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

by Jeff Zimmerman on Nov 16, 2008 3:25 PM EST

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

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Comments

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.

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

There have also been some studies out there that attempt to calculate park factors based on fielding dimensions and wall height.

Trying to combine those with this information would be pretty sweet.

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

by Sky Kalkman on Nov 16, 2008 4:18 PM EST up 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

Here is the Averages per month and sorted

Excel Spread Sheet

As a web page

Stat Whore

by FlimtotheFlam on Nov 16, 2008 8:14 PM EST up reply actions

Another great piece of work with a long title

by SanjiWatsuki on Nov 16, 2008 4:21 PM EST reply actions

Great Piece of work Rec'd

The Trade-Maker

by dasox313 on Nov 16, 2008 4:51 PM EST 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

Their is a 4000ft difference in Altitude

Between Denver and Phoenix.

Stat Whore

by FlimtotheFlam on Nov 16, 2008 10:34 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