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For a while now, I've wanted a website to have a strong list of park factors to look at. ESPN has a sortable list, but it's not the greatest, and doesn't use a mult-year factor (which is more reliable).

There are some good factors around on the internet, but I don't know of anywhere that has them quick and easy to look at in ranked form. So I figured I could just compile them in one spot myself for future reference.

And then I figured I could post them here so you could see them, too, if you're interested.

For this, I'll be using the factors from StatCorner, which are awesome because they use batter handedness, because parks affect hitters differently from different sides of the plate. Their factors are based on the research of David Gassko, and you can read about his methodology here.

Short and sweet, the first two lists are how much parks affect offense. A factor of 105, for example, inflates offense 5% more than a neutral park would. (Offense in this case is measured by weighted on base average.)

Left Handed Hitters

  1. Arizona 107
  2. Colorado 106
  3. Boston 106
  4. Baltimore 105
  5. Kansas City 104
  6. Chicago NL 104
  7. Texas 103
  8. Cincinnati 103
  9. Philadelphia 103
  10. Houston 103
  11. Washington 102
  12. Anaheim 101
  13. Chicago AL 100
  14. San Francisco 100
  15. Minnesota 100
  16. New York AL 100
  17. Toronto 100
  18. New York NL 100
  19. Pittsburgh 100
  20. Milwaukee 100
  21. Cleveland 99
  22. Florida 99
  23. Los Angeles NL 99
  24. Tampa Bay 98
  25. St. Louis 98
  26. Atlanta 97
  27. Detroit 96
  28. Seattle 95
  29. Oakland 95
  30. San Diego 89

Right Handed Hitters

  1. Colorado 111
  2. Arizona 107
  3. Texas 107
  4. Boston 105
  5. Baltimore 105
  6. Detroit 105
  7. Chicago NL 104
  8. Cincinnati 103
  9. Chicago AL 103
  10. San Francisco 102
  11. Kansas City 101
  12. Philadelphia 101
  13. Houston 101
  14. Florida 101
  15. Anaheim 100
  16. Minnesota 100
  17. New York AL 100
  18. New York NL 100
  19. Cleveland 99
  20. Toronto 98
  21. Washington 98
  22. Pittsburgh 98
  23. Atlanta 98
  24. Tampa Bay 97
  25. Milwaukee 97
  26. St. Louis 97
  27. Seattle 97
  28. Los Angeles NL 95
  29. Oakland 92
  30. San Diego 92

Home Runs (Lefty/Righty)

  1. Cincinnati 123/133
  2. Chicago AL 122/133
  3. Baltimore 120/123
  4. Philadelphia 118/124
  5. Texas 118/107
  6. Colorado 108/116
  7. Houston 107/117
  8. Toronto 112/110
  9. Chicago NL 117/104
  10. Milwaukee 119/102
  11. Arizona 118/102
  12. New York AL 113/107
  13. Detroit 95/118
  14. Los Angeles NL 115/91
  15. Minnesota 99/99
  16. Anaheim 95/99
  17. Washington 95/99
  18. New York NL 92/96
  19. Florida 97/96
  20. San Francisco 85/97
  21. Atlanta 96/90
  22. Tampa Bay 89/96
  23. Cleveland 88/89
  24. Boston 85/95
  25. Pittsburgh 99/74
  26. Seattle 93/87
  27. Oakland 94/73
  28. Kansas City 70/86
  29. St. Louis 82/73
  30. San Diego 59/90

Reactions

  • Texas is a hitters' park, that's not a myth. The myth is that it's dramatically more favorable for offense than other parks. It's not even the most favorable park for hitters in the American League, particularly for lefties. I mean, it's not even close to being the biggest launching pad in baseball. RBiA inflates offense, but mostly the Rangers have just had good hitters.
  • Detroit favors lefties? A bunch? I absolutely would not have guessed that.
  • I really like tangibly seeing the effect of the Green Monster in how much righties like Boston, but how hard it is for them to hit it out. I want to know why they don't hit many out to left, though.
  • Think Target Field is really perfectly neutral or we just don't have much information on it?
  • How come Arizona isn't talked about like a hitters' paradise more often. I found this out a while ago, but this little exercise hammers it home: that place is like steroids with a hot tub.
  • A lot of parks, you'll see, greatly affect the rate of home runs, but have other factors that keep offense from being outrageous.
  • Gaze at the effect of the humidor. Colorado is still a hitters' park, but it's not far and away the most extreme anymore. Hell, Arizona is friendlier for lefties, and Boston just as much. And home runs aren't as much what creates offense in Colorado (heavier ball doesn't travel as far), but pitchers who can't grip balls in thin air getting fewer strikeouts, and hitters getting a lot of line drives and a lot of triples in that giant outfield.
  • I think Houston is another park that gets too much play as a hitters' park. It is, but it's not extreme. That centerfield is humongous. The Crawford Boxes are inviting, though.
  • Holy cow Petco is ridiculous.
  • I thought San Francisco was a pitchers' park. I guess not. It is, however, really hard for a lefty to hit the ball out.
  • This is the first time I've noticed that Albert Pujols is doing what he does in a very unconducive park to righty offensive production.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.