What happened to all the homers at Yankee Stadium? Anthony McCarron asks this question in today’s Daily News. Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long believes opposing pitchers have learned to not throw inside to left handed hitters. Sounds strange when everyone preaches how pitchers need to “come in” to a hitter. The difference at the Stadium is, if you miss over the plate, the short porch in right will make you pay. Look at Sunday when Mark Teixeira hit a homer off Daniel Bard that would have been a high fly ball out in a number of ballparks. Sounds like “staying away” is a better recipe for success.

There are some quotes from weather experts, but here is my theory: The Yankees put together a home run hitting ballclub. They hit 180 homers as a team last year and that largely was without Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada. When you add Robinson Cano into the mix you can understand why the Yankees have jumped over 50 homers to date. There is also the Swisher/Abreu tradeoff, and players off the bench, like Eric Hinske, that add some pop. When you break it down the Yankees team OPS is minimally better at home.

When you look at the pitching breakdown there is a half a run jump in team ERA at the Stadium and the staff has given up 24 more homers. That is not a crazy statistical jump. I believe the short porch in RF has as much to do with that than anything.

In 1999 the Rockies home/road OPS differential was huge (.932 to .700). They also hit 65 more homers at home versus road. Their pitchers had an ERA over 7.00 at Coors and gave up 80 more homers. Yankee Stadium isn’t even in that same stratosphere.

This is a good offensive team, albeit one that relies on the long ball. We may never know why Yankee Stadium played like Coors Field circa 1999 earlier in the season. Whatever the case the Yankees have adjusted and should have a nice home field advantage in October.

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com

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Tags: Bobby Abreu, Colorado Rockies, Coors Field, Eric Hinske, Hideki Matsui, Home/Road Splits, Jorge Posada, New York Yankees, Nick Swisher, Robinson Cano, Yankee Stadium