Royals Stadium...A hitters park or Pitchers Park?

[the icemen]

I had a royals stadium team with 6 "hitters parks" and 6 "pitchers parks" and 7 of my 10 pitchers had their best years but their cards did not come close to matching the numbers. John Denny's best card had a 4.06 ERA instead of a 2.45

What is the prevailing thought here? :?

[Sykes25]

Go look at my stat thread. I've had Saberhagen's best year many times in Jack Murphy and he has failed to meet expectations, and I do think he even gave up more than a hit per inning there too during those years.

Remember that people most often modify their hitting during the year due to reveals. Pitchers have a tough time matching early season numbers.

[Outta Leftfield]

I haven't studied Sykes's stats closely enough to draw any generalizations from them, but my experience would suggest that on average pitchers in the 80's game post an ERA about one run higher than the card. That's what I'd call "normal" and is a product of the conditions of the game: great hitters in all lineups, the DH in almost all leagues (which would raise NL ERA's by about 1/2 run), plentiful platoon opportunities, etc--plus more hittters parks than were actually common in the 80s. So Denny's experience is still within the normal range--a little above what you might expect, but nothing remarkable for this game.

On the question of whether Royals is a hitters park or a pitcher's park--that's interestingly ambiguous. The 16 for singles leads to lots of hits and high BA. That can make it function as a hitters park, even with the low HR. I think it has significantly more potential as a hitters park than places like the Astrodome or Oakland, which more uniformly suppress hitting. An interesting thing about the park, and one reason I like it, is that it can function as a hitters park for the home team if the manager stacks his lineup with high OBP hitters who also have some power--but it can also function as a pitcher's park for the visiting team if the team is more normally constructed. It's not impossible to score 900+ runs in Royals--I've seen it done.

[PaddyLanePounders]

In Royals Stadium for 80's game, how much higher than they actually performed for the year would a pitchers ERA be accepted as normal? Still 1 run for ERA, or more like 1.5 higher? WHIP?

[the icemen]

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=60139

Here is the link to my team....i guess what i am saying is that i always thought of Royals stadium as being a pitcher friendly park...maybe it is not. Maybe it is really a hitters park...what do the others think. If it were just 1 guy or 2 on my roster that had a +1 era but many of them were significantly higher. even rp. This is from the Hiiting vs Pitching League where if you were a hitting team you could only spend 20 million on your entire staff but you had to play in a pitchers park. Vice versa if you were a pitching team you could only spend 30 million on your hitting but had to play in a hitters park.

[Outta Leftfield]

[quote:b35bde6550="fitch70"]In Royals Stadium for 80's game, how much higher than they actually performed for the year would a pitchers ERA be accepted as normal? Still 1 run for ERA, or more like 1.5 higher? WHIP?[/quote:b35bde6550]

I think 1 run above normal [b:b35bde6550]on average[/b:b35bde6550] is to be expected, but it might be a bit higher or lower depending on defense, the other teams in your division, league average ERA (which can vary considerably), and the rolls each player happens to get.

Here's one team I had in Royals. The team was 2nd in the league in both runs scored and fewest earned runs allowed. So was it a hitter's park or a pitcher's park?

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=51359

I consider this a very lucky team. The SP's did great as a group--the RP's struggled a bit more. The *SPs were all in excellent years. Blyleven was almost exactly on target with his ERA and Leibrandt was actually better than expected but Bryn Smith was 1.09 runs over and D Martinez was 1.02 over. All of that was within the normal range. Martinez was 23-9 despite his 3.97 ERA because the hitting is so good in the 80's. You can be one run over and succeed.

League average ERA was 4.30, which is actually a bit lower than what I usually see. Most of the relievers were at least a run over their real ERAs. The team actually tied for the league lead in lowest WHIP--probably a reflection of both good pitching and good defense. Two dropped starters, Reuschel and Higuera, got clobbered early, and I was lucky to successfully replace them, so you don't see their inflated stats on the final roster. When I dropped them, Higuera had a 7.98 ERA in seven starts (4 runs over his worst), and Reuschel had an ERA of 5.66, a little less than 2 runs over his worst. Both were probably victims of bad rolls, while the other *SP's had good years and got good rolls.

Here's the other Royals team.

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=59279

This one was third in runs scored and third in ER's allowed. Again, that might suggest it can be both a hitters park for the home team and a pitcher's park against the visiting team. League average ERA in this league was 4.68, so in general you'd expect pitcher ERA's to be more elevated on this team, and they are. Swan went 16-10 despite an ERA of 4.61. His real ERA in that year was 3.29. On the other hand, Knepper (a late season pickup) had an ERA of 4.17 despite a real ERA of 5.27--so a wide variation from real ERA is possible, in both directions.

Hope this helps. Maybe the moral is that any starter's ERA below 4.50 is not too bad in this league and a pitcher with an ERA above that can sometimes win, too, if your hitting is good enough--this would be true in any park. In general, the balance of hitting and pitching more often resembles the decade of baseball we're now in (1995-2005) than the 80's itself, where the league average ERA is often around 4.5 or higher, so adjust your expections in pitching to fit that norm. :D

[the icemen]

my conclusion is that Royals Stadium is actually a hitters park slightly more than pitchers. The right pitchers will do well there. Low whip...few bphr's on the card don't hurt. It is by no means a monster hitting park...but neither is it an Oakland. Just a lil above norm

Ice

[PaddyLanePounders]

When looking at pitchers to have in Royals, what is the max acceptable ERA 3.75? :?:

I've been focusing on obtaining arms with a 1.25 WHIP or less, and paid no attention to ERA.