Quick: what park in baseball has the biggest positive impact on home-runs? If you said Coors Field, you may not even be close. Tristan Cockcroft analyzed park factors over the past five years, comparing numbers at home against numbers on the road, and concluded “If you’re looking for homer heaven, look no further” than US Cellular Field.
Hell In The Cell? Not For Hitters
↵It seems that since 2000, when the White Sox pulled the fences in, the balls have been flying out of the Cell at an impressive rate - from 2005-2009., almost 30% more often than on the road. Coors ranks only sixth for home-run park factor (+17%), but it’s spacious outfield and the “benefits” of altitude means that, overall, it still ranks as the most hitter-friendly park in the majors during the period in question.
↵At othe end of the scale, no real surprises: Petco Park is where hitters go to die, suppressing home-runs by 22.5%, and overall scoring by almost as much. It’s even worse for left-handed batters: just ask Adrian Gonzalez, who hit only a dozen of his forty homers there in 2009. He must have been very bad in a previous existence.
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