How about 380 feet all the way around and a ten foot high wall, which mostly eliminates fielders from falling or even reaching into the stands?
410 feet down the lines and 330 in center. What would Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca say? Monday, April 18, 2022
If it's OK to have different outfield dimensions in each ballpark and different within every ballpark, why not switch them around?
If a ballpark is symmetrical, it will typically be 330 feet down the lines and 410 feet to straight away center field. The power alleys might be 375 feet.
It would make sense and be fair to have the same distance to all fields and the same height fence and for all ballparks in a league to have the same distances as all the other ballparks.
But if you suggest that to baseball fans they are appalled.
So how about 410 down the lines and 330 in center? We can leave the power alleys at 375.
That would spread the outfielders. They'd have to protect the corners, otherwise, players could pull a ball down the line and leg out an inside the park home run (IPHR). That might be better than the victory lap now taken when a ball is hit over the fence on a fly, including over the 330 sign near the foul poles.
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Shortest distance for home runs is down the lines, so batters pull the ball down the line. Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Duh...
In recent years fielders increasingly have been instructed to stand where batters try to reach the seats, the batter's pull field. Then the batters cry: no fair!
So next season fielders will be limited in where they may play.
I'd have to research whether the tongue in cheek suggestion in my previous post is allowed but for years I've been amazed at how little teams try to take advantage of the silly (euphemism) idea in baseball that it's not only OK but actually charming to have different home run distances. Who wants the playing area to be the same or even fair like those stinky other U.S. team sports football and basketball? ...
A team could have its outfield distance be 410 feet all the way around. And with a fence at least ten feet high...
... the football idea that there are two sides to the ball. In baseball, teams play the shift. Then when they come to bat, let their batters hit into the shift. The way to get a competitive advantage, is to play the shift but not hit into the other teams shift.
It's pretty obvious but no team does any of this. They're so boring.
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The shift is boring. Idiot strike out specialist Joey Gallo can't figure out how to beat the shift. And says so. Thursday, February 24, 2022
Joey Gallo has averaged more than 200 strike outs in his three full seasons...
Joey Gallo is an idiot, imbecile, moron, ... He should be embarrassed for saying what he did. But he's not. Yankee general manager Brian Cashman should be embarrassed for trading for Gallo during the 2021 season...
Cashman may be embarrassed but his employer, Hal Steinbrenner, has apparently never given Cashman a performance review. Cashman is into his second decade of the Yankees not winning the World Series ...
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Home Run location for the 30 players with at least 493 homers. Monday, March 7, 2022
I cannot vouch for whether the location (direction) of the home runs is correct but I think that the numbers below accurately represent the available data in baseball-reference.com, which now uses stathead.com for its ad hoc query function. Try the event finder there for the type of data below.
The following tables were derived from data which was at baseball-reference.com a few years ago. Pujols has been updated manually through 2021 and Cabrera added. I'm guessing that the percentages are accurate.
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Home Run location for the 9 active players with at least 300 homers. Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Opposite Fields in red ...
And a lefty guy (Joey Gallo) who wants the shift limited ...
Lefty Cano pulls more than 50% down the right field line. Righty Longoria pulls 54% down the left field line; Pujols almost 50%. Lefty Votto has a spread that is astonishingly even. Righty Trout is pretty even to his two pull fields.
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The shift: Willie Keeler, Joey Gallo, Mickey Mantle and lefty batters of opportunity. Wednesday, March 9, 2022
... the odious banning of the shift: not allowing players other than the pitcher and catcher to stand anywhere in fair territory when the pitch is delivered.
"Hit 'em where they ain't" seems quaint and archaic. The quote is attributed to Willie Keeler...
Keeler played 1892-1910 and hit only 33 home runs in 8,591 At Bats. Only two of his homers went over the fence on a fly, one bounced over (the bouncing rule was eliminated after the 1931 season) and 30 were inside the park home runs (IPHR). ..
Keeler struck out 136 times in those 8,591 AB...
You're allowed to hit home runs to the opposite field ... and singles, doubles, triples. Let fielders stand where they want. Don't ban the shift...
Lefty batters stand closer to the bases. Now they want the fielders to move out of their way? Friday, December 7, 2018
150 years ago for some bizarre reason two batter's boxes were created. This let players in the lefty box start running about a step and a half closer not just to first base but to all the bases...
That's why MANY players chose to bat in the lefty box. Notice I've refrained from calling them left handed because they are not. Those who chose the lefty box rather than assigned to it by left handedness at birth were lefty batters of opportunity. They threw righty but chose to bat lefty because of the advantage, which predated the curve ball...
... about 72 percent of pitches have always been thrown by righty pitchers.
So that's TWO huge advantages for lefty batters.In recent seasons batters have pulled the ball more than ever to try to jack it out of the park. 2018 was the first season in which strike outs exceeded hits.
With the addition of ever increasing data on where balls are hit by individual batters, teams have shifted their fielders to stand where batters are most likely to hit the ball in specific situations.
Teams can afford to play an extreme shift more against lefty batters because the fielders have been moved closer to first base where an infield out will be recorded. Shifting like that against righty batters moves fielders away from first base.
So the historical advantage for lefty batters is now working against them but only because they are too stubborn or incompetent to do the Willie Keeler thing...
The objective is not to hit the ball hard but to hit it away from fielders. One way to do this is to hit a home run over a wall. But even in this extreme home run era that still has a relatively low percentage of success.
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Possible future posts:
Another first base about five feet further away from home plate for batters in the lefty box to reach on batted balls.
Foul lines that become parallel after a certain distance to eliminate those stupid corners, which can become black holes ,,, unseen by attending fans.
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