The Coors Effect

This week is the only time I've actually been able to watch a complete series in Coors Field, previous years for one reason or anther I haven't been able to.

I'd always realised that the game is different there, but never realised until our series there how different.

Previous to Tuesday we (the A's) had averaged less than 3.5 runs per game and just 7 hits. In our three games in Coors we scored 26 runs and 35 hits, Brandon Moss in particular feasted on the conditions.

I was also aware that Carlos Gonzalez home/road splits were skewed, again, I hadn't realised how much until I looked it up. His slash lines:

Home .386/.447/.748 OPS 1.195
Road .248/.307/.457 OPS .764

That's really an amazing split, just hope your team doesn't get fooled and trade for him!

However it isn't just Cargo, when I looked at the team home/road splits it's, if anything, even more gob smacking

At home the Rockies are far and away the best offence in the Majors, 225 runs scored (the 2nd place Whitesox have just 179), home slah line .289/.358/.507, the only category they aren't top in is OBP, where they are 2nd behind the Dodgers.

Away from Coors though, they are the worst team in the majors with just 91 runs scored (spot the difference!!!) and a slash line of .227/.286/.372. Interestingly they aren't dead last in any one category, Miami in particular are worse in all three categories and have only scored four more runs, in two more games played. Which indicate that in reality the Marlins are the worst road offence in the majors. Miami are middle of the road at home, 14/30, still a significant home/road split (why?, and idea Lee?) but still incomparable to Colorado.

This sort of skewed performance does make it hard for even Sabermatricians to evaluate overall performance, but must surely make GMs think twice before acquiring players who looked good in a Rockies uniform.

One thing's for sure, if I was a pitcher drafted by the Rockies I'd sit out the year rather than sign for them!

Do you think playing in such an "easy" stadium to score runs effects their ability to score runs on the road? Is it a mental thing knowing that it will be harder to pile up runs away from Coors or are they just not very good?

Let's exaine what makes the difference in Coors.

1. The effect of gravity is reduced, balls are marginally lighter and travel faster.

2. The air is thinner, so the ball tends to 'move' less

So the ball is marginally faster, pitches are a tad straighter, which may mean hitters who play in Coors a lot will adjust to it, then have to readjust when they get down closer to sea level.

If this is true, then you'd expect them to be at their worst at the start of road trips, but gradually improving as they adjusted. I don't have the data to check that unfortunately, not without doing a lot of research anyway.

If we had an active Rockies fan maybe she or he could keep tabs and let us know if there is such a trend. The flip side would be that you would expect them to have to adjust back at the start of home stands, but maybe that's easier for them.

Looking at one player the Rockies recently added Marco Scutaro is interesting, before this year his home/road splits have tended to be either fairly even, or markedly better on the road; this year his H/R splits are .305/.361/.454 home and .242/.276/.313 on the road, a total break from his previous career tendencies.

There's a slightly different story with Cuddyer, he's always been slightly better at home (apart from 2008 when he was drastically better at home), his H/R splits aren't as bad as others on the team, but still out of wack wiith previous years except for 2008.

This is the most interesting part to me. We know that hitters can hate change, we've seen them complain about having to hit in the home run derby as it puts their swing out of whack. We've even seen numbers fall-off dramatically from hitters competing in the home run derby. Granted that's not what we're talking about here, and is an extreme example, but it makes sense that even minor adjustments to a swing can effect a hitter.
Have you got Marco Scutaro career road numbers? It'd be interesting to see how this season's road numbers compare.

Scooter's career home/road splits

Home .267/.335/.397 Road .275/.341/.382

This year Home .305/.361/.454 Road .242/.276/.313

What also makes evaluating performance of course it the standard of the opposition.

Last night was the Rockies first home game after a home stand, and they scored 10 runs on 16 hits (no homers).

However, that was against Detroit. They scored 4 runs in the first 3.2 innings (6 hits, four walks) against a guy who isn't good enough for AA let alone the majors. Then nothing until the 10th when they scored 8 runs, 5 unearned.

What's the Rockies' pitching like away from Coors? As I understand it, they've switched to a 4 man rotation, going just 75 pitchers per inning, which seems to indicate there's nowt in AAA or even AA worth promoting (Pomeranz?) and that their battery of hurlers is sucking in and out of Colorado.

When Dan O' Dowd is willing to give away a renowned innings-eater like Jeremy Guthrie for next to nothing (BlueJays have offered a AA 1B with a limited ceiling) it's an indication the Rockies are bereft of depth, firesaleing and aren't doing a good job of hiding either.

At least the similarly becalmed Twins can point to bad luck with injuries in drafting pitchers.

I'm intrigued now to see how he finishes the entire season and we have a decent sample size. We'd probably be speculating a bit too much at the moment to suggest anything serious, but it's very interesting to see how his numbers are way down on the road.

Well the Nats have just finished a stint at Coors Field and having watched all four games FWIW I'm now with Gal as regards the Rockies home. Morse's homer last night is caught on the the warning track in Nationals Park.

All pitching from home and away teams is averaging around 5.00 ERA but Friedrich comes in at just under 3.00 out of Coors so could it be a stronger or more effective humidor is required. Is it possible to make Coors field bigger to equalise the thinner air in warmer weather?

Or is it simply, Friedrich aside, the pitching for the Rockies is a major weakness which doesn't appear to be on the mend anytime soon?

Well Rockies pitching is the worst in the majors, by a distance, which doesn't come as any surprise. They are pretty bad (24th) on the road as well though. Not sure how to read that, but if you were a pitcher would you want to risk your next contract by playing for the Rockies?