Amazin' Avenue: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
New Blog: Once A Metro covering Red Bull New York!

Mythbusters: Citi Field Kills Homeruns

This'll be a quick one. We don't actually know yet whether Citi Field will generally suppress homeruns, runs, hits, or inflate any or all of those things. Eighty-one games isn't enough to make any long-term assertions with any significant degree of certainty. Coming into the season we thought it might be death to homeruns, and to be sure there weren't a lot of homeruns hit there in its first season. The problem with just taking the total number of homeruns hit -- 130 -- and concluding that the park is no friend to power hitters is that it tells us little about how the park played relative to other parks. Of course, the paucity of Citi Field longballs has a lot to do with the fact that the Mets played there, and the 2009 Mets, as we well know, were a bad baseball team which was especially bad at hitting for power.

Rumor has it that Matt Holliday has already expressed interest in playing in New York, either for the Mets or the Yankees. No big surprise, as the New York teams can offer the biggest spotlight and, in most cases, the biggest paycheck. He also has some trepidation about playing -- really, hitting -- in Citi Field, which is understandable given how much the media seems to have hammered home the points that Citi Field hates homeruns and that the dimensions should be altered accordingly. So for Holliday -- and anyone else repelled by the dimensions of the Mets' home park -- I whipped up this simple chart to illustrate, at least as far as we know right now, that Citi Field is clearly not harder to hit homeruns out of than the average park. On the contrary: Citi Field was 12th in 2009 homerun park factor at 1.057 (i.e. 5.7% more homeruns were hit in Mets games at Citi Field than on the road).

There are plenty of good reasons not to sign with the Mets, but their home ballpark shouldn't be one of them.

2009_homeruns_in_mets_games_medium

0 recs  |  Comment 12 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

More from Amazin' Avenue

Elijah Dukes for Centerfield?

Mar 2010 by Sam Page - 106 comments

Mets Sign Kiko Calero

Mar 2010 by Sam Page - 71 comments

Sorry Folks.

Feb 2010 by Sam Page - 70 comments

Rod Barajas Signs With Mets

Feb 2010 by Eric Simon - 118 comments

Comments

Display:

It seems like people are confused between the claims

“CitiField suppresses homers” and “CitiField suppressed David Wright’s home runs”. He was the only significant glaring example of a power deviation from career norms, and just anecdotally, its reasonable to see why, since may of Wright’s home runs in previous years went from somewhere around the middle of the field or beyond the gap in RCF, which is exactly where CitiField is significantly deeper than its predecessor. There are lots of examples of players with varying levels of baseline power who, albiet in small sample sizes for various reasons, saw no significant change in home run rate (Angel Pagan, Daniel Murphy, Gary Sheffield) or even an improvement (Jeff Francoeur).

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Oct 19, 2009 12:13 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I think Citi really did cut down his HRs.

David is basically a pull homerun hitter, but also hits them to RCF area. Those are the areas with the highest walls and the farthest distance from home plate, respectively. HitFX data would be awesome here.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Oct 19, 2009 6:57 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

How about this


compare to

This is just HR data so I dunno how conclusive it is. (Sorry ’bout the size)

by Jsz on Oct 19, 2009 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

wasn't clear

first graph is 2008, but second is 2009

by Jsz on Oct 19, 2009 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Is that just Dubs?

Is there one for 2007 too? Pretty sure he lead at least the NL in Oppos that year, but I might be wrong.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Oct 19, 2009 8:47 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

From this, it would appear that he's really suffering in two areas.

Homeruns to true left field (i.e. not down the line, but a bit left of left-center), and anything right of center field.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Oct 19, 2009 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

but for all we know, one or both of those are approach related

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Oct 19, 2009 9:35 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I still think

they should lower the fences. No matter what the numbers are, a hitter isn’t going to be happy if he crushes a ball that hits the top of an unusually high fence. Lowering it won’t turn Citi into Yankee Stadium (sour grapes: A-Rod’s homer, an out at Citi, or a double?) but it would at least change the perception a bit. Plus, I don’t like that there can’t be any Endy-like plays, which IMO is one of the most exiting plays in the game.

by Mount17 on Oct 19, 2009 12:15 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

definitely an out

Bobby friggin Abreu was right there – an adequate right fielder would have been camped under that ball for about a month.

Still, glad to see ARod doing well – it makes Yankee fans look like such hypocritical female hygienic products now that they’re falling over themselves to love him.

"[The Giants] beat us down. We were beat by a grown-man team, a team we want to be like one day. They came in here and took it to us. Out-manned us, out-gunned us. ... It wasn't even close." - Raheem Morris, 9/27/09

by cjmulrain on Oct 19, 2009 1:06 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Meddler is right

Gap power gets suppresed at Citi, Pull power doesn’t get quashed as much. I like that Citi calls for better OF defesne and helps speeders with triples. It plays like a very exciting park, provided that we they can get our talent to play on it.

by Coolpapabell on Oct 19, 2009 12:49 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Start posting about the Mets »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

Connect_with_facebook

Cbs_fantasy_baseball_promo

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recommended FanPosts

Buckner_small
Prospect Smackdown: Davis vs. Freeman vs. Morrison
Screenshot_small
Chris Carter: virtu and fortuna
Small
Thinking about David Wright's 2010

Recent FanPosts

Metlogo_small
Should Fernando Martinez get a shot at CF?
Headshot_small
A Quick Poll: Francoeur versus Dukes
Mania_123wx118h_small
ALL-NL CENTRAL TEAM
Orosco_small
Jenrry Mejia poll
Small
The Resurrection of Ike Davis
N16115505_31581383_8646_small
Come check us out!
Buckner_small
All-Time Most Hated Mets

+ New FanPost All FanPosts >

FanShots

Quick hits of video, photos, quotes, chats, links and lists that you find around the web.

Recommended FanShots

Who should replace Reyes at the top of the Mets order? MLB The Show offers this hilarious suggestion.
Advice for Jose Reyes.

Recent FanShots

Adam Rubin lobby for Mets opening day roster
Feliciano departs after taking liner off leg
Relievers are volatile, up and down. So teams can luck into late-game...
Tim Marchman On Ron Washington
Yahoo! report Cleveland claim Anderson Hernandez
New draft blog coming to SB nation
Holt takes a line drive to the leg...
CC Sabathia in a Bad Company 2 mock PSA
Nationals release Elijah Dukes

+ New FanShot All FanShots >

Sponsors

SBNation.com Recent Stories

Detroit Tigers' Gerald Laird, left, is greeted by teammates Ryan Strieby, center, and Miguel Cabrera who were on base for his third-inning grand slam off New York Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain during a spring training baseball game in Lakeland, Fla., Wednesday, March 10, 2010.  (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

SB Nation's 2010 MLB Previews: Detroit Tigers, Sights Set On Success

Davey Johnson, center, a senior adviser for the Washington Nationals,  is shown in the dugout during a spring training baseball game against the New York Mets, Saturday, March 6, 2010, in Viera, Fla. (AP Photo/Rob Carr) +3 updates

Spring Training News and Notes, 3/19: Catching Up With Everyone

Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Mat Gamel can't field a bunt by Chicago Cubs' Kosuke Fukudome, of Japan, during the first inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009.(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Brewers Third Baseman Mat Gamel Diagnosed With 'Slightly' Torn Lat

More from SBNation.com >


THE BIG GUY

Aa_avatar_small Eric Simon

THE INCREDIBLES

Blackfish2_small Alex Nelson

Mos_def_def2_small Sam Page

Aaavatar_small Mark Himmelstein

Best_infield_ever_small James Kannengieser

THE NEWS GURU

Wrightfront_small Joe Budd

THE POET LAUREATE

Hamheadshot__1__small Howard Megdal