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July 14, 2006

Keeping The Ball In The Park

Stump you friends with this question: which team leads the American League in fewest home runs allowed?

Answer: The Texas Rangers with 82. Detroit ranks second with 84, New York third with 86.

That feat is impressive enough on its own, but it gains even more force when considering the extreme homer-friendliness of The Ballpark. Though it has played surprisingly even this season, The Ballpark remains a terrific place to go yard. Using a weighted-average of two years of data (I won’t bore you with the math), The Ballpark has permitted 2.51 homers per game to the Rangers and their opponents, while road parks have surrendered just 2.08.

Here’s the ranking of AL teams based on a park-adjusted index of home runs allowed. 100 is average, lower is better.

Team
Park Factor for HR
Homers Allowed
HR+
Rangers
1.11
82 73
Yankees
1.07
86 82
Tigers
0.91
85 92
Devil Rays
0.98
93 94
Indians
0.98
94 96
Blue Jays
1.15
114 98
White Sox
1.08
109 100
Angels
0.92
93 101
Twins
0.98
99 102
Athletics
0.90
96 105
Mariners
0.94
101 106
Orioles
1.10
124 109
Red Sox
0.89
109 123
Royals
0.94
125 133

Unfortunately, Texas ranks only eighth in the league in homers hit. As you’d expect, that mediocre effort looks much worse when considering where they play half their games (for hitters, a higher index is better):

Team
Park Factor
Homers Hit
HR+
Red Sox
0.89
115 127
Tigers
0.91
118 125
White Sox
1.08
133 120
Indians
0.98
118 118
Devil Rays
0.98
113 111
Blue Jays
1.15
121 102
Athletics
0.90
95 102
Yankees
1.07
103 96
Mariners
0.94
91 94
Angels
0.92
88 94
Rangers
1.11
101 88
Orioles
1.10
94 81
Twins
0.98
79 80
Royals
0.94
69 72

Posted by Lucas at July 14, 2006 06:52 PM