The LF wall tracker

[deward]

11 minutes ago, Aglets said:

Sounds like we agree.  We have never attempted to sign a top tier FA before.  We signed Ubaldo in mid February.........generally the top of the top guys aren't available then.

So then we are just left with common sense.  Llike Drungo said.............it may not be THE defining factor.  But it clearly is A factor.   Free agents don't sign based on one single criteria.   If two offers are identical......and the two teams are reasonably similar in other ways.....would you want to pitch in a big stadium or a small one.   Again......i don't understand how anyone would think otherwise.    

Now you can say it may have a near negligible effect on how free agents behave.   That is fine.   Clearly it is just academic until we get our own Scherzer or Verlander to come on down.

My position is that the park isn't going to have any meaningful impact on the team's ability to sign significant free agent pitchers. Ironically, I think it's actually more likely to scare off RH power hitters than it is to have any other impact.

[Aglets]

9 minutes ago, deward said:

My position is that the park isn't going to have any meaningful impact on the team's ability to sign significant free agent pitchers. Ironically, I think it's actually more likely to scare off RH power hitters than it is to have any other impact.

Noted.  My position is that you are mistaken.  No offense meant......and no one will be able to prove it either way until we sign someone who says something about how they love the new wall dimensions, lol.  Or some hitter says the inverse. 

I think Elias is aware that it may make it harder to bring in power hitters......which is why for the past 3 drafts (bold prediction incoming.......this same pattern will repeat with #4 this summer) he has gone very heavy on position players.   It all makes sense.   

What's indisputable though is that OPACY was one of the (if not the worst) HR prone ballparks since its inception 30 years ago.  I think it is rational to want to do something about that in an effort to make it more hospitable to acquiring FA pitching talent.  Elias is clearly wary about spending heavy draft capital on pitchers......which is another position that you can criticize him on if you so choose.  I think I understand why he has this position and am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a little more time.  If he doesn't spend on pitching soon though then I think he will deserve heavy criticism.

[Orioles4Life21]

4 hours ago, Going Underground said:

First game today in three years.Cut out three entrances, no special entrance for season ticket holders and only am hour before the game.No napkins and used to get a stat sheet from the club level press box. Woman there said  keep cutting things, she better be quiet. Makes a bad fan experience. 

The employees are just at the gate doing nothing since here early for the schoolkids 

 

Yea I sorely miss the programs and Orioles magazines, which were also cut out.

[deward]

34 minutes ago, Aglets said:

Noted.  My position is that you are mistaken.  No offense meant......and no one will be able to prove it either way until we sign someone who says something about how they love the new wall dimensions, lol.  Or some hitter says the inverse. 

I think Elias is aware that it may make it harder to bring in power hitters......which is why for the past 3 drafts (bold prediction incoming.......this same pattern will repeat with #4 this summer) he has gone very heavy on position players.   It all makes sense.   

What's indisputable though is that OPACY was one of the (if not the worst) HR prone ballparks since its inception 30 years ago.  I think it is rational to want to do something about that in an effort to make it more hospitable to acquiring FA pitching talent.  Elias is clearly wary about spending heavy draft capital on pitchers......which is another position that you can criticize him on if you so choose.  I think I understand why he has this position and am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a little more time.  If he doesn't spend on pitching soon though then I think he will deserve heavy criticism.

No offense taken, I like debating this kind of thing. I also freely admit to being biased, I think the park was as close to aesthetically perfect as we're going to get, now it's got this ugly monstrosity of wall marring things. Aesthetics are subjective, of course; if other folks enjoy the new look, fine. I was never bothered by it being a HR friendly park, I like having a mix of parks that play different ways around the league, but I prefer my home team's park to favor hitters. I'm not excited about a park that now has (based on the dimensions) the most difficult LF in all of baseball to hit HR. That seems too extreme to me.

[Aglets]

4 minutes ago, deward said:

No offense taken, I like debating this kind of thing. I also freely admit to being biased, I think the park was as close to aesthetically perfect as we're going to get, now it's got this ugly monstrosity of wall marring things. Aesthetics are subjective, of course; if other folks enjoy the new look, fine. I was never bothered by it being a HR friendly park, I like having a mix of parks that play different ways around the league, but I prefer my home team's park to favor hitters. I'm not excited about a park that now has (based on the dimensions) the most difficult LF in all of baseball to hit HR. That seems too extreme to me.

Totally fair.   I don't think we can say for sure how it will end up in the future based on a ~1 month or so sample size........but that is entirely reasonable to not want to go from one extreme to the other.  I am personally reserving my opinion on the aesthetics for when I see it in person for the first time........hopefully very soon!

[Sanfran327]

Poetic justice that Santander rips a dinger over the new LF wall to walk it off against the Yankees. 

Fun way to end a losing streak. 

[Going Underground]

3 hours ago, Orioles4Life21 said:

Yea I sorely miss the programs and Orioles magazines, which were also cut out.

One of the better games I have been too but the lack of employees shows.So getting out near the kids playground area only has one gate open when they can open three.I guess they like people jammed in.They used to run out of paper towels in the men's bathroom and still do.Three of the urinals on the third base side were not working properly.I asked why no napkins and the employee laughed and said covid related.

[eddie83]

5 minutes ago, Going Underground said:

One of the better games I have been too but the lack of employees shows.So getting out near the kids playground area only has one gate open when they can open three.I guess they like people jammed in.They used to run out of paper towels in the men's bathroom and still do.Three of the urinals on the third base side were not working properly.I asked why no napkins and the employee laughed and said covid related.

Incredible. I’m suppose to believe all sports venues no longer have napkins? 
 

[Sports Guy]

 

[foxfield]

16 hours ago, Beysbol said:

I agree. I was sick of this park and how easily the homers were flying out of here. I also did not like the small wall all the way around and was incredibly happy that they finally did something about the wall and moved it back and also raised it! Could really care less what Mancini thinks about the wall. It was needed. 

Don't be too hard on Mancini.  The important thing is that even if the wall change isn't permanent...it will likely be here longer than Mancini. 

[DrungoHazewood]

14 hours ago, deward said:

No offense taken, I like debating this kind of thing. I also freely admit to being biased, I think the park was as close to aesthetically perfect as we're going to get, now it's got this ugly monstrosity of wall marring things. Aesthetics are subjective, of course; if other folks enjoy the new look, fine. I was never bothered by it being a HR friendly park, I like having a mix of parks that play different ways around the league, but I prefer my home team's park to favor hitters. I'm not excited about a park that now has (based on the dimensions) the most difficult LF in all of baseball to hit HR. That seems too extreme to me.

But do we really?  Who plays in a huge pitcher's park?  75 or 100 years ago there were parks that were 257' down the lines, just over 300' in the gap. Others that were 500' or more to various spots.  Yankee Stadium was 460' in the LC gap and about that far to CF, but 296' to RF.  When Memorial Stadium opened for the Orioles in the 50s it was about 450' to the CF hedge, and about that far to the LC/RC gap. Griffith Stadium in Washington was 402 down the LF line. In its early days Braves Field in Boston didn't have a dimension under 400' anywhere.

Today? Nobody has a fence over 430', nobody is over 350' down the lines, and the Pesky Pole in Fenway is the only place in the majors under 300'.  Nobody has a gap measurement over 400', unless I'm missing one.  It's only in the context of the last 30-odd years that OPACY's new 396' in deepest LC is considered extreme. Joe DiMaggio played his entire career in a home park where that fence was about 70' further away.  Mays' catch in the '54 Series would probably be five or 10 rows deep in every park in the majors today.

[deward]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

But do we really?  Who plays in a huge pitcher's park?  75 or 100 years ago there were parks that were 257' down the lines, just over 300' in the gap. Others that were 500' or more to various spots.  Yankee Stadium was 460' in the LC gap and about that far to CF, but 296' to RF.  When Memorial Stadium opened for the Orioles in the 50s it was about 450' to the CF hedge, and about that far to the LC/RC gap. Griffith Stadium in Washington was 402 down the LF line. In its early days Braves Field in Boston didn't have a dimension under 400' anywhere.

Today? Nobody has a fence over 430', nobody is over 350' down the lines, and the Pesky Pole in Fenway is the only place in the majors under 300'.  Nobody has a gap measurement over 400', unless I'm missing one.  It's only in the context of the last 30-odd years that OPACY's new 396' in deepest LC is considered extreme. Joe DiMaggio played his entire career in a home park where that fence was about 70' further away.  Mays' catch in the '54 Series would probably be five or 10 rows deep in every park in the majors today.

I guess it depends on if you consider Triples Alley in Oracle Park to be more center or right-center. It's 415' there. Other than that, Petco is the next deepest I can think of, at 390' to each power alley. 

I would have been perfectly content to let some either team step up to fill this gap.

[DrungoHazewood]

3 minutes ago, deward said:

I guess it depends on if you consider Triples Alley in Oracle Park to be more center or right-center. It's 415' there. Other than that, Petco is the next deepest I can think of, at 390' to each power alley. 

I would have been perfectly content to let some either team step up to fill this gap.

I applaud the Orioles for their forward thinking, and hope the rest of the league follows suit.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

 

I definitely missed a few of the homers our opponents lost.   How in the world do you lose a homer out there and it turns into a single? 

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I definitely missed a few of the homers our opponents lost.   How in the world do you lose a homer out there and it turns into a single? 

Someone get thrown out trying to get a double?