Home › The Cardinal Nation Forums › Open Forum › Reconfigure Busch Stadium
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September 8, 2021 at 10:19 am #171931
Interesting topic. Would this help the Cardinals or hurt since they tend to emphasize run prevention?
Cardinals are Considering Moving the Walls at Busch
Busch’s park factors are consistently among the lowest in the league and the club is trying to change that. https://t.co/H3sntWSSCB
— viva el birdos (@vivaelbirdos) September 8, 2021
September 8, 2021 at 10:46 am #17193314NyquisTParticipantGive the fans what they want…. more HRs and more game clips. This will add to the empty seats for STL games.
September 10, 2021 at 10:32 am #172071Instead of moving in the fences, this team needs a complete Management makeover and some major improvement to the roster. How about Mo goes bye bye and hire a baseball guy that makes baseball decisions. He’s trying to cover up for his lack of talent.
September 10, 2021 at 12:16 pm #172076How about construct a team to play in the stadium we have, like Herzog did. That made for some exciting baseball. But we will make it a bandbox for the true outcome guys so we can all spend 3 hours watching for a few homers amongst the strike outs.
September 10, 2021 at 6:53 pm #1720911982 willieParticipantYea this is terrible news. You have speedy outfielders but yet you want to make them more obsolete just so you and the other teams can hit more home runs. Just ludicrous. Personally I think they should move the fences back in left center and right center to cater to their faster players. Do like Herzog did, take advantage of your park dimensions to try to counter the other teams. Why try to take away home field advantage since you play half your games there.
September 12, 2021 at 6:22 pm #172200The fences don’t need to be moved in if your roster construction was a little more well rounded.
It’s more of a pitchers park. You want to rob from peter to pay paul go right ahead and watch people piss and moan about when the pitching numbers or ERA or FIP go up a half run.
and willie gmafb! You think a couple of these knuckleheads have the ability to bunt or manufacture a run. Some of these clowns can’t get on base at a .330 clip.
September 13, 2021 at 4:09 am #172221Not a fan of this proposal.
Agree with comments about restructuring the roster to fit the park.
A lot of unforeseen consequences with moving the walls in …
September 13, 2021 at 8:03 am #172230I agree with the sentiments of most in this thread. Let’s not make a bandbox out of Busch.
Let’s instead build a team around our home stadium.
September 14, 2021 at 4:39 pm #172346👍
September 15, 2021 at 9:19 am #172512I can’t imagine our pitching staff will be thrilled if we turn Busch into Great American Ballpark or Wrigley.
September 17, 2021 at 5:06 pm #172674The park as currently constituted has done more to hurt Cardinal hitters than it has done to help Cardinal pitchers. There was an article about this somewhere a year or so ago, but I cannot for the life of me recall where. Probably the P-D.
The trouble is, over the past 4-5 years the Cards keep acquiring righty power, e.g., O’Neill, Goldy, Arenado, which is the one type of hitter most hurt by Busch 3. Plus we’ve got DeJong, Molina, Bader. (Check their Home/Road splits over the past few years, esp. Bader.)
The Cards hit 40% more homers on the road than at home from 2017-2020. And this year it’s over 60% more on the road. That’s insane.—————————
So count me in the minority here — I say move in the left field fence as far as league rules allow. It will hurt Redbird pitchers, but it should help the hitters more and thus improve the club on the whole.
September 17, 2021 at 7:13 pm #172679If anyone has the source data, please share the link. Many variables are involved and it is a challenge for me to sort it out.
September 17, 2021 at 8:47 pm #172689They hit more homers on the road because the parks are smaller. Its all relative. If you move the walls in more of our opponents balls are going to be flying out too.
September 18, 2021 at 1:50 am #172698“They hit more homers on the road because the parks are smaller. Its all relative. If you move the walls in more of our opponents balls are going to be flying out too.”
So it would seem. But if the parks are smaller on the road, then shouldn’t Cardinal pitchers allow a bunch more homers on the road than they do at home? (They don’t.)
From 2017-today, Redbird pitchers have permitted 350 home homers and 373 on the road, for a negligible difference of less than 7%.
Cardinal batters on the other hand have hit 354 homers at Busch, but smacked 478(!) elsewhere. So in five years of road games across a wide variety of ballparks, the club has proven itself much better than the opposition at going deep.
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We see that, at least in terms of home runs, at Busch the Birds have quite clearly been operating at a home field disadvantage. And in my opinion that’s primarily because opposing lineups are considerably more left-handed than our own — and Busch 3 is notoriously tough on righty power. Busch hurts our hitters much more than the opposing hitters.
Therefore, bring in the left field wall. Nowhere else. Just left field. I believe it’ll help the hometown nine much more than their opponents, and I think five seasons of home run totals support that opinion.
September 18, 2021 at 7:15 am #172701I cannot dispute the power stats Bob has laid out for us. However, my question is how has that impacted the Cards Home versus Road record over the same period it time. So, if we take a look at the Cardinals win/loss record over that same time frame we see this:
A. Home record of 191-152 or a .557 winning percentage
B. Road record of 178-169 or a .513 winning percentageSo how did that significant road “power surge” help the ball club? It appears that it did not win them more games. Couldn’t someone argue that by moving fences in you are more likely to replicate the road record at home?
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