Will Yankee Stadium Ruin Pitchers like Coors Field?
By Mike Silva ~ June 16th, 2009. Filed under: Mike Silva.
We all know how Coors Field is the place where careers go to die. Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, and the late Darryl Kile all were coming off great seasons before they signed long term deals with the Colorado Rockies. We all know how each failed miserably in the rarefied air. Will the new Yankee Stadium yield the same effect? It was mentioned during Sunday’s Mets telecast that there are rumors of pitchers already grumbling about this with respect to the new Yankee Stadium
Steve Lombardi of Was Watching broke down the road pitching stats for all AL teams. I decided to look at the difference in ERA for all the Yankees starters at home.
Sabathia + 0.72
Burnett – 1.28
Wang + 1.14
Chamberlain +2.61
Hughes -0.12
Pettitte + 3.18
Amazing how Chamberlain and Pettitte have huge differences between how they pitch at Yankee Stadium and the road. Sabathia is just under a run lower on the road. Only AJ Burnett and Phil Hughes pitch better at the Stadium. Hughes is a small sample size and Burnett’s ERA took a beating against Boston.
Obviously there is something to pitchers not performing at their best in this place. Remember, this just isn’t about home runs, but also how they adjust their overall mentality to pitching. These are the kind of splits you would see with the aforementioned Colorado pitchers. The difference is that Coors took such a toll that their stats that, although they were better on the road, the end result was still not a serviceable starter. Only Kile would go on to salvage his career after leaving Denver.
The new Stadium isn’t as bad as Coors Field in the sense that you don’t have the rarified air and large gaps to contend with. The similar issue is how pitchers may feel the need to make adjustments that could potentially impact overall performance. Thus far, it hasn’t ruined anybody, but it’s way too early to tell. Bottom line: pitchers beware before you take the big money to come and pitch in the Bronx.
