The very best-case state of affairs for a sports activities group proprietor is uncommon, however clear: A neighborhood businessman runs the group as a group establishment. Moderately 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, quite 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, nevertheless it’s good optics.
And fewer than a 12 months into his tenure, Rubenstein is displaying himself to be a builder of bridges. Or a tearer-down of partitions. Or a mover of partitions, at any fee. One in every of baseball’s most foolishly conceived and extensively derided architectural options is on its manner out. Mike Elias, the Orioles’ government vp and common supervisor, introduced Friday that the left subject wall at Oriole Park at Camden Yards is getting a haircut and shifting towards the plate.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Gimmicky outfield partitions are top-of-the-line 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 swimsuit the aim. Fenway Park’s Inexperienced Monster is probably the most well-known instance, however they have been in every single place. When MLB groups began constructing a brand new wave of baseball-only stadiums within the Nineteen Nineties — a wave led by Camden Yards — the architects acquired to place away their protractors and French curves and get slightly inventive.
So we’ve excessive scoreboard partitions in Houston and Pittsburgh, and humorous angles in Philadelphia and San Francisco designed with the categorical goal of producing triples and inside-the-park house runs. Simply to call just a few.
Since its earliest days, Oriole Park has at all times been hitter-friendly, however in 2021, issues went slightly 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 house runs. Now, the best way I remembered issues was that 30% of Gleyber Torres’ profession house runs have been low-cost wallscrapers to left subject through 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 house 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 have been to left or left heart. So it’s probably not his fault.
Both manner, there are two methods to cease giving up a traditionally large variety of house runs. One is to repair the pitching workers, however that’s exhausting, man. Even three years and two postseason journeys later, Elias has solely type of performed that. Or you possibly can transfer the wall again so it’s tougher to hit house runs.
So earlier than the 2022 season, the Orioles elevated the peak of the left subject wall from seven toes to 13 toes. Whereas holding the left subject foul pole 333 toes from the plate, they put in a pointy dogleg out to a protracted, flat part of fence that eradicated a number of rows of seats in left subject. The left-center subject marker went out a further 20 toes, from 364 toes to 384 toes. And quite than mixing the brand new left subject alcove into the present heart subject wall, the fence jutted out perpendicular to its earlier path, leaving a 90-degree nook in deep left heart, 398 toes from the plate.
Now, this isn’t the primary time the Orioles have monkeyed with the size 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 size by shifting house plate again seven toes. (I think about Peter Angelos standing on the pitcher’s mound, speaking to a common contractor with a pencil behind his ear, going, “You recognize, 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 authentic place and — I’m quoting right here from MLB.com — “your complete subject was shifted a number of levels to the primary base facet.”
The thought of rotating an infield acquired me pondering. Rule 2.01 governs the enjoying subject, specifying that the infield should be a 90-foot sq., and that the space from house plate to second base should be 127 toes, 3 3/8 inches. Now, I acquired 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 all the measurements for a authorized infield.
Based on Appendix 1, the bases and the mound should be symmetrical left-to-right, nevertheless 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 don’t seem to be obligatory and every Membership shall decide the dimensions and form of the grassed and naked areas of its enjoying subject.”
So is a checkerboard infield, with alternating squares of grass and grime, authorized? How a couple of sequence of stripes, or random curvilinear patterns?
I think we’ll by no means discover out, as a result of there’s no sensible purpose to construct an asymmetrical infield aside 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 fee, 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 results of the change have been quick and apparent. Should you love jarringly extreme angles — just like the one being faraway from the left subject wall at Camden Yards this winter — you’re going to like this graph of HR/FB% on fly balls to left subject 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 size of a stadium, even when it’s performed intentionally to govern the frequency of house runs. Structure is all a part of the sport right here.
However the 2022-24 Camden Yards wall… I’m sorry for being indelicate, nevertheless it simply sucked. It was apparent and inorganic. The sharp angle on the bullpens made it appear like some large had simply appeared at some point with the world’s largest sabre noticed and hacked a slice out of the left subject grandstand. (Additionally, I may need simply had this on my thoughts as a result of Elias minimize his enamel with the Astros, however the left subject cutout in Baltimore needs to be fairly near an ideal match for the Crawford Bins in Minute Maid Park, proper? You understand how 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 subject concavity. On that ostensibly joyous event, Mancini appeared (and announcer Melanie Newman sounded) like Christmas had been canceled. Which isn’t ultimate, in the event you ask me. When the house group’s standard slugger hits a double, “bereft” isn’t 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 toes from house plate, quite than 384 as it’s now. And the fence can be eight toes excessive, quite than 13, which brings house 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 toes at that nook and out to 376 toes on the fringe of the bullpen. That brings the fence some 26 toes nearer than it presently is in that energy alley, with a fence that drops to 6 toes, 11 inches in top after the nook.
What’s this going to imply? Nicely, extra house 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 all over, 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 subject at Camden Yards, and as a lot as I might like to see Mountcastle relieved of the curse laid upon him by the gods of BABIP, I might warning towards overstating the impression of this alteration till we see it in motion.
What number of extra house runs will we see because of this subject configuration? Nicely, it’s inconceivable to foretell, as a result of shifting the fence and reducing it can change how pitchers, hitters, and defenses alike strategy the sport. And don’t sleep on the impression the decrease fence can have each as a profit to hitters and as a searching floor for would-be house run robbers.
Nonetheless, let’s make an informed guess. For many of the size of this wall, the fence is being introduced in from 384 toes to about 373 toes. Over the previous three seasons, what number of fly balls and line drives to left subject at Camden Yards had a projected distance between 373 and 384 toes? Lots of?
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 house 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 subject foul pole to the fence, and that’s going to swallow up loads of balls that may’ve gotten out in loads 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 recreation 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, massive [left] subject or not!”
Perhaps 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 instructed 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 keeping with Statcast. However not Camden Yards. And never Camden Yards in 2025, both. This ball had an estimated distance of 365 toes, which is a few eight toes wanting the place the brand new wall goes to be.
In brief, I’m hopeful however not essentially optimistic. The wall goes to play slightly 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 subject in comparison with the remainder of the league. And that’s advantageous. Followers are OK with wonky ballpark dimensions stealing their pleasure; they only need the park to be much less apparent about it.
