Quote:
Originally Posted by joefromchicago
What you're saying is that lefties lose a bunch of home runs in the 380-400 foot "well" in deep center-right field. But most home runs aren't hit in that area anyway, regardless of what park you're talking about. I'd imagine that maybe a dozen balls per year fall into that area that would have been home runs if they had instead been hit in deep center-left field. And even if it's more than that - say it's fifty a year instead of a dozen - that gets averaged out over thousands of at-bats. It's really not a big factor.
The Cubs haven't had a lefty hit over 30 HRs in a year since 1998 because the Cubs are uniquely terrible at obtaining and retaining talented players. The top HR hitters in 2013 were lefties - Nate Schierhotlz and Anthony Rizzo - both players with limited skills and doubtful futures. It's not the park, it's the team.
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What I'm saying is it is significantly harder to hit homeruns as a lefty than a righty at Wrigley, which is true. Nothing more or nothing less. Yes lefties will lose more homeruns than righties in the park because the walls are deeper. Not just in the deeper center well but in the power ally as well. The power ally in left field and left-center is very short. That is why righty power hitters typically have more success than lefties there. And of course there are other factors as well, such as wind and talent.
That doesn't mean it's impossible for a lefty to come along and hit 40 or 50 homeruns with the proper talent. All I'm saying is there are reasons that righty sluggers have had more success than their lefty counter parts and the deeper dimensions the lefties have to face certainly do not help them.