes ago, Enjoy Terror said:

I actually do not think that, I don’t think stadium dimensions play into pitcher approach at all.

I am sure it wrecks your confidence.  I would rather pitch in Met's stadium if I were a pitcher.  

[Frobby]

8 minutes ago, atomic said:

I am sure it wrecks your confidence.  I would rather pitch in Met's stadium if I were a pitcher.  

If I’m a pitcher, I’m mature enough to be just as happy winning a 6-5 game at OPACY as winning a 3-2 game at Tropicana.    Outpitch the other guy, regardless of where you’re pitching.    That’s the objective.     If anything, I’d think pitching in a bandbox should work to our pitchers’ advantage, since they’re used to it and the opposing pitchers aren’t.   

[billw76]

I think the horrible pitching is the problem. I'd much rather see them focus on improving that over raising and moving the walls back.

[DrungoHazewood]

23 minutes ago, Frobby said:

If I’m a pitcher, I’m mature enough to be just as happy winning a 6-5 game at OPACY as winning a 3-2 game at Tropicana.    Outpitch the other guy, regardless of where you’re pitching.    That’s the objective.     If anything, I’d think pitching in a bandbox should work to our pitchers’ advantage, since they’re used to it and the opposing pitchers aren’t.   

That's the Vulcan point of view. If I'm a human pitcher I'm not happy when I give up five runs, three of them on balls that went a row or two deep behind the 364 sign.

Why did the Yanks make LC in the overhauled Yankee Stadium and New Yankee under 400', instead of the 461' it was in Dimaggio and Mantle's era?  Mainly because they wanted to be able to sign right-handed power hitters.  Nobody wanted to come to play even for the Yanks if a 440' moon shot to LC was a routine out.  That's OPACY in reverse.  What pitchers want to come to Baltimore if they're facing Yanks/Sox/Rays/Jays sluggers 80 times a year, half in one of the two or three best HR parks in MLB?

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, wildbillhiccup said:

I think we've done a very bad job of tailoring out pitching staff to the ballpark. The focus needs to be on high strike out / ground ball inducing pitchers. If we commit to that approach with farm system, free agents we target, etc. I really think that will level things out a bit. 

Do you know what you call a high strike out, high ground ball pitcher?  An All Star or a Hall of Famer.  The Orioles haven't targeted those kind of pitchers because they almost always demand a huge premium in free agency or trades.  And developing them is not trivial.

[DrungoHazewood]

59 minutes ago, atomic said:

I don't think it helped that until last year Norfolk had a very pitcher friendly park.  

Norfolk is still a very pitcher friendly park.  In the super ball context 4.5 runs a game is pitcher friendly.