Left field at OPACY going through a big change

[Can_of_corn]

31 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Exactly right.  The people pushing back on this are so absurd and btw, many of those people probably hate the 3 outcome sport it has become.

I'm fine with them moving the wall back but I'm unhappy with what I have seen concerning how the bullpen is incorporated.  I think they could have done a more comprehensive redesign. 

[deward]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Exactly right.  The people pushing back on this are so absurd and btw, many of those people probably hate the 3 outcome sport it has become.

Does this make the team better? If nothing else changes, does this add more wins?

[deward]

2 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Positives to this change: Makes baseball at OPACY more of an athletic competition with fielders given space to run, and hitters not being able to sit back and wait for cheap homers as much.  If teams across MLB were to do things like this it could force the game to adopt more contact and speed oriented strategies and rosters, rather than wall-to-wall Chris Davis clones.  Ballparks have long been designed to the specs of the 1920s, and players are much larger and more athletic, parks should be scaled appropriately.

Negatives: It's not how Camden Yards looked in 1992, so it's dumb and stupid and I want them to put it back.

The warning track flyouts will be very entertaining.

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

Exactly right.  The people pushing back on this are so absurd and btw, many of those people probably hate the 3 outcome sport it has become.

Remember, baseball has evolved into an unrecognizable mess that everyone from 1950 thinks is an abomination in the face of God.  But any attempt to change it, even explicitly trying to get back to the game of 1950, is pure sacrilege and will be opposed at every turn.

The only acceptable solution for many die-hard fans is for the game to naturally un-evolve into what it was 50 or 75 years ago.  Which, of course, will never happen in a million years.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, deward said:

Does this make the team better? If nothing else changes, does this add more wins?

They used to say Babe Ruth would roll into Cleveland and hit 3-4 homers every series at League Park, which was 280 to RF and maybe 325 to RC.  If this limits Aaron Judge's ability to do that in Baltimore I'm good with it.

[DrungoHazewood]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm fine with them moving the wall back but I'm unhappy with what I have seen concerning how the bullpen is incorporated.  I think they could have done a more comprehensive redesign. 

But to do that they'd have to rip off the city of Baltimore and Maryland taxpayers in a craven money grab to pay for the additional changes.  This was the fiscally prudent approach.

[Can_of_corn]

5 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Remember, baseball has evolved into an unrecognizable mess that everyone from 1950 thinks is an abomination in the face of God.  But any attempt to change it, even explicitly trying to get back to the game of 1950, is pure sacrilege and will be opposed at every turn.

The only acceptable solution for many die-hard fans is for the game to naturally un-evolve into what it was 50 or 75 years ago.  Which, of course, will never happen in a million years.

Except for those die-hard fans that want it back to how it was 110 years ago. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, DrungoHazewood said:

But to do that they'd have to rip off the city of Baltimore and Maryland taxpayers in a craven money grab to pay for the additional changes.  This was the fiscally prudent approach.

Or, you know, reached into their own pockets.

 

[deward]

4 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

They used to say Babe Ruth would roll into Cleveland and hit 3-4 homers every series at League Park, which was 280 to RF and maybe 325 to RC.  If this limits Aaron Judge's ability to do that in Baltimore I'm good with it.

Given where Judge's home runs tend to land, I'm not thinking this is going to stop him.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, deward said:

The warning track flyouts will be very entertaining.

If they're off the bat of, say, Gary Sanchez I'll agree.  As the park used to be configured he homered once every 11 PAs, or more frequently than the Babe used to hit homers.  If we've now cut that to once every 20 or 30 I'd call it a win.

[Ripken]

2 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm fine with them moving the wall back but I'm unhappy with what I have seen concerning how the bullpen is incorporated.  I think they could have done a more comprehensive redesign. 

This.  Function and feel are two different things.  I'm good with the first, not the second.

[DrungoHazewood]

14 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Or, you know, reached into their own pockets.

 

C'mon, this is America. Land of the free, home of the socialized ballpark costs. Only suckers pay for their own sports stadium renovation.

[deward]

9 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

If they're off the bat of, say, Gary Sanchez I'll agree.  As the park used to be configured he homered once every 11 PAs, or more frequently than the Babe used to hit homers.  If we've now cut that to once every 20 or 30 I'd call it a win.

Sanchez isn't with the Yankees anymore, but if he was, he'd hit less home runs in OPCY when the team has pitchers who aren't just throwing batting practice out there. Looking at his spray charts since 2019, I only see one obvious home run that this takes away. I suggest that a better solution to that issue might be not feeding Judge, Stanton, and Sanchez with guys like Adam Plutko, Spencer Watkins, Asher Wojciechowski, Jorge Lopez, David Hess, Dan Straily, etc, etc, etc....

[DrungoHazewood]

18 minutes ago, deward said:

Given where Judge's home runs tend to land, I'm not thinking this is going to stop him.

Over the last three seasons Judge has hit 79 home runs.  Just 28 have been categorized as no-doubters by Statcast.  Adding 20-30 feet to LF at Camden Yards will almost certainly cost him a few homers.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, deward said:

Sanchez isn't with the Yankees anymore, but if he was, he'd hit less home runs in OPCY when the team has pitchers who aren't just throwing batting practice out there. Looking at his spray charts since 2019, I only see one obvious home run that this takes away. I suggest that a better solution to that issue might be not feeding Judge, Stanton, and Sanchez with guys like Adam Plutko, Spencer Watkins, Asher Wojciechowski, Jorge Lopez, David Hess, Dan Straily, etc, etc, etc....

I get it, you hate the change and nothing I say will do anything about that.  Have fun complaining about it forever.