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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 1835380, member: 289"] Nobody needed steroids in Colorado. The games were played a mile above sea level. The ball travels 15% farther up there. A 300 yard drive at sea level goes 345 feet there. A 345 foot drive goes 397 feet. A 397 foot drive goes 457 feet. In 1994 Coors Field opened and they acknowledged the difference by pushing the outfield fences back: 347-390-415-375-350. But that means that the outfielders have more territory to cover. That takes them father from the infield and splits them farther apart. When they held the all-star game there everybody assumed it would be a continuation of the Home Run Derby. It was a 13-8 slugfest but of the 31 hits, only three were home runs. The rest were shots between those widely separated fielders. But the biggest factor in the big numbers that get put up in Colorado is the thinness of the air. Tim McCarver said “catchers don’t catch curve balls that don’t curve. There’s a lot pitches that catchers don’t catch in Denver because there’s not enough air to affect the flight of the ball. Everything goes down the pipe. It’s almost T-ball. It’s been said that Rockies players tend to do worse than they might normally do when they play on the road at sea level because they are so used to hitting “easy” balls that they lose their fundamentals as hitters and don’t “out-think” the pitchers as a sea level batter would have to learn to do. Through all the years that city was in the American Association, the Pacific Coast League and other minor leagues, they always had guys that put up big numbers: [URL="http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/team.cgi?city=Denver&state=CO&country=US&empty=0"]Denver, Colorado Register History | Baseball-Reference.com[/URL] Heck, Marv Throneberry- the Marvelous Marv of the early Mets, hit 36, 42 and 40 in consecutive years in Denver from 1955-57. In 1971 Richie Scheinblum hit .388 there with 25 home runs in only 108 games. Richie Scheinblum?!? In 1976 Roger Freed hit 42 homers and the next year Frank Ortenzio hit 40. Randy Bass had consecutive years of .333BA-36HR-105RBI and .333-37-143 RBI in 1979-80 and was joined by Tim Wallach in the latter year, who hit .281-36-124. This continued when Denver got a National league team, the Colorado Rockies, in 1993. One of the things that modern baseball statisticians do that I like, (and there’s a lot I don’t like), is to separate home and road numbers. Their home numbers are determined in large part by the quirks of their home ballpark, (in this case, that Coors Field is a mile high). Road numbers are based on the player’ performance in many different ballparks and are a better measure of a player’s true abilities. Here are the top Colorado players of the 1990’s and their home and road numbers for their best seasons: DANTE BICHETTE 1995 Overall: .340BA 40HR 128RBI Home: .377-31-83 Away: .300-9-45 1996 Overall: .313BA 31HR 141RBI Home: .366-22-99 Away: .296-9-42 1997 Overall: .308BA 26HR 118RBI Home: .362-20-87 Away: .246-6-31 1998 Overall: .331BA 22HR 122RBI Home: .381-17-80 Away: .279-5-42 1999 Overall: .298BA 34HR 133RBI Home: .309-15-44 Away: .278-8-46 Comment: Bichette was totally a creation of Coors Field. To see how good he actually was, multiply his road numbers by two. In 1995 He was a .300-18-90 guy who hit .340-40-128 because Coors Field turned him into a .377-62-166 guy. ELLIS BURKS 1996 Overall: .344BA 40HR 128RBI Home: .390-23-79 Away: .291-17-49 1997 Overall: .290BA 32HR 82 RBI (119g) Home: .337-17-45 Away: .247-15-37 Comment: Burks was a better hitter than Bichette and retained much of his power on the road but not the batting average. He was considered for MVP in 1996 but multiply his road numbers by 2: .291-34-98 and he still comes up short. VINNY CASTILLA 1995 Overall: .309BA 32HR 90RBI Home: .383-23-58 Away: .229-9-32 1996 Overall: .304BA 40HR 113RBI Home: .345-27-74 Away: .259-13-39 1997 Overall: .304BA 40HR 113RBI Home: .320-21-62 Away: .287-19-51 1998 Overall: .319BA 46HR 144RBI Home: .368-26-91 Away: .270-20-53 1999 Overall: .275BA 33HR 102RBI Home: .280-20-56 Away: .269-13-41 Comment: Vinny started with maybe the biggest difference between his home and road numbers and managed to narrow them up by the end of the decade. He was a productive hitter but not really great one. He went on to play for Tampa Bay and had seasons similar to his the above road numbers, then came back to Coors : 2004 Overall: .271BA 35HR 131RBI Home: .379-14-80 Away: .218-21-51 ANDRES GALARRAGA 1993 Overall: .370BA 22HR 98RBI Home: .402-13-64 Away: .328-9-34 1994 Overall: .319BA 31HR 85RBI Home: .348-16-44 Away: .323-15-41 1995 Overall: .280BA 31HR 106RBI Home: .297-18-65 Away: .263-13-51 1996 Overall: .304BA 47HR 150RBI Home: .359-32-103 Away: .245-15-47 1997 Overall: .318BA 41HR 140RBI Home: .342-21-89 Away: .295-20-51 Comment: Andres was a formidable hitter wherever he was, although his batting average went down when he went for the big time power numbers. In 1998 he put up the same numbers at sea level for the Braves that he had been putting up for the Rockies: 1998 Overall: .305BA 44HR 121RBI Home: .315-16-44 Away: .296-28-77 TODD HELTON 1998 Overall: .315BA 25HR 97RBI Home: .354-13-61 Away: .273-12-38 1999 Overall: .320BA 35HR 113RBI Home: .385-23-75 Away: .252-12-38 2000 Overall: .372BA 42HR 147RBI Home: .391-27-88 Away: .286-22-62 2001 Overall: .336BA 49HR 146RBI Home: .384-27-84 Away: .286-22-62 2002 Overall: .329BA 30HR 109RBI Home: .378-18-65 Away: .281-12-44 2003 Overall: .358BA 33HR 117RBI Home: .391-23-72 Away: .324-10-45 2004 Overall: .347BA 32HR 96RBI Home: .368-21-60 Away: .326-11-36 Comment: Helton was a very productive hitter on the road but at best he was a Mike Schmidt hitter. At home he was Babe Ruth. Like Castilla and Galarraga, he did get better as he went along but he never rose to the level his overall numbers implied. LARRY WALKER 1995 Overall: .306BA 36HR 101RBI Home: .343-24-59 Away: .268-12-42 1997 Overall: .366BA 49HR 130RBI Home: .384-20-68 Away: .349-29-62 1998 Overall: .363BA 23HR 67RBI Home: .418-17-44 Away: .302-6-23 1999 Overall: .379BA 37HR 115RBI Home: .461-26-70 Away: .286-11-45 2001 Overall: .350BA 38HR 123RBI Home: .406-20-74 Away: .293-18-49 2002 Overall: .338BA 26HR 104RBI Home: .362-18-66 Away: .312-8-38 Comment: The injury-prone Walker actually had the best year of any of these players in 1997 when his road numbers were just as impressive as his home numbers. But his home numbers in 1998-2001 were the most absurd of anyone’s. .461??? I always wondered what would happen if the Rockies ever got one of the games premiere hitters to come out there and play for them. These guys were good but they weren’t Bonds, Thomas, Bagwell or Piazza. I remember Mets announcers saying that Mike had a lifetime batting average in Coors Field of .432. I looked up his final career record at Coors and he cooled off to .357 with 16 homers and 54RBIs in 51 games, (which would be 51HR 172 RBI over 162 games). That’s actually not more remarkable than what the above guys did. Coors Field turns good hitters into Mike Piazza. It may actually be doing these hitters a disservice. They never win MVPs and are unlikely to get into the Hall of Fame for the same reason that known steroid users fail to get recognition: their numbers are regarded as fake. But some of the Rockies sluggers might have been at least borderline MVP candidates or Hall of Famers if they’d played at sea level and put up the sort of numbers borderline MVPs and HOFers put up. But being in Colorado they put up fake numbers and got no recognition at all. [/QUOTE]

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