On-Deck

Ballpark Analysis: Batting Average Yielded Last week, we took a look at how each park in MLB has affected home runs hit in the past three seasons. However, as mentioned in that article, home runs yielded aren't the only thing that can make a park favorable (or unfavorable) for hitters. This week, we're going to take a look at how each team performed both at home and on the road in terms of their batting average and the batting average that their pitchers allowed.

It should be assumed that pitchers will be able to adjust a bit to their home park, which is why we're going to find that just five teams allowed a higher batting average at home than they did on the road last season. However, we're also going to notice exactly why some of the parks that are notorious for being hitter havens find their way to the top despite not yielding a ton of home runs. For example, Coors Field yielded the sixteenth most home runs in baseball last season, yet it played as the number two park for hitters.

Factors Affecting Average

Grass vs. Turf

This is becoming less and less of a factor each season, as there are now just a handful of parks that still use turf for their fields. You would think that the turf would play better for hitters in terms of average, as more ground balls would get through the infield. However, last year (at least) that simply wasn't the case. The top turf batting park in terms of average was Rogers Centre (Toronto), which finished twelfth in the league. The other two turf stadiums of note (The Metrodome [Minnesota] and Tropicana Field [Tampa Bay]) both finished outside of the top twenty.

Foul Territory

Different parks have different amounts of space in foul territory where the ball remains playable for a fielder. Obviously, the first instinct is that the parks with the most foul territory (such as Oakland's McAfee Coliseum) should play better for pitchers in these terms than they would for hitters. Surprisingly, McAfee hasn't played extremely poorly overall in terms of batting average (19th last season), but it certainly hasn't played well either.

Each time a foul ball remains playable, it's more likely to be an out recorded in the scoresheet, and hits can never result from a ball that drops harmlessly in foul territory. However, while this is typically the case, the Dodgers didn't find it all that helpful in 2005 when they added seating and cut down on the ground along the foul lines. What happened next made little sense. Dodger Stadium dropped significantly from 12th in 2004 to 27th in 2005. However, there was certainly a major adjustment in this area last season, as Dodger Stadium yielded an average that was six full points higher than the Dodgers' road games did, good for fifth in the league.

Outfield Dimensions

This can be both a good thing and a bad thing in terms of playing for average. The theory is that parks that have longer fences to hit to will leave more ground for the outfielders to have to cover, thus leading to more singles and doubles for hitters. The best example of parks that thrive based on their dimensions is our overwhelming top hitter's park in terms of average in each of the past three seasons, Coors Field. Why do so many balls drop in at Coors?

In truth, the dimensions in Coors play a little longer than most parks do in the majors, with the exception of a slightly short fence in right center. However, the way that the ball can fly in Denver is a major factor. A ball hit at the mile high altitude can travel up to 8% longer in the air before it drops as it will at sea level. Therefore, the solution that most big league managers and outfielders will use is to almost always play exceptionally deep. If you're thinking that this may mean a lot of flares that wouldn't ordinarily drop are going to, you deserve a gold star.

Without further adieu, let's take a look at how each of the ballparks in the majors have played in terms of batting average from 2004 through 2006. We're going to show you pretty much everything here. The first two columns will be how each team hit both at home and on the road, followed by the difference. Following that, we'll show that same team's pitchers' performance both at home on the road. Finally, we'll come to our conclusion about just how well each park played for average by finding the overall difference.

2006 Batting Average Differential



2005 Batting Average Differential



2004 Batting Average Differential



* The Washington Nationals moved into RFK Stadium prior to the 2005 season
** The St. Louis Cardinals moved into the new Busch Stadium prior to the 2006 season

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