Monday, December 5, 2011

How Much Do Parks Matter?

I'm sure someone has undertaken this research far more in-depth somewhere, but I wanted to figure out the averages for my team (the Portland Timbers, who play in a heavily pitcher-friendly park) throughout Feller history. That way, I could adequately figure out my expectations on a year-to-year basis. To do this, I used OPS for hitting and WHIP for pitching. Here's what I figured out:

In the 17 season history of Feller, Portland has won around 53% of their games.

The average OPS over that time is .737, with the highest being .799 in Season 14, and the lowest being .642 in Season 8.

The average WHIP over that time is 1.32, with the lowest being 1.22 in Seasons 13 and 15, and the highest being 1.46 in Season 9. (This season's WHIP is a historically low 1.18, but that's been offset by poor hitting.)

Ideally, I'd like to compare these stats with a team with a similar overall record that plays in a hitters park and has the same number of seasons for accurate sample sizing. Also, they would preferably play in the National League. The closest example, I think, is Montreal, but they're overall winning percentage is higher (closer to 57%, I believe), and Portland is more of a pitcher's park than Montreal is a hitter's park.