Park Factors (Fantasy Baseball)

Park factors are among the most important variables to account for in daily baseball. Look no further than the salary jump applied across the industry for hitters playing at Coors Field for an example of their importance. Of course, not all examples are that extreme (and salary changes are applied for other parks, too), but even season-long gamers can benefit from understanding how various parks play.

My go-to source for park factors is StatCorner. I’d advise bookmarking their MLB ballpark main page that can be found here. In the interest of not repeating myself over and over again throughout this piece, the park factors cited are courtesy the information at StatCorner. They use a three-year rolling average for park factors, and 100 is considered neutral for each park factor with every point above or below one-percent different than average.

Also, the Braves will be opening Sun Trust Park this season, so there’s no park factors available for their new home yet. Andrew Perpetua of RotoGraphs did speculate on how the new park might play in a post analyzing Freddie Freeman, so that’s a decent starting point for hazarding a guess.

I won’t be covering every park in the Majors, but I’ll highlight some of the key parks. They’ll be broken down into different categories below, and while some parks could fall under multiple categories, each park will be featured under the most fitting category. Let’s dive into the nuts and bolts of things.

Elite Offensive Parks

Coors Field (COL)

 
This is the mecca of offensive venues. Humidor be damned, offense is plentiful here. It’s no secret even to casual fans of baseball and gamers that Coors Field is the home to eye-popping run totals. The daily baseball industry isn’t dumb, either. Games at Coors result in price hikes for offensive players and reduced salaries for the unlucky saps who take the hill there. Offensive players get an ownership boost and frequently end up chalk plays. There are game theory advantages to this knowledge. I won’t dive too deep into that since it’s not the topic of the article, but stacking any game away from Coors Field on a slate will often be a contrarian move. Getting back on topic, using a pitcher in the thin Rocky Mountain air is often ill advised due to the park factors you see above, and fading key offensive players in cash games is a dangerous move since they’ll be so chalky.

Chase Field (ARI)

 
Colorado isn’t the only park in the National League West that’s home to offense. The desert is a great place to find fantasy scoring from hitters. Left-handed and right-handed batters gets sizable boosts to extra-base hits and run scoring. It’s another treacherous park for using pitchers.

Progressive Field (CLE)

 
Cleveland isn’t necessarily the first offensive-friendly ballpark that comes to mind, but as you can see above, it offers across the board offensive boosts to lefties and righties. Don’t sleep on grabbing hitters from here.

Fenway Park (BOS)

 
Don’t confuse Fenway Park as a great source of homers — at least for lefties — but what it takes away from lefties in long balls, it more than makes up for in doubles and triples. Right-handed hitters get a lift across the board, and offense is plentiful in Boston. The Red Sox have a great offense, and they’ll be a popular team to stack because of that alone, but their home digs will add to the appeal.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

 
Baltimore almost missed the cut since neither lefties nor righties receive a double-digit run-scoring boost, but I opted to classify it here because hitters from either side of the dish do get help scoring and homers are plentiful at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Because the park doesn’t offer a huge uptick to offense, I wouldn’t advise immediately taking a ground-ball pitcher out of your usable pitcher pool in daily games played in Baltimore. Fly-ball pitchers, however, will get a double whammy from the help provided to offenses in the scoring and homers departments.

Rogers Centre (TOR)

 
The Blue Jays have featured high-octane offenses in recent years, and their home ballpark certainly hasn’t hurt them in terms of hanging crooked numbers on the scoreboard. Hitters of either handedness should be giddy to play here. Not only do homers and run scoring receive a bump for hitters, doubles/triples do as well.

Globe Life Park in Arlington (TEX)

 
Globe Life Park in Arlington is a perfect example of an elite offensive venue not necessarily being synonymous with a homer launching pad. Sure, lefties get a five percent bump to taters, but righties actually get dinged three percent. Still, lefties and righties get a double-digit bump to run scoring, and both also get a lift in singles, doubles, and triples. Weather can impact the park factors at any venue (more on that to come with one specific ballpark), but I’ll mention that knowing the game time temp can come in handy for this venue. Warmer weather results in the ball carrying farther, thus, games in the blistering heat of the Texas summer will make this an even better source of offense — and taters, too.

Homer-friendly Parks

Miller Park (MIL)

 
Miller Park helps run scoring in general a bit, but not to the same extent of the elite ballparks. It does, however, offer a huge lift to home runs. Lefties and righties alike launch souvenirs into the seats with regularity in Milwaukee. If you’re chasing long balls, this is one of the best places in the game to do so at.

Great American Ball Park (CIN)

 
The home of the Reds didn’t pick up the moniker Great American Small Park for nothin’. While I went back and forth between whether to include this with the elite offensive venues above or in this section, GABP ultimately landed here. Routine fly balls can turn into round-trippers fairly easily, and left-handed batters get the added benefit of a pick-me-up in scoring, too. I’ll provide the same advice I did above for Oriole Park at Camden Yards, don’t automatically dismiss ground-ball pitchers from daily baseball consideration in this launching pad (this will be the last time I reference using ground-ball pitchers in some homer-friendly parks), but be aware it can be a house of horrors for fly-ball pitchers.

Citi Field (NYM)

 
Would you look at that? Remember the early days of Citi Field when fly balls turned into long outs? Adjustments to the parks dimensions have changed the playing dynamics completely, and now left-handed and right-handed batters hit more homers there than in a neutral park. Forget suppressing dingers, Citi Field amplifies them.

Yankee Stadium (NYY)

 
Using left-handed hitters at Yankee Stadium gets two thumbs up from me. As you can see, they launch tons of homers at Yankee Stadium and score more runs than at a neutral park as well. Run scoring plays a couple ticks below neutral for right-handed hitters, but fear not if you’re looking a righty slugger as the 24% bump to homers more than makes up for a couple points docked to run scoring.

Citizens Bank Park (PHI)

 
Guaranteed Rate Field (CWS)

 
Minute Maid Park (HOU)

 
Safeco Field (SEA)

 
This quartet of parks plays fairly similarly and hammers home the point that homer-friendly doesn’t equal hitter-friendly. All four parks suppress runs to lefties and righties while bolstering homers. It’s especially important to pay attention to the batted ball types allowed by the probable pitchers at games played in these parks. It should go without saying, but these are good venues for using sluggers in and chasing the upside that comes with their ability to put a charge into the ball.

Pitcher-Friendly Parks

Marlins Park (MIA)

 
Dodger Stadium (LAD)

 
AT&T Park (SF)

 
Petco Park (SD)

 
Tropicana Field (TB)

 
Angel Stadium (LAA)

 
O.Co Coliseum (OAK)

 
Not all of these parks play the same, but all seven are where the gettin’ is good for pitchers, so to speak. Five of the seven parks depress run scoring for left-handed and right-handed batters, and the two exception (Marlins Park and Tropicana Field) increase run scoring by a meager one percent to one handedness of hitter or the other. San Francisco and Oakland are two venues where fly balls rarely leave the yard. Ditto for Marlins Park. They are among the best places to roster fly-ball pitchers in daily games. The other four parks amplify homers to one handedness of hitter or the other, but they still hold down run scoring on the whole.

A Couple of Oddballs

Kauffman Stadium (KC)

 
I couldn’t classify this as an elite offensive park due to the 23% and 22% bite out of homers it takes to left-handed and right-handed batters, respectively. As you can see, though, it does kick up doubles/triples by a lot to all hitters, and run scoring is greater in Kansas City than at a neutral park, too. This is a good place to use gap-to-gap hitters and speedsters. The sluggers are less than ideal plays at Kauffman Stadium as a result of how hard it is to hit homers there.

Wrigley Field (CHC)

 
I won’t say pay the park factors for Wrigley Field no mind, but this is a unique ballpark. If you’re a recreational gambler or someone who checks out gambling lines, you’ll notice over/under totals for games at Wrigley aren’t posted the night before a game. The reason is that the wind pattern impacts the way this park plays immensely. Wrigley’s proximity to Lake Michigan results in some crazy wind gusts, and if the wind is blowing out, it can me a homer-happy day at the park. If it’s gusting in, it can be a nightmare for run scoring. This piece from Tony Briscoe of the Chicago Tribune can shed further insight into the impact of wind at Wrigley Field. Suffice to say you’ll want to know what the wind projects to do on a game day at Wrigley Field.

Stolen Base Primer

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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.