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How much do natural effects (temperature, air pressure and elevation) change the distance a baseball is hit?

Question: How much do natural effects (temperature, air pressure and elevation) change the distance a baseball is hit?

Why I asked the question? I wanted this answered for several reasons. Do batters heat up during the summer or does the ball travel farther? Is pitching better in the playoffs or is it just cooler temperature limiting offense? Which parks, do to their elevation, become a hitters park? Does the ball fly further in Tucson (which 1200 ft higher) vice Phoenix area (~10 degrees warmer) during spring training?

Analysis: The changes in baseball fight distance I from natural effects are from the book "The Physics of Baseball" by Robert K Adair. There is a brief summary of the book at:

http://www.bostonbaseball.com/whitesox/baseball_extras/physics.html

The three effects I wanted to take into account were temperature, air pressure and elevation. Here are the effects each one has on a ball hit 400ft:

 

1000 feet of increase in altitude

+7 Feet

10 increase in degrees of air temp

+4 Feet

1 inch drop in Barometer

+6 Feet

I compared all hit balls using a baseline of a stadium at sea level that is at 70 degrees F and at 29.2 in of pressure. Elevations were collected from various location while the weather information was collected from:

http://www.worldclimate.com/

After collecting the weather effects I went ahead and added park dimensions and park factors.  The information could be used in several way such as comparing a new stadium to other parks with similar attributes.  There are a few studies I plan to examine, but I am tired of looking at the data. 

Note: I had problem getting pressure for all location and those that don't have pressure information are marked with an asterisk (*).

Here is the link to all Major and Minor league stadiums with information on natural effects, stadium size and park effects:

http://tucsonroyal.com/Ballpark_info.xls

Major League Baseball Team Park April May June July Aug Sept Oct
Arizona Diamondbacks Chase Field 407 411 415 417 417 414 409
Atlanta Braves Turner Field 402 406 409 409 409 407 402
Baltimore Orioles Oriole Park at Camden Yards 394 398 402 404 403 400 395
Boston Red Sox Fenway Park 391 395 399 401 400 397 392
Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field 396 400 404 406 405 402 398
Chicago White Sox U.S. Cellular Field 396 400 404 406 405 402 398
Cincinnati Reds Great American Ball Park 397 401 404 406 405 402 397
Cleveland Indians * Progressive Field 396 400 404 405 405 402 398
Colorado Rockies Coors Field 428 432 435 438 437 433 428
Detroit Tigers Comerica Park 395 399 403 405 404 401 396
Florida Marlins Dolphin Stadium 401 403 404 404 405 404 403
Houston Astros * Minute Maid Park 400 402 404 405 405 404 400
Kansas City Royals * Kauffman Stadium 399 403 407 409 408 405 401
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Angel Stadium of Anaheim 397 399 400 402 403 402 400
Los Angeles Dodgers Dodger Stadium 400 401 402 404 405 404 402
Milwaukee Brewers * Miller Park 394 398 402 404 404 401 397
Minnesota Twins Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome 407 407 407 407 407 406 406
New York Mets Shea Stadium 393 397 400 402 402 398 394
New York Yankees Yankee Stadium 393 397 400 402 402 399 394
Oakland Athletics Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum 394 395 397 397 398 398 396
Philadelphia Phillies * Citizens Bank Park 393 397 401 403 402 399 394
Pittsburgh Pirates PNC Park 397 401 405 406 405 402 398
St. Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium 397 401 405 406 406 402 397
San Diego Padres PETCO Park 396 397 398 400 400 400 398
San Francisco Giants AT&T Park 394 394 395 395 396 397 396
Seattle Mariners Safeco Field 391 394 396 397 397 395 393
Tampa Bay Rays * Tropicana Field 400 400 400 400 400 400 400
Texas Rangers * Rangers Ballpark in Arlington 402 405 408 410 410 407 403
Toronto Blue Jays Rogers Centre 391 395 399 401 401 397 393
Washington Nationals Nationals Park 394 398 401 403 402 399 394

Comment 27 comments  |  6 recs  | 

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Okay, as much as I love the scientific method, there is an unspoken rule involved:

The title is the first thing that gets people to take a look at the work. Learned that in 2nd grade.

This isn’t the school science fair, man. You don’t have to make your posts have titles that sound like experiments. Maybe change this post’s title to “The Coors Field Effect.”

Clutch: A measurement of how much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/glossary/

by bdalebs on Nov 16, 2008 3:44 PM EST reply actions  

Good work though.

Clutch: A measurement of how much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/glossary/

by bdalebs on Nov 16, 2008 4:29 PM EST up reply actions  

Cool stuff.

I know SABRMatt from Detect-o-vision and the Baseball-Fever messages board is a huge proponent of incorporating climate data into the discussion.

How about presenting an average of all the months for each ballpark, sorting from most hitter-friendly to least? And how about finding a correlation between these climate effects and overall runs park factors? And maybe pointing out which parks have most of their runs park factors explained by the climate and which the least?

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Nov 16, 2008 4:16 PM EST reply actions  

Answers

I will do the average of the temps and dimensions at some point. The correlation wouldn’t be hard either. Like I said in the post though, I am tired of looking at it right now. I will probably update it before the season starts with data from new constructions.

Wall data is almost impossible to find outside the Major League Parks. I want to add, but it might be for 10% or less parks.

by Jeff Zimmerman on Nov 16, 2008 6:43 PM EST up reply actions  

note

With AZ, I assumed that the roof is open, the temp could be lower

by Jeff Zimmerman on Nov 16, 2008 8:35 PM EST up reply actions  

Given the impact

of the humidor at Coors, wouldn’t it be a good idea to look at humidity as well? I have often wondered if the desert air in Phoenix makes the balls harder so they get through the infield faster and travel farther. It seems odd to me that none of the D’backs infielders seem to have very good range, so I was alway curious if the batted balls were getting through the infield faster.

Those Pilgrims ain't lookin' so proud now...

by giveml on Nov 16, 2008 6:50 PM EST reply actions  

Humidity has little effect

Coors really jacks up the humidity of the ball => effecting the ball, but at any place without artifical humidity the the balls there is no effect by humidity.

According to the book, The Physics of Baseball:

“The humidity, per se, has little effect on the ball’s flight. Indeed, since water vapor is lighter than air, if all factors are the same, a ball will travel slightly farther with the humidity is high. The humidity however effects the weight and elasticity of balls in storage. Balls stored under conditions of high humidity will gain some weight through the absorption of water from the air and their elasticity will be reduced.”

by Jeff Zimmerman on Nov 16, 2008 7:42 PM EST up reply actions  

I am not talking about the air

I am talking about humidity’s effect on the weight and hardness of the baseball. Phoenix is at least as dry as Denver if not more, so shouldn’t the ball in Phoenix travel with the same exaggerated effects as pre-humidor Coors?

Those Pilgrims ain't lookin' so proud now...

by giveml on Nov 16, 2008 9:40 PM EST up reply actions  

I understand that

My point is that the humidor made a difference in how the ball traveled in Coors and at least part of the reason why Chase is such a hitters park may be due to the low humidity’s effect on the baseball. If a lighter, harder baseball can be driven through the infield faster for more singles and gets to the wall faster for more extra base hits, then isn’t that a “natural effect”?

Those Pilgrims ain't lookin' so proud now...

by giveml on Nov 16, 2008 10:44 PM EST up reply actions  

What's the generally accepted reason why Arizona plays as a pretty extreme hitters' park?

The dimensions? Lack of foul territory? Natural effects? Or do people just choose to ignore any explanation?

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Nov 17, 2008 10:31 AM EST up reply actions  

One of the reasons I always hear when the Giants play the D’Backs is the backdrop makes it very easy for hitters to pick up the ball.

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness. - Emo Philips

Neglectful father of David Quinowski

by marcello on Nov 18, 2008 3:41 PM EST up reply actions  

Elevation?

It is the 2nd highest field – although obviously there’s a huge difference between it and Coors.

by Dan Turkenkopf on Nov 18, 2008 9:39 PM EST up reply actions  

I did a little research and I might have something.

The ball park is cooled by a system the uses humidity to cool the air. The game balls might be stored at low humidity and there might be the reverse of what is happening at Coors. I haven’t yet seen what the humidity goes to, but the normal humidity in Phoenix is 23. With some reading, the field is cooled up to 30 degrees and to cool it with humid air, the humidity will need to 100. Will look more into this later

by Jeff Zimmerman on Nov 18, 2008 11:38 PM EST up reply actions  

Can you get data on

which days the roof was open? Same for all the retractable “domes”.

Those Pilgrims ain't lookin' so proud now...

by giveml on Nov 19, 2008 11:21 AM EST up reply actions  

Sucks to be Webb.

By tRA and tRA*, he’s just as much of a Cy Young candidate as Lincecum. Full post coming soon…

Beyond the Boxscore // Calling BJ Upton lazy is lazy.

by Sky Kalkman on Nov 17, 2008 10:30 AM EST up reply actions  

Awesome Work

That is ton’s of data in that XLS sheet. I am going to fire up Excel and see what I can do with it also. That most of taken a lot of hard work, I appreciate it.

Stat Whore

by FlimtotheFlam on Nov 16, 2008 7:43 PM EST reply actions  

AKA AC?

Clutch: A measurement of how much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/glossary/

by bdalebs on Nov 19, 2008 2:19 PM EST up reply actions  

By the Numbers related article

http://www.philbirnbaum.com/btn2008-05.pdf

BTN has an article that explains the monthly differences in runs to temperature.

by Jeff Zimmerman on Nov 24, 2008 12:23 PM EST reply actions  

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