Chass: Intangibles good! Stats bad!

Step 1: Learn how park factor is calculated.
Step 2: Comment on it.

You are getting them out of order.

 

Nothing crazy sabermetric here.

Phillies home games have seen 2,254 runs over the past three seasons in 246 games, for an average of 9.16 runs per game.
Phillies road games have seen 2,116 runs over the past three seasons in 240 games 8.82 runs per game.

So the Phillies' home field has played to about a 3.9% boost to hitters. It's semantics, but I'd call that neutral or leaning toward hitters, but definitely not a clear hitters park.

For the same period, Rockies home games have seen 2,483 runs in 243 games, for an average of 10.2 per game.
Rockies road games have seen 2092 runs in 243 games, for an average of 8.6 runs per game.

So the Rockies home park has given the same hitting and pitching staffs an inflation of about 18.6% over the past three seasons.

*That's* a hitter's park.

 

None of the ballparks has "seen" anything because they do not have eyes.
Ballparks can't see.

 

Point conceded.

 

Long day. I misread his post. Glazed right over the park factor and looked at overall runs. My bad.

Of course, the difference between the parks was much bigger last year than it had been in the previous two seasons. So how was Coors Field suddenly more hitter-friendly in 2010 than in '09 and '08?

Arlington went from 18th in 2007 to first in 2008. Huh?

Another example: If you look at 2010 alone, you would think Minute Maid in Houston was an extreme pitcher's park. I just wonder about the fluctuations in ballpark factor. It's not like the parks themselves changed. Perhaps the statistic doesn't take enough into account. That is why it is important to use your eyes and the available statistics.

Which comes back to the point that brought this up in the first place -- I don't think Ballpark Factor is enough to clear the significant gap between Halladay and Jimenez.

 

That's a valid point. Weather can make a big difference, but there's still enough year-to-year variation that three-year rolling averages are usually used.

 

Which makes sense, but even the year-to-year fluctuation makes me wonder how useful this is. Sure, weather can have some impact, but that much?

Also, back to the comparison of Halladay and Jimenez, if you just take the road statistics for Jimenez he still has a 2.63 ERA, still higher than Halladay's 2.44 for all of his games. That is aided by playing in a division with the Padres (pitcher's park, bad lineup), Giants (pitcher's park), Dodgers (pitcher's park) and Diamondbacks (dogshit lineup in a hitter's park).

Interestingly enough, Halladay was actually even more dominant at home than on the road with a 2.21 ERA in 2010.