The Divisional Round of the MLB Playoffs are upon us as the Yankees, White Sox, and Padres swept their Wild Card Rounds, and the Braves took down the Phillies in 3. This is when all teams get at least 1 home game, and it’s where we can see home field advantage start to play a factor in determining the results of close games. We’ll specifically be looking at hitting trends in specific ballparks.
Home field advantage isn’t necessarily who has the loudest fans, that pump up the home team and intimidate the visitors. It can simply mean a team is playing in a park that compliments the skills of their players. A stadium may be home run-friendly, but that only provides an advantage to the home team if they have players with the abilities to hit the long ball. We may think that teams like the Rays and Brewers, who have home field advantage through their league’s championship round benefit from this… But is this really true?
8. Yankees
Yankee Stadium sure is a classic. But it sure does Yankee hitters dirty. The things that New York hitters are actually good at, are being directly countered by the environment in The Bronx. The Yankees have the highest hard-hit ball rate (44.76%) of all playoff teams. However, their short outfield doesn’t encourage players towards harder contact. That short outfield, combined with Yankee Stadium being at one of the lowest elevations in baseball, doesn’t benefit teams who hit lots of triples, which is what the Yankees do well.
7. Padres
Like Yankee Stadium, Petco Park being at a lower elevation, in a cooler climate, and having a shorter outfield, doesn’t tend to help a team like the Padres who hit a good amount of triples. They also don’t play a lot of day games, considering how West Coast teams tend to get more night games, which doesn’t encourage a lot of home run hitting, something San Diego is also great at.
6. White Sox
Out of all the playoff teams, the White Sox rank near the bottom in most hitting categories. However, they hit into the least amount of double plays. Rate Field isn’t the cause though, with its lack of a roof.
5. Dodgers
Dodger Stadium is a bit of a mixed bag for the blue LA team. The Dodgers hit a high amount of doubles, but a lack of a roof over the home stadium doesn’t give the home team the boost that tends to increase single and double production. The Dodgers do ground into a lot of double plays, and LA is another West Coast team that tends to play at nighttime more often than not, which can help alleviate that tendency
4. Guardians
Cleveland tends to hover around average for most hitting categories. However, the Guardians are just 3/8 playoff teams with a hard-hit percentage below 40%, and Progressive Field’s shorter outfield tends to help encourage softer contact. This can benefit Cleveland as they try to the reach the World Series for the first time since they lost 4-3 to the Cubs in 2016.
3. Rays
Tropicana Field is where we start to see home fields really having an effect. The roof that was replaced for this season tends to help with singles, doubles, and double plays, to which the Rays can take advantage of, as they had the most regular season single production out of all playoff teams. Their longer outfield also tends to benefit teams that have high batting averages, including Tampa Bay. That long outfield can also holds them back as it doesn’t tend to benefit teams with less power, as the Rays have the lowest hard-hit percentage at 34.52%.
2. Braves
Truist Park is certainly favorable towards the Braves. With Atlanta’s high elevation and average temperatures, the hitters tend to benefit through higher triple rates. The stadium also has a longer than average outfield, which encourages higher batting averages and harder contact. The Braves would get a higher advantage if only they were ranked higher in those categories.
1. Brewers
While American Family Field may be getting replaced in a few years, it may want to stick around, as it provides some key benefits to Brewers’ hitters. The other stadium that has a roof, Milwaukee benefits from conditions that encourages singles and doubles, as it ranks 2nd and 1st in those categories, respectively. With the stadium’s higher elevation and longer field, it probably influences the Brewer’s high triple rates, and 43.1% hard-hit percentages. With Milwaukee holding home field advantage throughout the entire playoffs, American Family Field is sure to be a place the Brewers will look to win.
Process
I only looked at the starting hitters of each team. I averaged out the stats, and then ranked teams based on each category. I then compared the ranks with the original project.
Link to Colab: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1JbeP0JOOVDS_2dsFo0kWOpU9pElVOzTt#scrollTo=9Mk-_DTAhkN4