File my latest at Hardball Times under “D” for “duh”: Three years ago I studied Petco Park’s effect on offense. The results — that it kills offense — matched what my eyes told me, which is always nice. Now, with three more years of data, I’ve revisited the earlier study and found that most of the findings still hold true.
Two items of particular interest are Petco Park’s effect on triples and walks. Triples have become a less frequent occurrence at Petco Park every year since its inception (Petco Park is the only venue to see consistent movement in one direction throughout the 2004-2009 period). Walks are all over the map: In 2007, Petco Park was the 28th toughest place to draw a walk; in 2009, it was the easiest. Go figure.
Anyway, go read the entire article. You’ll be glad you did.
By suppressing offense, does Petco create more close games?
If so:
Are games at Petco more subject to single events / random chance, which would tend to pull the home record towards .500? If the answer is yes, does that make Petco a poor baseball facility?
Is the manager’s position more important at Petco, then at higher scoring parks?
@Field39: Those are excellent questions.
It should be easy enough to find the answer to #1 — Are there more close games in Petco, relatively irrespective of the offenses involved? The other questions, where the real value lies, would be a lot harder to answer, but definitely worthwhile.