Draft prep: Stadium breakdowns (2024)

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Can you imagine if the three-point line at the Golden State Warriors' home court (Oracle Arena) was five feet farther back? They already lead the NBA in threes, which they would likely continue to do, but by a much smaller margin than they do now. Or if the goal mouth at the Prudential Center was a little smaller, how much better would New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur be?

That's how the various stadium dimensions in baseball affect the Fantasy value of the players who play in them. The Padres had the best pitching staff in baseball, but the fact that its dimensions are some of the deepest in the game certainly had something to do with that. And more homers were hit in Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park than at any other stadium, which was one of the major reasons their middle infielders were among two of the best at their position in Fantasy play.

Look at Chris Young's stats. He went 4-2 with a 1.69 ERA at home, but just 5-6 with a 4.52 ERA away from Petco Park. While it doesn't always make or break a star (Jake Peavy, the reigning NL Cy Young winner went 10-1 with an ERA just six hundredths of a run higher than at home), analyzing stadium stats can help you in your drafts as well as in-season. So bookmark this page and check it out frequently throughout the summer.

One of the best calculations to use when considering ballpark stats is something called Park Factors. But different people use different stats for these calculations. For our park factors, we're going to use the following calculations: ((runs scored by home team + runs allowed by home team) divided by (games at home)) divided by ((runs scored by road team + runs allowed by road team) divided by (games on the road)).

But along with these numbers, I think it's also important to look at some of the pitching staffs involved and how good -- or bad -- they are at home. Then you can compare those numbers to their ballpark factors to get an overall idea of how likely a player might do in that park.

For instance, look at the Blue Jays and Rogers Centre last season. Despite the fact they spell "Center" incorrectly, there are some interesting differences here. The Jays had the best ERA (3.67) at home in the AL (second-best to the Padres in the majors), yet they are ranked 21st in park factors, rather than much lower.

And some stats don't tell enough of the story. Not only is Petco Park the best pitcher's park in the league, but consider that the Padres hit just .235 at home as a team. That's five points worse than the A's, who had the second-lowest home batting average. The Padres ended up hitting .265 on the road, which was in the upper half of the majors.

Top Five Fantasy Hitting Stadiums for 2008

You've officially entered -- The Subjective Zone. Instead of just looking at runs scored, I included home runs allowed, rotations and bullpens, defense and lineups to make my assessments for this season. Here are my top five stadiums to start your borderline hitters in -- and reserve your borderline pitchers. Below that, I have the top five stadiums to start your borderline pitchers in -- and reserve your borderline hitters.

1. Great American Ball Park: Only Citizens Bank Park was more homer friendly last season and the Reds pitching staff ERA at home was 4.93, which is worst in the NL.
2. Camden Yards: The O's park had more homers fly out than all but two parks, and this pitching staff is in rebuilding mode. They traded ace Erik Bedard to Seattle, which is not a good sign for a team with the majors' worst home ERA (5.36) last season.
3. Citizens Bank Park: The Phillies' pitching staff allowed an MLB-high 125 home runs last season, and their hitters hit more homers at home than all but the Brewers.
4. Coors Field: Obviously, the Rockies made it to the NLCS, but from a Fantasy perspective, they still have a subpar 4.34 home ERA and their HR Park Factor is top-five. The park is actually spacious (it's the thin air that promotes homers), and gap-hits can run for a while, which explains the 178 doubles allowed by the home team (third in the majors).
5. Tropicana Field: The Trop's PF numbers are down, but that should be more attributed to a lineup that was middle of the road at best. But when we're talking home runs, only three other pitching staffs allowed more at home, and their 5.02 home ERA was second-worst in the majors.

Top Five Fantasy Pitching Stadiums for 2008

1. Petco Park: Padres hitters had just 45 homers at Petco last season. That's the lowest number since the Giants hit a weak 42 homers in '02. And their pitching staff's 3.02 home ERA was the lowest since the Dodgers put up a 2.75 in '03.
2. AT&T Park: Is there a tougher park to hit a home run in? The absence of power in the Giants' lineup (Bengie Molina could be their cleanup hitter), and a pitching staff that ranked seventh in ERA (4.01) in the majors help this stadium keep balls in the park.
3. McAfee Coliseum: Homers are few, foul territory is large, great hitters are elsewhere. Their pitching staff lost Dan Haren, but don't underestimate the team's ability to keep the score down at home. They allowed just 1,047 total bases at home, which was the third-fewest in the majors last season.
4. Dodger Stadium: The Dodgers actually had a 4.24 ERA at home last season, ranking them 17th in the majors. But that's the worst their pitching staff has performed at home this century. Still, only three NL parks allowed fewer home runs than the Dodgers in '07. They should perform better this season, which is bad for visitors.
5. Rogers Centre: This stadium's BF in 2006 was 1.067, which ranked them seventh-best for hitters. But the staff's stellar job last season, coupled with their lineup's worst effort in the past seven or so years.

The Unknown: We know that Nationals Park, Washington's new stadium that opens in April, will be much more conducive to the hitter than RFK Stadium used to be. That's bad news for the Nationals' pitchers, considering they allowed 110 home runs on the road last season to lead the majors. The lineup is expected to be better, with Wily Mo Pena, Lastings Milledge and Nick Johnson in town for a full season. But can this pitching staff mature enough to make this even an average stadium in which to hit? Probably not. We'll re-examine this frequently in-season.

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