Left field at OPACY going through a big change

[connja]

1 hour ago, spiritof66 said:

 

The Orioles’ plan will get rid of a bunch of seats behind the moved-out fence. Let’s say it’s the first eight rows. (Again, the actual numbers  . . .) The plan apparently is to remove those eight rows and the support structure under them, and to leave the seats behind them where they were. What was the ninth row will become the front row, right behind the OF fence. Assume that the seats in that former ninth row are elevated 12 feet above the playing field.

In that picture it looks like they have removed 15 rows of seats!  That's taking it too far.   And I would hate those right angles by the bullpen.  Hooping it's not quite that dramatic.

[Dipper9]

31 minutes ago, connja said:

In that picture it looks like they have removed 15 rows of seats!  That's taking it too far.   And I would hate those right angles by the bullpen.  Hooping it's not quite that dramatic.

Dipper's Thirsty Thursday Thoughts to Consider...

Just because they removed 15 rows does not mean that will stay that way.  They may have removed them so they are not damaged during the demolition/construction of the new left field wall.  Once the wall is constructed and complete, then they can put the seats back in.  

[connja]

15 minutes ago, Dipper9 said:

Dipper's Thirsty Thursday Thoughts to Consider...

Just because they removed 15 rows does not mean that will stay that way.  They may have removed them so they are not damaged during the demolition/construction of the new left field wall.  Once the wall is constructed and complete, then they can put the seats back in.  

Agree and expect that to be true.  That 90% angle coming back to the bullpen would make Fenway's corner look like a chip shot.

[MarCakes21]

6 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Pic of the construction underway. 

I was under the general impression that they wouldn't impact the bullpens, that would cost too much and way more than the field dimensions.  I still believe that to be the case.

[Hallas]

5 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Looking at this photo and then doing some measurements with Google Maps, it looks like the the bend in the fence about 40' from the foul pole would go from roughly 360' to about 400'.  If they're correct in saying that the fences will move back "up to 30 feet" then the changes aren't going to result in the fence being right at the farthest point of removed seats.  If you take the 364' point and drag that back to 394' that puts the fence maybe 3-4 rows in front of the first row of seats still present.

If the removed seats were the location of the new fence both bullpens would have to move or be modified.  The front of that last section before the bullpens is about 420' from the plate.

This photo also makes it look like the RF pole will remain at 330', but then very quickly fall back to a much deeper number.  Almost like RF at Fenway, just much farther away.

Now I'm hoping that the changes exactly follow the removed seats.  We'd end up with at least a 15' fence and LF power alley well over 400'.  That would mean a massive blast for a homer there.  Unfortunately that doesn't square with the up to 30' statement.

I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled a few extra seats just to make sure they didn't damage any of the existing seats during construction. Given that they have to demo a significant part of the lower box, I'd be surprised if they didn't do that.

 

It looks like the wall in between the upper and lower bullpen is the new fence line, which is what I had in my imgur doodle..  If you run that line across, it would be ~424 to deep LCF, and 390-395 at the power alley where the current 364 sign is.  The result is like 20-30 feet added all the way down the LF wall.  The only difference is that they're changing the angle of the fence from the LF pole to go out much more quickly, so the depth increases rapidly from 333 to ~380ish.

[jabba72]

35 minutes ago, MarCakes21 said:

I was under the general impression that they wouldn't impact the bullpens, that would cost too much and way more than the field dimensions.  I still believe that to be the case.

Or they could just move one of the bullpens behind CF. Since a 12 foot wall is going to be put there, it shouldnt mess with the batters eye. 

[jabba72]

Might as well move the fences back in the Right Center Power Alley as I can see empty space behind the wall there. It doesn't make a ton of sense to have a dramatic difference from one half of the field to the other.

[MarCakes21]

26 minutes ago, jabba72 said:

Or they could just move one of the bullpens behind CF. Since a 12 foot wall is going to be put there, it shouldnt mess with the batters eye. 

They didn't state a 12ft wall all the way around, just in LF, which is needed because they removed seats, and if not they'd have to relevel the seats.

[connja]

1 hour ago, MarCakes21 said:

I was under the general impression that they wouldn't impact the bullpens, that would cost too much and way more than the field dimensions.  I still believe that to be the case.

They could turn the bullpens to face home plate which might allow them to take some space from the visitor bullpen in front.

[Can_of_corn]

4 minutes ago, connja said:

They could turn the bullpens to face home plate which might allow them to take some space from the visitor bullpen in front.

They could just remove the overhead covering and bench from the visitor bullpen.

[connja]

FWIW, the centerfield wall at Nationals Park is 12 feet high.  This picture gives some perspective of how high that is.

[MGH5208]

 

[Orioles0615]

 

[connja]

12 minutes ago, Orioles0615 said:

 

Looks like the 30 feet deeper is in the corner rather than power alley.  Don't love the 90% around the bullpen but whatever, have to see what it actually looks like.

[MDtransplant757]

I hate this. Camden yards is a band box, but the most HR's go to RF. So their solution is to move LF out more? This is stupid and they should just leave the ballpark as it is.