Greetings,

Curious for your take on park factors. Let's take Safeco for example (Seattle)... 1B (-3) and 2B, 3B, and HR are -2...

While these might not be much, for the sake of discussion let's say they are...therefore helps pitching and hurts various types of batting.

Are you inclined then to get huge power guys cuz moderate power going to be negated? Or maybe say all hitting suppressed so don't over-invest in bats? Go for speed guys and try to re-create the 80s Cardinals?

Do you say since pitching aided you can get by with lesser pitchers? Or "lean in to it" and go for stud pitchers at the expense of bats and try to win 1-0?

My first team ever was taking over a SD team in the NL. (-3,-3,3,-3,-3) where hits and runs go to die. my first few seasons I decided to play into the park strengths, strong defence and great pitching, and it worked well. A lot of 1-0 victories and 2-1 wins. Every now and then I thought ‘I need a smashing hitter’ then quickly would figure out it was a bad idea when they only hit 30 ish homeruns a year. Then I found my key to success. With the ballpark swallowing up hits I loaded up on guys with a good batting eye to draw walks and that could steal bases. Seems to work really well.

the point I’m making is I would play to the parks strengths. If you have a hitters park, make a murderers row and win games 9-8. If you have a pitchers park, load up on pitching and defensive studs.

I like it...well argued!

I actually take a different route on hitters ballparks which is probably weird. I go big time fielders, with big power if possible. I still want good hitters if possible, but value fielding more.

The idea being that while yes hitting ballparks mean more runs, that makes each out that much more important. So if you can steal an out or two a game it’s huge. Think of it like beer league softball. If you mess up just one play, that might let 7/8 more runs in.

My favorite park to play in is Tacoma (-4-4-4-4-4). The ultimate pitchers park. My pitchers love it, and my legit HR hitters still get their home runs. It's all about good defense, no walks, and have 2-3 good HR hitters.

As a pitcher's park guy, I agree with hockey1984. OBP is my most important stat for batters. Power hitters still get theirs, just somewhat less. What the pitcher's park really does is turn a .750 OPS hitter into a .650 - from somewhat useful to a waste of outs. You have to manage around your offensive players like that.

One tact I've taken is that I usually sacrifice a bat at a premium defensive position, like SS and/or CF, and use a hitting Catcher instead, sacrificing pitch calling. I know some will debate this, but my experience is that the park compensates for the presumed increase in ERA that lower pitch calling enables.
It's a lot easier to find a marginal C who can really hit, than a plus defender who can really hit.

I actually had an all-offense team once. Inherited a lineup full of sluggers, put them in Yankee Stadium. It was kinda fun in its own way. I dropped the team when I realized I could never, never acquire "enough" pitching.

I usually play in Tuscon, Scottsdale, Huntington and Madison. I usually also have one of the top pitching teams in the world. I have never tried a "pitchers" park other then LA but just stick with what works for me. If your teams good its good.

The only parks that I tailor to are those with very big differences between HR and singles park factor (like OKC). Some of those parks eat HR alive but doesn't do much to OBP, so I downgrade power in such a park (I'm in FRE now, which does that to a lesser extent). The opposite is true in parks like MIL.

dedelman is the post I was looking for...since a park makes HR harder, he downgrades it, rather than place a premium on it. It seems the consensus is along lines of "don't fight against park factors, embrace them and manage to them"

Well put. Now when we discuss park factors, it's often said that the fact is that you play 81 away games, so your particular park thing doesn't work when you go to them. Also, when the visiting team comes to your park, the same advantages you have can also apply to them. Both of these are true.

I think of it more as a way to narrow your focus on how you want to construct your team, and help you decide on players to target.

I started playing when I inherited a team with almost no hitting talent. Back then, before the draft rating system was changed, the only ways to acquire an elite hitter were prohibitively expensive - either with max contracts in free agency (if the players ever came free), trading away all your prospects, or tanking for a top five draft pick. So I focused on trying to make a team with cost-effective offense play over its head.