The perfect-case state of affairs for a sports activities group proprietor is uncommon, however clear: A neighborhood businessman runs the group as a group establishment. Fairly than an absentee landlord, the proprietor needs to be a group chief. That’s the imaginative and prescient new Orioles proprietor David Rubenstein is promoting. In the course of the playoffs, somewhat than sequestering himself in a luxurious field, Rubenstein sat within the stands, among the many individuals. OK, he was proper by the house dugout, so he was among the many richest subset of the individuals, however it’s good optics.
And fewer than a 12 months into his tenure, Rubenstein is exhibiting himself to be a builder of bridges. Or a tearer-down of partitions. Or a mover of partitions, at any charge. One among baseball’s most foolishly conceived and extensively derided architectural options is on its method out. Mike Elias, the Orioles’ government vice chairman and basic supervisor, introduced Friday that the left discipline wall at Oriole Park at Camden Yards is getting a haircut and transferring towards the plate.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Gimmicky outfield partitions are the most effective issues about baseball. Their origins stem from downtown ballparks, designed and constructed within the early 1900s on tons that weren’t fairly large enough to go well with the aim. Fenway Park’s Inexperienced Monster is essentially the most well-known instance, however they had been in all places. When MLB groups began constructing a brand new wave of baseball-only stadiums within the Nineties — a wave led by Camden Yards — the architects bought to place away their protractors and French curves and get a bit of artistic.
So we’ve excessive scoreboard partitions in Houston and Pittsburgh, and humorous angles in Philadelphia and San Francisco designed with the specific function of producing triples and inside-the-park dwelling runs. Simply to call just a few.
Since its earliest days, Oriole Park has all the time been hitter-friendly, however in 2021, issues went a bit of too far. That 12 months, the Orioles misplaced 110 video games, whereas permitting a 5.85 workers ERA (worst in baseball by seven tenths of a run) and a league-leading 258 dwelling runs. Now, the best way I remembered issues was that 30% of Gleyber Torres’ profession dwelling runs had been low-cost wallscrapers to left discipline in the course of the 9 video games he performed at Camden Yards that 12 months, and that led on to the wall getting moved again.
That’s not truly what occurred. Torres solely hit eight dwelling runs at Camden Yards within the first two years of his profession, and none in any respect in 2020 or 2021. And solely half of these homers had been to left or left heart. So it’s not likely his fault.
Both method, there are two methods to cease giving up a traditionally large variety of dwelling runs. One is to repair the pitching workers, however that’s exhausting, man. Even three years and two postseason journeys later, Elias has solely form of executed that. Or you may transfer the wall again so it’s more durable to hit dwelling runs.
So earlier than the 2022 season, the Orioles elevated the peak of the left discipline wall from seven ft to 13 ft. Whereas maintaining the left discipline foul pole 333 ft from the plate, they put in a pointy dogleg out to an extended, flat part of fence that eradicated a number of rows of seats in left discipline. The left-center discipline marker went out a further 20 ft, from 364 ft to 384 ft. And somewhat than mixing the brand new left discipline alcove into the prevailing heart discipline wall, the fence jutted out perpendicular to its earlier course, leaving a 90-degree nook in deep left heart, 398 ft from the plate.
Now, this isn’t the primary time the Orioles have monkeyed with the scale of their ballpark to cut back scoring. Earlier than the 2001 season, they changed the enjoying floor and draining system and took the chance to tinker with the scale by transferring dwelling plate again seven ft. (I think about Peter Angelos standing on the pitcher’s mound, speaking to a basic contractor with a pencil behind his ear, going, “, since we’re doing all this anyway…” like Myrna Loy in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream Home.)
That adjustment lasted all of 1 season, after which the plate was moved again to its unique place and — I’m quoting right here from MLB.com — “your complete discipline was shifted a number of levels to the primary base facet.”
The thought of rotating an infield bought me pondering. Rule 2.01 governs the enjoying discipline, specifying that the infield should be a 90-foot sq., and that the space from dwelling plate to second base should be 127 ft, 3 3/8 inches. Now, I bought excited for a second, as a result of Rule 2.01 and Rule 2.04 (which governs “The Pitcher’s Plate”) don’t say that the mound should line up with second base. However that’s cleared up in an illustration, Appendix 1, that lays out the entire measurements for a authorized infield.
In response to Appendix 1, the bases and the mound need to be symmetrical left-to-right, however it’s not clear to me that the grass design of the infield should even be symmetrical. I’ll quote from Rule 2.01: “The grass traces and dimensions proven on the diagrams are these utilized in many fields, however they aren’t necessary and every Membership shall decide the dimensions and form of the grassed and naked areas of its enjoying discipline.”
So is a checkerboard infield, with alternating squares of grass and dust, authorized? How a few collection of stripes, or random curvilinear patterns?
I believe we’ll by no means discover out, as a result of there’s no sensible purpose to construct an asymmetrical infield apart from idle sadism. Greater than that, I strongly suspect that any group that asserts its intention to take action would get a cellphone name from the commissioner’s workplace about 5 minutes later, to the impact of, “Hey, don’t be a jackass.”
But it surely’s one thing to consider. At any charge, the Orioles didn’t make their infield right into a rhombus in 2002. And if they’d, it might’ve gone over higher than the brand new outfield wall did in 2022.
The consequences of the change had been instant and apparent. When you love jarringly extreme angles — just like the one being faraway from the left discipline wall at Camden Yards this winter — you’re going to like this graph of HR/FB% on fly balls to left discipline over the previous 10 seasons.
This era in time coincides with the swing aircraft revolution and the juiced ball period — to say nothing of wildly various high quality of play by the house group. Suffice it to say there isn’t a finish of confounding variables right here. All that having been stated: Are you able to inform once they moved the outfield wall again?
Baseball followers tolerate, and even embrace, all kinds of park-induced offensive environments. We’re cool with altering the scale of a stadium, even when it’s executed intentionally to govern the frequency of dwelling runs. Structure is all a part of the sport right here.
However the 2022-24 Camden Yards wall… I’m sorry for being indelicate, however it simply sucked. It was apparent and inorganic. The sharp angle on the bullpens made it seem like some big had simply appeared someday with the world’s largest sabre noticed and hacked a slice out of the left discipline grandstand. (Additionally, I may need simply had this on my thoughts as a result of Elias reduce his enamel with the Astros, however the left discipline cutout in Baltimore needs to be fairly near an ideal match for the Crawford Bins in Minute Maid Park, proper? You know the way Brazil suits completely into West Africa like two puzzle items, due to Pangaea? Like that.)
As a result of Walltimore was so obviously synthetic, it was past apparent when a fly out or a double in 2022 would’ve been a house run the 12 months earlier than. After Elias revealed the redesign on Friday, Cespedes Household BBQ posted a clip of Trey Mancini doubling off the highest of the left discipline concavity. On that ostensibly joyous event, Mancini appeared (and announcer Melanie Newman sounded) like Christmas had been canceled. Which isn’t perfect, should you ask me. When the house group’s widespread slugger hits a double, “bereft” will not be the gang response you’re actually going for.
The brand new outfield fence represents a center floor between the dinger-happy joke stadium of the pre-2022 period and the yawning maw of despair that changed it the previous three seasons. The exhausting left flip after the foul pole stays, however the fence will sit between 373 and 374 ft from dwelling plate, somewhat than 384 as it’s now. And the fence can be eight ft excessive, somewhat than 13, which brings dwelling run robberies again into play.
About two-thirds of the best way to the bullpen, there’ll be one other kink — a 120-degree angle, this time — pulling the fence in to 363 ft at that nook and out to 376 ft on the fringe of the bullpen. That brings the fence some 26 ft nearer than it at the moment is in that energy alley, with a fence that drops to 6 ft, 11 inches in peak after the nook.
What’s this going to imply? Properly, extra dwelling runs for right-handed energy hitters, clearly. I’ve already seen a groundswell of hope that this alteration may very well be revolutionary for Ryan Mountcastle. The Orioles’ first baseman was a dead-pull hitter as a minor leaguer; now he sprays screaming line drives in all places, however he underperforms his xSLG by 50 factors yearly as a result of his new pull-avoidant strategy has made him the alternative of Isaac Paredes.
As a lot as I’m thrilled by the return to (relative) normalcy for left discipline at Camden Yards, and as a lot as I’d like to see Mountcastle relieved of the curse laid upon him by the gods of BABIP, I’d warning towards overstating the influence of this alteration till we see it in motion.
What number of extra dwelling runs will we see because of this discipline configuration? Properly, it’s unattainable to foretell, as a result of transferring the fence and decreasing it’ll change how pitchers, hitters, and defenses alike strategy the sport. And don’t sleep on the influence the decrease fence could have each as a profit to hitters and as a looking floor for would-be dwelling run robbers.
Nonetheless, let’s make an informed guess. For a lot of the size of this wall, the fence is being introduced in from 384 ft to about 373 ft. Over the previous three seasons, what number of fly balls and line drives to left discipline at Camden Yards had a projected distance between 373 and 384 ft? A whole lot?
The reply, in 247 regular- and postseason video games, is 48. That features 35 fly outs, 11 doubles, one triple, and one single. And since I can already hear you questioning the way you hit a 380-foot single, right here’s a video.
Sure, that’s proper, a 114 mph line drive by Giancarlo Stanton. Which might be what William of Ockham would’ve guessed in the event that they’d had baseball (or Giancarlo Stanton) in 14th-century England.
Anyway, whereas the wall is coming in and down, it’s not coming in and down by a lot. That common of 16 extra dwelling runs a 12 months clearly doesn’t account for the extra vital modification in left heart, so we’ll in all probability get just a few extra dingers there. However there’s nonetheless going to be a 40-foot setback from the left discipline foul pole to the fence, and that’s going to swallow up a whole lot of balls that might’ve gotten out in a whole lot of different parks.
Right here, have an instance.
On July 14 of this 12 months, Luke Weaver threw a fats changeup and Mountcastle crushed it. Play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian (this sport was unique to Roku, God bless the balkanization of MLB broadcast rights, so no Kevin Brown on the decision) was satisfied it was out. “That one’s gonna go, large [left] discipline or not!”
Possibly Brown, with extra expertise in Camden Yards, would’ve recognized higher. However in Vasgersian’s protection, Weaver additionally thought it was out. I simply occurred to pause the video whereas the Yankees reliever had the face and posture of a kindergartener who’d simply been informed to cease drawing on the partitions in magic marker.
An applicable response, as this ball would’ve been a house run in 25 out of the 30 main league parks, in line with Statcast. However not Camden Yards. And never Camden Yards in 2025, both. This ball had an estimated distance of 365 ft, which is a few eight ft in need of the place the brand new wall goes to be.
Briefly, I’m hopeful however not essentially optimistic. The wall goes to play a bit of extra in favor of the hitters and look rather a lot much less ridiculous. However that is nonetheless going to be a reasonably deep left discipline in comparison with the remainder of the league. And that’s high quality. Followers are OK with wonky ballpark dimensions stealing their pleasure; they only need the park to be much less apparent about it.
