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The Detroit Tigers Might Want To Bring That Center Field Wall In A Bit

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When Nicholas Castellanos said, “This park is a joke” after hitting a walk-off home run on July 21st of last season, it added fuel to the fire of a longstanding debate. The only thing is, this is not really a debate anymore. 

Most of-if not all-Tiger followers and players agree that the dimensions of Comerica CMA are still detrimental to the teams’ success. Therefore, the only people who seem to be in opposition of making the ballpark more hitter friendly are the ones who would have to spend the money in order to do so. With the Tigers’ rebuild being accelerated by an excellent draft, Comerica Park’s dimensions could be standing in the way of the Tigers fully bearing the fruit of their labor. 

With the Tigers’ incoming 2020 draft class paired with their 2019 draft class, the Tigers have acquired offensive prospects to rival their top tier pitching prospects. In order to maximize the value they get out of their offensive prospects, the Tigers should strongly consider moving the center field fence in this offseason. If the COVID-19 pandemic ends up cancelling the 2020 season, they should absolutely use the extra time to move in the center field fence.

This past offseason, the San Francisco Giants have decided to finally make their ballpark more hitter and position player friendly by moving the formerly in-play bullpen mounds behind the newly shortened center field walls. Only time will tell how this will impact the Giants’ offensive numbers, but look at the Giants’ 2019 line drive or fly ball barrels overlayed with their new 2020 park dimensions:

Conservatively, we can say the Giants would have hit at least 30 more home runs in 2019. Considering the Giants hovered around .500 and in the playoff picture for longer than most people anticipated, this could have been a huge shift in their favor. A positive shift of the needle in the Giants 35-46 home record in 2019 may not have gotten them into the playoffs, but it may have helped them inch even closer to the .500 mark. 

Many prognosticators projected the Giants to be one of- if not- the worst team in the Major Leagues last season. Yet, under new front office management, the Giants were able to cobble together a surprising and respectable season. Which leads one to wonder, what could they have done in a full 2020 season in their new, more hitter friendly ballpark?

That’s simply food for thought. However, let’s have a nibble on what the Tigers 2019 offense would look like overlayed on the 2020 dimensions of Oracle Park. 

Conservatively, the Tigers would have at least 40 more home runs in a similarly unfriendly hitting environment. Making matters worse, is most of the Tigers barrels in the air to centerfield produced outs, which is an incredibly cruel fate for achieving the most difficult feat in sports.

Castellanos went on to say, "It's to the point where how are we going to be compared to the rest of the people in the league in terms of power numbers, OPS, slugging and all that stuff when we got a yard out here that's 420 feet straight across center field?". And he’s right. 

Imagine 40 additional home runs spread across the entire roster. What could that mean for some of the Tigers’ more fringey players? Or could it propel some of their players to go from hovering around average to being slightly above average?

If the Tigers want to maximize the value for their offensive players-including prospects- they need to make the environment more friendly to their hitters. This is as much of an investment in their future as the money they pay their draft picks.

To people who are resistant to the notion of moving the fences in because they fear that it will put their pitchers at a disadvantage, look at it this way; they haven’t pitched very well anyway. Furthermore, pitching development has far surpassed hitting development. Pitchers can be trained to add an extra mile or two of velocity or a couple more revolutions of spin. Then the trick is to have them repeat that 30-100 times a game. It is exponentially more difficult to train a hitter to hit the ball 430 feet to dead center. Move the fences in already.

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