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):
Code:
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?