Hit Tracker Online is awesome. THT and occasional BtB contributor John Beamer conducted a couple of interviews with the site's creator, Greg Rybarczyk, and there isn't much doubt that Hit Tracker is the next big thing in statistical analysis in baseball.
For a little bit of Thursday fun, I wanted to take a look at this seasons home run friendliest ballparks as well as some of the most memorable dingers hit in these respective ballparks in the 2007 season. The following five ballparks are ranked in terms of the highest number of home runs hit per game. Let's take a look:
1. The Great American Ballpark, Home of the Cincinnati Reds (HR/G: 3.03)
The Reds home ballpark has always been a launching pad for hitters, particularly left-handed hitters, which is why it isn't all that surprising that Adam Dunn has hit the two longest home runs in that ballpark this season.
The longest home run hit in this ballpark in the 2007 season came on Opening Day when Dunn launched his second of two home runs off the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano which can be seen here. As measured by true distance, Dunn's homer traveled 456 feet.
The second longest home run of the year came when Dunn faced Texas' Vicente Padilla. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any video of the shot, but its true distance was measured at 447 feet.
2. Citizens Bank Ballpark, Home of the Philadelphia Phillies (HR/G: 2.86)
Like The Great American Ballpark, Citizens Bank Ballpark is also a very home friendly park to both right-handed and left-handed hitters alike.
The longest home run hit in Citizens Bank this season came on April 23rd, when Chase Utley hit a 462 foot shot against Houston's Dave Borkowski.
Atlanta's Edgar Renteria hit the second longest homer in this park off Brett Myers which traveled an estimated 434 feet.
3. Ameriquest Field, Home of the Texas Rangers (2.50 HR/G)
Not much of a surprise here as Ameriquest Field pops up at #3 on the list.
Not real surprising either is the guy that's hit the longest home run of the year there either. Mark Teixeira currently tops the list of lengthy home runs hie here this summer with a 457 blast that came off the Red Sox Julian Tavarez.
The second longest dinger came off the bat of Milwaukee's Prince Fielder on June 10th. Texas' Vicente Padilla once again serves up another very long home run; this one at 440 feet.
4. Comerica Park, Home of the Detroit Tigers (HR/G: 2.42)
This one's a bit surprising to me. The Tigers are a team with a lot of pop, they're fifth in the American League in total home runs hit at 88, but Comerica Park is a place that definitely suppresses home run production.
Here is Comerica's home run park factor that was used for the 2007 PECOTA projections. The following park factor was found via Baseball Prospectus 2007. The scale is measured as 1000 being a neutral park, anything lower favoring the pitcher, anything higher favoring the hitters:
*Overall: 945
*Left-Handed Hitters: 963
*Right-Handed Hitters: 934
Comerica is a park that favors lefties a bit more than righties, but by all means this park plays as a pitchers park in terms of home runs.
Detroit's Carlos Guillen has hit the longest home run of the year at Comerica with a 449 foot bomb against Kansas City's Jason Strandridge on April 16th; the second clip in the video.
Teammate Magglio Ordonez fell just a couple of feet short of tying Guillen's shot with a 447 foot home run of his own against Seattle's Jeff Weaver on May 10th.
5. Rogers Centre, Home of the Toronto Blue Jays (HR/G: 2.36)
In terms of home run park factor last season only U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago had a higher figure than the Rogers Centre, so it's not surprising at all to see this ballpark on the list.
Boston's Wily Mo Pena owns the longest home run hit in the ballpark this year with a 456 shot that came off Toronto's Gustavo Chacin on April 17th. A "monster blast" indeed.
Toronto's Adam Lind came very close to reaching that same mark with a 453 foot home run off et another Rangers' hurler, this time Willie Eyre on April 28th.
References: All home run charts are courtesy of Hit Tracker Online. For all of you who haven't visited this site yet, I highly highly recommend it. Just be careful, you might waste a couple of hours going through the database and watching some of the longest home runs hit around baseball over the past few years.