Thursday, January 29, 2009

ESPN and RotoWorld Park Factors

Recently Aaron Gleeman, a writer and analyst whose work I enjoy and respect, posted an article that ranked the Major League Baseball Park Factors. It was a bit unusual. It does not match ESPN's, at all. I have no idea what either site did to calculate their version and I'm really not interested in doing it myself. I like using and looking at the numbers --not crunching them. My gut says to go with ESPN's since they fit my subjective sense of the rankings. But that isn't very logical. So, what to do...

Also interesting is this SeamHeads.com article that attempts to find truer park factors. It comes with a link to an excel file of more than 50 years of data that I haven't made much sense of yet.

Roto World:

Boston Red Sox – 108
Colorado Rockies – 107
Arizona Diamondbacks – 107
Chicago Cubs – 106
Chicago White Sox – 105

Cincinnati Reds – 104
Philadelphia Phillies – 103
Baltimore Orioles – 103
Tampa Bay Rays – 103
Cleveland Indians – 103
Los Angeles Angels – 103

Detroit Tigers – 102
San Francisco Giants – 102
Texas Rangers – 101
Washington Nationals – 101
Los Angeles Dodgers – 100
Milwaukee Brewers – 100

Houston Astros – 99
Toronto Blue Jays – 99
Florida Marlins – 99
Atlanta Braves – 99
St. Louis Cardinals – 99

Kansas City Royals – 97
Seattle Mariners – 96
Pittsburgh Pirates – 95
Minnesota Twins – 93
Oakland A's – 93
San Diego Padres – 89

And then ESPN's

RkPark NameRunsHRH2B3BBB
1Rangers Ballpark (Arlington, Texas)1.1421.2291.0701.0422.2271.030
2Chase Field (Phoenix, Arizona)1.1351.0681.0721.2421.4060.955
3Coors Field (Denver, Colorado)1.1261.2991.0981.0481.3870.919
4U.S. Cellular Field (Chicago, Illinois)1.1221.3530.9740.9070.5641.087
5Fenway Park (Boston, Massachusetts)1.0770.8501.0561.5891.0001.095
6Comerica Park (Detroit, Michigan)1.0771.1881.0740.9721.1140.877
7Great American (Cincinnati, Ohio)1.0691.2301.0101.0171.0381.013
8Wrigley Field (Chicago, Illinois)1.0681.1631.0320.9750.6580.939
9Turner Field (Atlanta, Georgia)1.0631.0141.0681.0281.2061.109
10Camden Yards (Baltimore, Maryland)1.0511.3591.0440.9890.5660.948
RkPark NameRunsHRH2B3BBB
11AT&T Park (San Francisco, California)1.0450.9921.0141.1321.8751.029
12Yankee Stadium (Bronx, New York)1.0400.9820.9800.9971.0451.000
13Nationals Park (Washington, D.C.)1.0380.9421.0141.0131.1011.009
14Minute Maid Park (Houston, Texas)1.0361.1551.0121.1020.9081.002
15Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)1.0291.0221.0360.9570.7430.991
16Angel Stadium (Anaheim, California)1.0170.9331.0280.9930.8280.807
17Progressive Field (Cleveland, Ohio)0.9950.8241.0201.0160.6541.187
18Rogers Centre (Toronto, Ontario)0.9590.9260.9811.0861.8641.102
19Tropicana Field (St. Petersburg, Florida)0.9550.8500.9340.8131.2261.043
20Dolphin Stadium (Miami, Florida)0.9540.8440.9460.9261.4811.025
RkPark NameRunsHRH2B3BBB
21Shea Stadium (Flushing, New York)0.9461.0810.9260.9350.5001.088
22Miller Park (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)0.9450.8930.9630.8571.3751.130
23Busch Stadium (St. Louis, Missouri)0.9430.9150.9620.8681.0000.969
24Safeco Field (Seattle, Washington)0.9320.9000.9920.9211.2221.021
25Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City, Missouri)0.9290.7881.0031.0970.8160.980
26McAfee Coliseum (Oakland, California)0.9160.9880.9600.9530.5360.974
27PNC Park (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)0.8980.8691.0241.0640.9290.977
28Metrodome (Minneapolis, Minnesota)0.8870.8960.9410.9890.9600.844
29Dodger Stadium (Los Angeles, California)0.8420.8570.8920.8660.4250.891
30Petco Park (San Diego, California)0.7960.7430.8960.7800.9311.024



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3 comments:

  1. I noticed this, too.

    There's also a significant disparity between ESPN's G/F rates and what's over at Fangraphs. Then I noticed that the 2007 G/F rates disappeared for Kevin Slowey.

    I can't help wondering if they're doing some site maintenance and that's causing a hiccup in the Matrix.

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  2. Hmmm, perhaps they use different stat sources. Still hard to believe the differences could be this large.

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  3. Very useful. I can definitely use this information - even if it all doesn't add up.

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