MLB Journal Truths about The Beast that is Coors Field
The Beast is back. Coors Field is eating pitchers alive and spitting them out, just as in the prehumidor days. The Rockies beat the Dodgers 13-9 on Friday night in a game that took 3 hours, 31 minutes and featured five home runs and a combined 28 hits. Counting Friday’s scorefest, the last five games at The Beast produced 119 runs, an average of 23.8 runs per game.
We all know the drill. Because games in Denver are played at 5,200 feet, the ball carries extraordinary well. Why? In simplified terms, the air density is about 80 percent of what it is at sea level and air resistance is 20 percent less, meaning baseballs carry about 20 percent farther and breaking pitches move about 20 percent less.
Mike Hampton, the highest-paid freeagent pitcher in franchise history, left Colorado in 2002 with a 6.15 ERA just two seasons into an eight-year, $121 million deal. He thought he could slay The Beast, but he could not. As he told Sports Illustrated: “I was going to prove it could be done or die trying. I almost died trying.”
But there are some other truths about The Beast that should be pointed out.
• We tend to assume that there are more home runs and higher scores when the weather heats up in Lodo. That assumption is correct.
This is what Terry Bahill, a professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Arizona, told Popular Science last year: “For a ball hit at the typical home run speed and trajectory, a 10 degree (Fahrenheit) change in temperature is worth about a little over three feet in distance. It might not seem like very much, but over the course of a whole season, it actually starts to add up.”
Bahill compared the stadium in Arlington, Texas, to Oracle Park in San Francisco, which commonly have a 40-degree difference in temperature. At three feet per 10 degrees, “that’s getting to be a big
number, like a 12- or 13-foot difference between stadiums simply due to temperature.”
• Home/road splits for Rockies hitter are real, but it’s ridiculous to simply dismiss a player as a Coors Field creation. DJ Lemahieu hit .317 at home last season but just .229 on the road. I know off a lot of baseball pundits who scratched their heads when Lemahieu signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Yankees. Thursday, he was named a starter in the All-star Game after batting .336 with 12 home runs in the first half of the season.
• Yes, hitters are rewarded for hitting at Coors Field, but they are also penalized because they have to make huge adjustments when they go on the road and then again when they return home.
• I’m not making excuses for the Rockies pitchers, but the margin for error at Coors Field is much smaller than at most other ballparks. Plus, when pitchers come back from a road trip, they have to readjust their targets at Coors Field. It’s a difficult transition.
• Yes, baseballs are flying out of Coors Field, but they are flying out all over the majors. I don’t think there is any question that balls are different. While I don’t think balls are intentionally “juiced,” a fascinating study by Dr. Meredith Wills (an astrophysicist) shows how subtle changes to the baseball, such as the height of the seams and the smoothness of the leather, are affecting the game.
• I find it hypocritical when fans and media in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles trash the accomplishments of Rockies players because they excel at Coors Field. Because, as great as they are, I’m sure Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner’s statistics wouldn’t be nearly as good if they didn’t work in pitchers’ paradises like Dodger Stadium and Oracle Park.