Buster Olney: New Yankee Stadium on steroids?

The New York Yankees might have a serious problem on their hands: Beautiful new Yankee Stadium appears to be a veritable wind tunnel that is rocketing balls over the fences.

This was in evidence again on Saturday, when the Indians posted six homers, including 14 runs in the second innings. Cleveland eventually won 22-4—and the Yankees and Indians have combined for 14 homers in the last two days.

“With the way the wind has been the last couple of days, right field is a joke,” one official said. “I would say at least three or four home runs in this series would be routine outs in nearly every park.”

There have been five games played in new Yankee Stadium, including two exhibitions against the Chicago Cubs, and so far there have been 25 homers—including 17 in the first three games in the Yankees’ first home series against the Indians.

That’s an average of almost five home runs per game and, at this pace, there would be about 400 homers hit in the park this year—or an increase of about 250 percent. In the last year of old Yankee Stadium, in 2008, there were a total of 160 homers.

The Yankees’ traditionally have fostered pitching in their home park. Old Yankee Stadium had a short porch in right field, designed originally to take advantage of Babe Ruth’s power, but the rest of the park played large. Through the years, this has allowed pitchers to thrive in Yankee Stadium, and been a nice lure for the team in pursuing free agents.

Don’t change it until we see what Josh Hamilton can do in a HR Derby in it.