Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Stat of the Week

Yesterday's Recap
An ominous start but a key double play and Jimenez got into the groove.  The offensive banged out 10 hits and started looking like the team we expect to see at the plate.  Holliday had some key hits and knocked in two.  Things got tight after Jimenez allowed a 2-run homerun to allow the Braves to get within a run but the bullpen came in and shut the door (ok Fuentes made it look interesting).  Good win...and is anyone as annoyed and confused by the the Beef radio commercial on the Rockies broadcast?  What the heck is Matthew McConaughey saying?Protein Pills and Loins?  Can we just get back to good baseball talk?

Stat of the Week
Last we talked about ERA and ERA+ and how ERA+ uses a stat that takes into account park factor.  What is a park factor?

Park Factor compares the rate of stats at home vs. the rate of stats on the road.
A rate higher than 1.000 favors the hitter. Below 1.000 favors the pitcher  (generally these numbers are rounded to 100).
PF = ((homeRS + homeRA)/(homeG)) / ((roadRS + roadRA)/(roadG))

That of course is the simple definition but get too many baseball guys in a room and they have to adjust so if you care to see refinements and such, check the website here.  So what does the history of the Rockies show?

Year

PF

Year

PF

Year

PF

1993

117/118

1994

117/118

1995

129/129

1996

123/124

1997

122/123

1998

121/122

1999

127/127

2000

125/125

2001

122/122

2002

116/116

2003

115/116

2004

113/114

2005

112/113

2006

109/109

2007

108/108


In 1995 Coors Field was about 29% or 29% more friendlier to hitters than other parks.  Yikes, obviously since the advent of the humidor the park factor has become a bit more respectable but still favors the hitters.

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