Marlins Park…as much firepower as the discontinued Marlin Camp Carbine.
They moved the fences in at Detroit’s Comerica Park after a few seasons. They’ve done the same at the Mets’ Citi Field. Might cavernous Marlins Park become the next big-league venue to downsize?
“I’m guessing that a couple of years of seeing what the park’s like is going to lead to the fences coming in,” said Brian Raue, an FIU physics professor and self-proclaimed baseball fan.
...According to Raue, a well-struck ball should travel anywhere from four to eight feet less inside Marlins Park with the roof closed than it would have at Sun Life Stadium — all else being equal. The reason: A baseball travels further in hot, humid air than it does in cool, dry air. In other words, an air-conditioned ballpark set at 72 degrees and 40 percent humidity is great for spectators but lousy for sluggers.
Making matters even more difficult for hitters at Marlins Park: The outfield dimensions are significantly greater than they were at Sun Life.
“You add that on, too, and now you’re talking about balls that used to go out of the old stadium that are going to fall 10 feet short of the fence in the new one,” said Raue, who has also performed studies on the elasticity of baseballs when placed in a humidor, which is done at Coors Field in Denver. “You add it all up and you’ve got a real pitcher’s park.”
...One Marlins player, who asked not to be identified, said he doubts any of the six home runs hit by the Marlins during their just-completed road trip would have gone out of the new ballpark.
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1. zachtoma Posted: April 15, 2012 at 01:18 AM (#4106836)Build more cavernous parks, if you ask me.
(The other possible, partial explanation is just a series of flukes, but I think that we're getting past the point where that's particularly likely.)
EDIT: Also the strike zone. So, change in the ball, plus better enforcement of the rulebook strike zone, with some park and maybe steroid effects on the edges.
When PETCO first opened, I recall somebody from Padres org. mentioning that teams who play in pitchers' parks have a larger homefield advantage than those which play in hitters' parks.
Edit; Infante hits the Marlins' first HR in the ballpark as I watch the Sunday game. It's the first time the homer contraption has been used. (Jim Deshais: "It's like hitting the jackpot on a slot machine in Las Vegas.")
fascinating that all of a sudden ballplayers are having all this trouble hitting a baseball over a 350-380 foot fence
but it couldn't be, like, the BALL, COULD IT?
I thought it wasn't so much an advantage in home games, as the cumulative effect of your pitchers throwing less pitches per inning and not getting overused.
That seems like an odd way to say that.
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