Baseball America: Target Field was worst park for left-handed power

[Ben Collin]

Yes the downtown will have an impact on the wind flow but you also have to remember that wind might not be representative of the air that is flowing at a higher elevation over the top of the stadium. The funneling of air was exactly what I was talking about with the plaza. I've noticed games where the LF flags are blowing in but the plaza flag poles are blowing in as well. This is my fascination with it all.

In regard to using the airport and buildings screwing with the wind and perhaps not being representative. It's very possible but it's all we got. I actually emailed the hittracker guy and he does the exact same thing when determining weather variables. Luckily for him, he does it as needed where I've had to dig up old data and do some data mining to get what he used. My data seems to match up with his in terms of wind aided home runs.

 

I really think the height of the walls surrounding most of the ballpark are high enough that the winds up at those levels aren't impacted as much by buiildings. Now it could have the low level winds ramming up against the walls and flowing over but I think the urban area's biggest impact comes from the plaza.

 

Another thing I wonder about is something called rotors with the wind blowing over the stadium and into the park. Think of a pickup truck in a test where they have the smoke blowing over it to show the streamlining of airflow over it. Now look at right behind the cab of the truck and how the air comes rushing down into the bed of the truck. That's another possibility as to why the ball dies at Target Field. The air flows over the top of the ballpark and then subsides somewhere in the park, thus killing the flight of the ball.

 

All theories I have but I'm working on it.

[Ben Collin]

Once I get the 2010 data crunched and see if the results are similar to the 2011 data. I'll post it at my blog. The wind is really the key factor with all of this.

[YLT]

"And we need to sign elite free agents"

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that TF isn't what's standing in the way of the Twins signing elite free agents.

I'm going to go ahead and agree with you. Ownership seems to work within a pretty specific budget. When's the last time the Twins signed an "elite free agent"?

[davidjcampbell]

All theories I have but I'm working on it.

This is awesome.

[FirstBaseman]

A couple guys in the Twins Press Pool have told me that when the stadium was being designed, the architects and team were actually afraid that there were worried that TOO many home runs would be hit in this park, could you believe it? I don't think the stadium was designed to minimize home runs, but they took some steps to keep the number down apparently, just because the thought the ball would be flying out of there.

 

In my opinion, it's the guys who designed the stadium who messed up, but I wonder if the Twins can hold them accountable. They were told this would be a live ball park, but it is anything but that!

[Neinstein]

I was wondering why Jamey Carroll was signed so quickly, now I know.