USSM Chat – 2/17/11
Dave · February 17, 2011 at 9:46 am · Filed Under Mariners
I’ll swing by around noon and we’ll talk Mariners baseball for a while. I’ll open up the queue a bit early so you guys can leave questions ahead of time.
I’ll swing by around noon and we’ll talk Mariners baseball for a while. I’ll open up the queue a bit early so you guys can leave questions ahead of time.
I really like these chats! I didn’t get to participate but reading the recap is awesome. Booo to Dave for ESPN though. They are the exact opposite type of analyzing that Dave provides 🙂
Per Joser, I now have this funny thought stuck in my mind – I’m hearing this read in Dave Neihaus voice at the end of last year’s TV commercials.
Dave, thank you for doing the chat! I’m always limited to reading them after the fact, but I enjoy it a lot.
And please don’t ever merge with LL. I really enjoy reading Jeff’s stuff, but I’m not fond of a huge portion of their commenters. Things are much more civilized over here, at least most of the time. Maybe you’re right – we’re just all old geezers, so the lower testosterone levels make us better behaved. 😉
Agreed. Please don’t merge.
Safeco Field Question- Dave, you mentioned in the chat that left field is ridiculous and the Mariners’ may eventually cave and bring it in. I was looking at the park factors here: http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor
and from there you can look at dimensions. If you compare the distance of the left field fence, left center, and center to The Ballpark in Arlington for example, the distances are nearly identical. Is the colder/wetter air the biggest difference, or is there something I am missing about the left field dimensions at Safeco that make a deeper “power gap” in left field? I notice that the right field numbers aren’t that much shorter, but we all view the right field side as catering to LH power hitters.
RRR – Look at the past posts on Park Factors and Safeco dimensions, both here and at LL. You’ll find the information you seek there, I think.
Dave – Thanks for the chats! I read both LL and USSM but I appreciate the different styles and philosophies. I also know how much work a site takes, so thank you for the extra effort you put in to this place in addition to your day-job!
nwade- Thanks, I found some good stuff by searching.
Dave made a good comment around 2006. Something along the lines of they could make Safeco remain a pitchers park that negates both RH and LH around -5%, as opposed to a park that negates RH around -25% and profits LH’s around +5%.
I’m starting to like the idea of tweaking the left field dimensions.
I want Safeco to remain a pitchers park, but I think the strongest argument is how it makes it more difficult to bring in RH free agents.
It also almost unfairly kills some of our RH hitters. Maybe the casual fans would have appreciated Beltre more for example if Safeco was a bit more fair to RH hitters.
Something along the lines of Nationals Park or Dodgers Stadium is where I would like to see Safeco relate in the park factor rankings.
Great chat, Dave. Loved reading it after the fact.
When do we get to go out and buy the guide you guys did last year? I still read mine from last year whenever I have a question about stats.