I'm not sure if there's been a thread for this; I don't recall seeing one that covers what I hope to discuss here, which is:

Let's discuss: What are our general, actual experiences with how the ballparks play?*

For example, I'll start with my comparing a couple of similar parks I've played quite a bit:

Kaufman Stadium - KC Royals (1994-2021) +1 +2 +3 -2 -2 (1.06)
Municipal Stadium - KC Royals (1969-1972) +1 +3 +3 -4 -4 (1.06)

In my experience, Kaufman plays true to its factors. Slightly favors offense and boosts XBHs as indicated and expected. I have found its HR suppression to be slight.

I have drafted similar teams to play in each, thinking, for example, if Willie Wilson hits a lot of 3B in Kaufman, he'll hit as many or more in Municipal. Not so.

Municipal Stadium has not favored offense in my experience. despite its factors, I have not found it to boost XBHs (and obviously its going to stymie HRs). For me, Muni plays like a pitchers park, closer, I'd say, to Shea Stadium.(.93). If your experience with Muni differs, please share.

Which parks have delivered nuanced results, in your experience?

* Obviously there are many variable, and to be clear, I'm not asking for an analysis of my play style, or a series of posts about small sample size--I realize this is all anecdotal as I have not yet quantatively tracked numbers over several seasons, which I may do if I can eventually play several similar leagues that will fill; however, I can't do that anytime soon with all the ballparks available in the sim.

Posted by DoctorKz on 9/13/2022 6:43:00 PM (view original):
Yes it's been discussed, there are several threads found using the advanced search.

Parks pretty much play as advertised, no real hidden golden eggs. I think they are often given too much thought, and that road teams tend to do well in the sim.

Build a team that can take advantage of the park. The park can't change the dynamics of the player. Pete Alonso will not become a singles machine in Petco, he will suck in Petco...

Build a team based on the cap and competition. If you assume many deadball pitchers will be used, a HR hitting team might struggle. You could try, instead, a Riverfront team, high doubles hitters, that can also hit HR. The -2 singles effect nullifies slap hitting teams quite well.

Other parks can work for you similarly. Fenway is not just a doubles park, Mile High is not a park to load up on HR, look at it's other ratings...Petco isn't necessarily a low scoring park, if you know how to prepare for it.

Not all -2 or +2 ratings are the same, some play far differently...

So much for the footnote in my original post, lol

Your last sentence actually (accidentally?) hits on the point of this thread- I agree, “not all -2 or +2 ratings are the same, some play far differently.” Can you talk more about that, citing specific examples and personal experiences?

Also, using the advanced search, I didn’t see any of the several threads you mentioned. I’m sure I’m not searching correctly, but instead of just making a comment like that, could you provide a helpful link or two?

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/ForumSearch.aspx?text=Ballpark&forum=3&forumCategory=-1&sitestaff=False&page=1&search=True#results

Personally I think the doubles and perhaps triples hit in Target are a bit more than their +1 rating suggest.

Astrodome

-1

0

+1

-4

-4

0.89

is not nearly as suffocating as it suggests. It certainly suppresses HR, but you can still hit for a high average, and hit a good number of XBH.

I also like to use Sicks Stadium. Slap-hitting teams don't perform well there because of being negative for singles and triples. A power-hitting offense with walks will do well there.

Posted by jmcraven74 on 9/14/2022 2:26:00 AM (view original):

Posted by DoctorKz on 9/13/2022 6:43:00 PM (view original):
Yes it's been discussed, there are several threads found using the advanced search.

Parks pretty much play as advertised, no real hidden golden eggs. I think they are often given too much thought, and that road teams tend to do well in the sim.

Build a team that can take advantage of the park. The park can't change the dynamics of the player. Pete Alonso will not become a singles machine in Petco, he will suck in Petco...

Build a team based on the cap and competition. If you assume many deadball pitchers will be used, a HR hitting team might struggle. You could try, instead, a Riverfront team, high doubles hitters, that can also hit HR. The -2 singles effect nullifies slap hitting teams quite well.

Other parks can work for you similarly. Fenway is not just a doubles park, Mile High is not a park to load up on HR, look at it's other ratings...Petco isn't necessarily a low scoring park, if you know how to prepare for it.

Not all -2 or +2 ratings are the same, some play far differently...

So much for the footnote in my original post, lol

Your last sentence actually (accidentally?) hits on the point of this thread- I agree, “not all -2 or +2 ratings are the same, some play far differently.” Can you talk more about that, citing specific examples and personal experiences?

It’s a rounding difference. The actual rating for two parks that both say 2B/3B +2 could be 1.51 and 2.49. That’s the main reasons why parks that have similar ratings can play/feel differently. That’s why the park factor is used by a lot of people as that correlates to the amount of runs added/taken away or something to that effect.