I find Jeff Kent to be an odd fellow. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2774039 "This is a great hitter's park, especially when the weather is good," Kent said. "The weather's been fantastic the last couple of days. I like this place. This is a nice play to play. This allows you to be a complete hitter, rather than just a pull hitter. "It's better to hit on the road than our home ballpark. Our home ballpark is not a good power place. A lot of guys on this team like to drive the ball to center, left-center, right-center, and our ballpark just can't handle that. That makes for a frustrating time."
Jeff Kent (Home) - .310 avg, 10 HR's, 48 RBI's OBP of .365 Jeff Kent (Away) .265 avg, 10 HR's, 37 RBI's, OBP of .319 http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/splits?statsId=4826
he's flat out weird. i thought so when he was with the giants. i still think so now. i'm rooting for him like crazy...but he's never really endeared himself to any fan base, anywhere. never got the "kwan"
He's got a point, if you like hitting the ball to center, you're out of luck at MMP. As he said, it makes you more of a pull hitter becasue you see that short porch in left.
Those stats take into account his hitting in all away ballparks, he didn't say he likes hitting on the road more than home. What are his stats like just at Great American Ballpark?
good point. but he's saying it's hard to hit at MMP, ultimately. that hitting there "makes for a frustrating time." how is that backed up by his numbers?
Berkman is always saying something to that effect about MMP. In fact, one year I think management even spoke to him about being critical of the new park.
why would he say that? he bats best from the left side, any way. so if he goes the other way, he finds cheaper shots for himself. i guess everyone will find a reason to gripe about something. we sure had complaints from the pitchers in 2000 about how favorable the park was for hitters. right now the park is playing fairly moderately...though i'd argue it tends to be more of a hitters' park than a pitchers' paradise.
This is why I've never seen MMP as the "bandbox" that many people like to call it. We lose a ton of homeruns to center and the power alleys that more than make up for a couple cheap shots that land in the Crawford boxes. Gagne's save streak would have been over a year ago anywhere but at MMP when Berkman flew out to the hill.
i agree with your statement. i think you're exactly right..it's not a bandbox. but in the alternative, i wouldn't call it a bad place to hit, either. it plays fair, i think. kent seems to be saying it doesn't. that it's "frustrating" to hit there. i'm not buying it..not when you're putting up the kind of numbers that Kent is this year at home.
Read it closer...he says MMP is not a good "power" park, as in home runs. And it's not, because of the deep allies and center, and the enticement to aim for the porch, which can screw up your swing.
MMP is the ultimate enigma... I've always thought this since year 1. It can't be classified as simply a hitters park mainly because it NEUTRALIZES the great power hitters with the deep CF and RCF. Thus, allofasudden, Adam Everett is almost just as likely to hit a HR in MMP as Vladimir Guerrero or Sammy Sosa (guys who aren't just pull hitters). I've always found it comical that MMP gives a cheap HR to LF, but takes away a legit HR to CF. The psychological factor of that LF porch is huge... both on the hitters, and the pitchers. Combine all of this with the chance that a ball can hit the roof in foul territory and be declared dead, but hit the roof in fair territory and be declared "in play" turns MMP into the #1 ballpark in MLB where the stadium can determine a game (Fenway, Coors, and the Metrodome are also there). But... would I change the stadium to eliminate all of this... not a chance in hell. I'd much rather be talking about stuff like this, all the while sitting in seats that offer the best views of the field in all of MLB... than playing in a neutral (boring) park. Edit: as for the Kent comments, I distinctly remember--when he played for San Fran, and just tore us a new one in the 2001 series when Dierker refused to pitch to Bonds-- that he LOVED MMP, and said that any hitter would be crazy not to want to play here... because this ballpark would add miles to your stats alone (I also believe Bonds said the same thing when the ballpark opened). I guess he would rather play in a park where he wasn't "expected" to put up big HR numbers... like Pac Bell... rather than one where if you don't hit 35-40 HR's playing an entire year there, there's something wrong w/ you.
For what it's worth, we're .500 at home and 7 games over .500 on the road this year. I wish we could just stay on the road for a few more weeks. I don't want to jinx anything.
I read an article about 3 months back that listed the top five ball parks that allowed cheap homers and that listed the top five that stole homers. MMP was in the top 5 in both by allowing cheap homers down the line and stealing them up the middle.
Berkman says that his a lot of his power is to centerfield. Reference the shots he hit the past week against the cubs and reds, they were to the power alleys and to straight-away center. Even the ball Pena made that nice catch on at the wall was to dead center. So in that sense, maybe he's just saying his swing is not tailored to MMP.
I was reading today in the CHronicle that Berkman is not much of a fan of MMP either. He says it hurts his game a lot because he hits most of his stuff to center, left center, and right center field. In MMP they would be fly outs. IIRC I read that he has hit 6HR in Red town in 10 games, and has done the same # of HR in MMP in 215AB's. EDIT: Crap, I pretty much repeated what was said in the previous post....
Again...I don't know how any hitter...but particularly Jeff Kent, given his numbers here...can be "frustrated" with hitting at MMP. I understand the CF points. But the power alleys are shorter than most others...LF is as short as it gets. Hitters do quite well at MMP.
