400-Foot Fly Outs No More

The 'Black Monster' of Citi Field will be obsolete
in 2012, replaced by a Mets-blue wall closer
to home plate and half the height.

The Mets are making the right call in moving in Citi Field's fences; it's time for the Padres to do the same at Petco Park


Citi Field's fences will be dramatically shorter and close to the plate in 2012.  After three years of far too many 400-foot flyouts, the Mets will abandon the 16-foot wall in left and place an 8-foot wall in front of it.  The weird indentations in the outfield walls in right field will be smoothed over, too, and those walls will be dramatically shortened.  And in a move that will make the park a whole lot less depressing looking even when the Mets lose, as they seem to do inevitably now, the wall will be painted blue all the way around.

According to the Mets, the adjustments reduce the in-play surface area of the field by two percent, a notable figure for a ballpark.  When ESPN reached David Wright for comment, he told them that he'd be lying if he told anyone he enjoyed hitting at Citi Field.  He seemed pleased with the changes, but he's probably been anticipating them for some time.  He hasn't been the first to criticize the overly-spacious new park.  Even I became frustrated with the walls when playing a Mets franchise on MLB 10: The Show.  It was awfully hard to get anything over those walls, much less a David Wright fly ball.  Plus, this provides the Mets with new revenue opportunities.  What's not to like?

Citi Field's dimensions are changing
for nearly the entire outfield.

Is there really a need to drastically change the playing conditions so much?  Yes.  No doubt.  In 2011, Citi Field only gave up 1.33 total home runs per game, third-least in MLB behind only Petco Park and AT&T Park.  The face of the franchise, Wright, hit 50 home runs at Shea Stadium combined from 2006-08.  In his first three years at Citi Field, however, he has only hit 22, including only five to the opposite field.

In 2008, playing half their games at Shea Stadium, the Mets hit 172 home runs as a team., good for a respectable 14th place in MLB.  In 2009, playing half their games at Citi Field, they hit 95.  Carlos Delgado or no Carlos Delgado, teams just don't do that.  Teams don't see their home run total cut in half from one year to the next.  As nice as Citi Field has been for the fans, power hitters have yet to catch a break in the cavernous stadium.  In fact, no left-handed hitter has ever hit an opposite-field home run there.  No home run from any hitter has ever hit the apple in straight center, nor has one hit the tarp to the left of it or even the first section of seats there.

Citi Field's new and old dimensions.

Not only will the new wall eliminate all of the weird angles and corners in right field, it gives the ballpark a better feel.  Citi Field is the only park in MLB in which the home run poles and line are not yellow.  At Citi Field they are orange, but with the black walls that looks really ugly.  The Mets have been a disappointing and somewhat depressing team the last three seasons.  Even when fans did show up there was little excitement.  The wall in left is a Black (or soot, depending on how you view the color) Monster - a take on Fenway's Green Monster - except that it's not like 10 feet from home plate like its green counterpart.  That is the wall of which no lefty has ever hit a homer over.  Looking at the field diagram above, it might not look like much, but that change makes a world of difference.

Give it up for Cameron Maybin, who
led all 2011 full-season Padres with
an underwhelming nine homers.

Now in case study number two, the San Diego Padres hit only 91 home runs in 2011, worst in MLB and the lowest single-season total by any team in over a decade.  Their home ballpark, Petco Park, only allowed a combined 1.23 home runs per game, second lowest in MLB behind only AT&T Park.  Of the 100 home runs hit there, only 42 were hit by the Padres.  This means the Padres hit seven more homers on the road than at home, and they won more games on the road than they did at home.  Basically, their home field advantage was nullified.

Since Petco Park opened in 2004, the organization has prided itself on creating contenders based on pitching and defense.  They did steal the most bases in MLB with a second-best 79% success rate, and their pitching staff had the third best ERA of the 30 teams, but clearly the formula didn't work as the Padres finished at 71-91.  The team was led in home runs by Ryan Ludwick, who was traded to Pittsburgh midseason.  Of full-season players, Cameron Maybin led the group with nine (but only two at home)!

Granted, the Padres currently aren't a team built for power.  When they moved into Petco, however, there were a couple guys not quite as bashful (pun intended) as the rest of the team.  Ryan Klesko and Phil Nevin had made nice livings as power hitters at Qualcomm Stadium before both saw decreases in power numbers upon moving.  Klesko especially struggled with the new digs, hitting only three homers at Petco in '04 after 21 total the year before.  No matter how a team is constructed, however, no team in this day and age will ever make the playoffs without hitting 100 home runs in an 162-game schedule.  Even hitting 120 would be a stretch.

Petco Park: Although the field is too big,
it's a shrine of a baseball stadium.

I believe I have made a compelling case.  As you can see in the photo, the park has a very modern style.  The dimensions, however, are kind of old school, and this park probably was the one that started the over-obsessive pitchers'-park-dimensions-in-new-stadiums fad, which has been copied by Target Field, Citi Field, and more.

From the fan's perspective, however, it is an excellent ballpark.  Besides Wrigley, it's my favorite place to see a baseball game, and I've only been there once.  It's the only ballpark in the league that allows the baseball fan to satisfy his or her play-in-a-sandbox cravings, which he or she can do in front of the right field bleachers.  But if 'the beach' were expanded a bit in right (which would move the fences in), home games would feel even more like a sunny day at the beach for fans of the team with ocean waves on its home jersey.

What if Petco Park looked like this (proposal in blue)?

To put this plan into motion, I've created a prototype dimension blueprint.  The black line with red numbers represents Petco Park's current dimensions and the blue line with blue numbers represents the proposed design.  It may not seem like much, but this move would drastically change the way the ballpark plays.  It wouldn't just become a neutral park; it would be a hitters' park.  I don't have a problem with that, and neither should the Padres.  After all, in runs scored, they've finished in the bottom six of the 16 NL teams six of the eight years they've been playing at Petco.

This is the first time I've ever created something like this.  However, I don't see the Padres ownership doing anything like it.  It would could be completed in one offseason but would require construction costs.  However, they could add more seats which would create more revenue, so the project would actually pay for itself eventually.

From a playing field standpoint, though, this is a necessary move.  The Padres are a small-market team that builds from within, so they boast good young arms in the rotation and bullpen.  In 2010 the Padres had the best bullpen in MLB.  But they're getting help from these obnoxious dimensions, and far too much of it.

If the Padres ever want a competent and balanced offense that can keep up with its pitching staff and not have win games 3-2 all the time, they're going to have to do something about the dimensions.  With all the extra room in the power alleys, it's no coincidence the Padres led the league in triples this season (the Mets were 4th).  They're going to have to recognize the issue for what it is, an issue, and act.  That's what the Mets have done, and the improvement will be seen next season.  I hope someday soon we'll never see another 400-foot fly out in either of these parks.