Reds affiliates and how their parks play?

[dougdirt]

For today, I kind of wanted to toss around some ideas and get some thoughts from you guys on it. Tomorrow I will post what I found on how the parks play for the 2012 season.

First, of course, is that we know that leagues in general play different ways. Arizona League, Pioneer League and California League are well known to be hitter friendly leagues. Within those specific leagues though, how do they play? Well, thanks for the work of Jeff Sackmann (formerly of Minor League Splits and currently of a slew of other websites) and Dan Szymborski at Baseball Think Factory, we have some park factors to work with already for both 2011 and three year factors for 2009-2011. Here are the 2011 and the 2009-2011 park factors for the stadiums that our teams play in (Pensacola is in its first year, so there are no park factors available. It also seems that the Pioneer League and Arizona Rookie League weren't included in the 3 year factors):

                         2011 Park Factors							
TM	        LG	RC	H	2B	HR	BB	K
AZL Reds	AZL	1.06	1.01	1.12	1.44	0.95	1.05
Billings	Pio	0.97	1.01	0.92	0.90	0.97	1.02
Dayton	        MWL	1.01	0.99	1.01	1.09	0.98	1.03
Bakersfield	Cal	1.00	0.99	1.02	1.07	1.01	1.01
Louisville	Int	0.94	0.98	1.00	0.86	0.98	1.01

                     3 Year Park Factors (2009-2011)							
TM	        LG	RC	H	2B	HR	BB	K
Dayton	        MWL	1.01	0.99	1.01	1.09	0.98	1.03
Bakersfield	Cal	1.02	1.00	1.07	1.08	1.01	1.00
Louisville	Int	0.95	0.99	0.98	0.94	0.99	0.99

With all of that said, these numbers can hide a lot of things. A good example would be Yankee Stadium. Everyone knows how easy it is to hit the ball out to right field there. Overall that boosts up the park factor a lot, but what good does that do for a right handed pull hitter? Not much, but they are facing the same factor as a guy like Jay Bruce would, who would benefit greatly from playing there.

So, before I come back tomorrow and get into what I found, here were my preconceived notions about how the parks played.

AZL - Honestly didn't have the slightest idea. Never been there, it is rather new still. The league as a whole is quite hitter friendly though.

Billings - While the Pioneer League as a whole is considered a hitter friendly league, Billings is said to be a pitchers park.

Dayton - I always thought that Dayton was rather neutral for the league and the league itself as being rather neutral as well.

Bakersfield - Really hitter friendly league and with a 354 foot center field wall, assume it was rather hitter friendly.

Pensacola - A slight pitching friendly league when compared to the other two AA leagues. I had heard and experienced the breeze off of the gulf that had been said to make it difficult to hit for power to right field.

Louisville - Easier to hit home runs to left field than right field (the fence is 15 feet closer down the line in left than in right). Neutral league as a whole.

So, there are my thoughts. What about you guys? How do you think the stadiums play?

[dougdirt]

Well, despite the fact that no one actually replied here, here is what I was able to find (and note, that these park factors only apply to the home park versus the other parks in the league):

The Arizona stadium depresses both hits and power to left field (power by a lot), while boosting power (by a lot) to right field and boosting hits.

Billings depresses hits by a ton to left field and power by a lot to left. Center field, at least this year, played slightly pitcher friendly. Right field didn't do much for hits in either direction, but strongly boosted power.

Dayton boosted hits in both corners, and while boosting power, it was very minimal. Center field however depressed hits but boosted power by a decent amount.

Bakersfield boosted hits a decent amount in left but only boosted power a little bit. Center field boosted hits quite a bit and really boosted power (it is only 354 feet to dead center with a 15 foot wall). Right field didn't do much for hits and boosted power by a very small amount.

Pensacola was interesting, given that there was no previous information. Pensacola in left field boosts power by very large amounts. Home runs were boosted by 102% compared to playing on the road. Left field did suppress hits by a bit. Right field also boosted power quite a bit, with home runs being up 33%. At least in 2012, Pensacola was very much a hitters park.

Louisville boosts hits a lot in left field, but does not boost power. Right field does nothing for hits, but suppresses power a little bit.

[RED VAN HOT]

Saw a couple of games in Bakersfield this year. Wright hit a routine fly to left center. As I got up to fetch a beer, I looked back over my shoulder to find that the ball had left the park. Could not tell much from the crowd reaction as 600 don't make much noise. Straight away CF has a higher fence than left center, so it might actually be a little harder to homer there. The sun sets in CF so they seem to use the high fence plus later summer start times to keep the batters from having to look straight into the sun. There is a great amount of foul territory which usually works to the pitcher's advantage and might offset the short fence help for the hitters. Even though new management had reworked the infield, there were nevertheless three kangaroo hops over the two games I saw.

[19braves77]

Pensacola was interesting, given that there was no previous information. Pensacola in left field boosts power by very large amounts. Home runs were boosted by 102% compared to playing on the road. Left field did suppress hits by a bit. Right field also boosted power quite a bit, with home runs being up 33%. At least in 2012, Pensacola was very much a hitters park.

What did you use to come up with this conclusion ?

[dougdirt]

Originally Posted by 19braves77

Pensacola was interesting, given that there was no previous information. Pensacola in left field boosts power by very large amounts. Home runs were boosted by 102% compared to playing on the road. Left field did suppress hits by a bit. Right field also boosted power quite a bit, with home runs being up 33%. At least in 2012, Pensacola was very much a hitters park.

What did you use to come up with this conclusion ?

How Pensacola and their opponents hit away from the park (in games involving the Blue Wahoos) and how Pensacola and their opponents hit in the park. There were roughly 7500 balls in play to work with in the data.

[19braves77]

Originally Posted by dougdirt

How Pensacola and their opponents hit away from the park (in games involving the Blue Wahoos) and how Pensacola and their opponents hit in the park. There were roughly 7500 balls in play to work with in the data.

Do you know if thats how they get the 3 year ballpark figures ? I know they use Baseball Solutions data but that seems like a lot of work even using their data.

[dougdirt]

I have no idea.