stop blaming astros field? not to sound mean but i think its safe to blame fields for pitching and batting performance. isnt that wat makes baseball so great??? every major league park is different: different angles, field lengths, etc. unlike other sports where all fields are exactly alike, in baseball you have to adjust to your field and build a team that fits your field. which is one reason why i wonder colorado went away from its plan of pickin up gap hitters (Todd Ziele???) seems like they were successful with guys that in other fields would play terribly but b/c of the large gaps in Colorado, could see singles turn into doubles (or doubles into triples) therefore more runs. colorado went away from that andpicked up pitching. why?
fields play a huge role. building colorado by picking up pitchers is a terrible mistake. concentrate on gap hitters just try to outscore the other team. i know that not wat baseball should be like, but thats the reality for the Rockies.
The same for the Astros. Wouldnt you build your team to have strong batters that are righthanded if you were the Astros? Or nice lefties that are gap hitters b/c of the large gaps toward rightfield in Enron? As a result, wouldnt you pick up lefthanded pitchers so as to neutralize the gap hits (since we should all know homeruns still occur less than hits) so obviously, if thats the strategy, the field plays a role somewhere.
As for a pitcher like Lima underperforming in Astros field compared to the Astrodome. I think its pretty obvious that the guy just had one good year. b/c he was just as terrible in Detroit (a pitchers park, unless you are facing gap hitters)
I dont think Astros Field is so much a hitters park. I think its half and half depending on which part of the field you hit it too. good pitchers like Oswalt will keep hitters from hitting it to the short fence in leftfield. so i dont blame ERA's on that field.
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