Ball park factors question

[zoomzilla]

What if I had a completely stock modern league, but changed all ballparks dimensions so all walls were 900ft away? Since none of the statistical or player ratings modifiers have been changed would there be no home runs hit or would the home run numbers be uneffected and everyone would just hit 900ft home runs?

[lbj273]

To my knowledge the HR Park Factor is all that matters, the wall distances are cosmetic. Someone else may have proof of me being wrong but that's my understanding based on things I've read about park dimensions.

[ihatenames]

Originally Posted by lbj273

To my knowledge the HR Park Factor is all that matters, the wall distances are cosmetic. Someone else may have proof of me being wrong but that's my understanding based on things I've read about park dimensions.

Unless things have changed recently the above is correct.

[zoomzilla]

Thanks!

[old fat bald guy]

(clears throat)

Actually, you might have more home runs with fences too far away. My recollection from Little League is that there were no home runs if the field had a fence, because it was always too far away for us to reach on the fly but close enough to the infield to limit inside-the-park homers. At fields with no fence, a line drive that got past the outfielders might still be rolling when the batter touched home plate.

[zoomzilla]

True. In fact, I have a league where modifiers are set so that there are very few HR's but the number of 2B, 3B, and singles is modified to produce similar runs and rbi totals as today. Basically imagine if the HR had never been invented. Maybe a ball clearing a far away fence would be a ground rule double, or even a strike. It's an interesting thought experiment and an interesting league where you have to adjust your perspective about what kinds of numbers in which categories are most important. I also have the stolen base attempt percentage turned up in an attempt to mimic what baseball may have been like if over the wall home runs had never been allowed. I was just wondering if there was an easier way to mimic this, as keeping track of modifiers season after season is laborious.

[NolaSola7]

Originally Posted by old fat bald guy

(clears throat)

Actually, you might have more home runs with fences too far away. My recollection from Little League is that there were no home runs if the field had a fence, because it was always too far away for us to reach on the fly but close enough to the infield to limit inside-the-park homers. At fields with no fence, a line drive that got past the outfielders might still be rolling when the batter touched home plate.

good thinking! bravo