Stadiums

Hey all. If you are on discord you all know me as Rekt. I was asked to write this article for this cool little project i have been working on. With a help from a bunch of you on the discord (Boshwack, Leibermaniac, Showdownfan, Savard the Goat, Kilo147 and if i missed anyone im sorry!) (also a big shoutout to Bob for making the cards)i was able to come up with the current 30 stadiums for all MLB teams. A lot of these stadiums as you will see will have iconic features such as ballpark dimensions, climate, mascots, fans, philosophies etc. They add ways for you to draft teams and build your team around your home ball park. As these have just been made, I am looking to play test and have you all play test these stadiums so we can improve them and add a little wrinkle of strategy to our future games. Also since i am not an expert on all these stadiums i could have missed some important stuff so if anyone has any cool ideas that you dont see on your favorite stadiums drop a comment and let us know what we missed. So without further ado lets take a deep dive into each stadium.




AL East

First up is Fenway Park. We all know about the Green Monster. This thing is huge and gobbles up would be hrs in other stadiums. For this reason RHB and SHB against LHP lose a hr on their chart and gain a double. There are many ways you can draft your team for this stadium. This is all about prevention so you might want to focus on LHB and LHP. you still might want to balance your team out though because this only works when you are home. You never know if you are the away team this might come back to bite you.

Next up we have Yankee Stadium. This one is pretty straight forward and boosts your lefty and switch hitters power as long as you are not facing a lhp.

Next we have Tropicana Field. This one is pretty interesting and unique considering those annoying cat walks. So anyone who hasnt watched a game at this stadium or saw this happen to their team, basically sometimes the ball is hit so high it will hit one of the cat walks and change direction. So an easy fly ball can easily turn into hit. The other ability just highlights the turf and possibly making for easy dps if its hit hard to one of the fielders.

Next we have Camden yards. As we all know Camden is known for having a great hitters ball park. I wanted to reflect this by having a double off the pitchers chart count as a home run. This is a great ball park for managers who like to draft pitchers with no doubles on their chart. Also as you can see its a once per game effect. So as soon as a double is rolled of the pitchers chart it is turned off for the rest of the game. I decided to make this one once per game because this can get out of control very quickly and put visiting teams at a huge disadvantage if they dont have any pitchers who dont give up doubles.

Next up we have the Rogers Centre. This is another turf field and drafters can take advantage of this field by having speedy players. Players with slow speeds also have a huge disadvantage as a single can easily turn into a gb or worse a rally killing DP. Managers also want to draft high infield defense to take advantage of those potential gbs hit by c speeders. Rogers Centre is also had the highest home run rate in 2019 so i wanted to show that because on mistake pitches all your players are 15+ home run! that's a 10/24 chance to hit a dinger on mistake pitches.



AL Central

Next up we have Progressive Field. This field has some unique abilities and i think the one that jumps out right away is "the drummer" ability. Managers want to draft high K rate relievers because if they strike out the side they can pitch another inning at full stamina. Imagine being able to throw out your tier one reliever for 2 innings at full stamina. That's huge! The next ability was based on some numbers i saw that showed lefties hit significantly better here than righties.

Next with Comerica Park we have an ability that allows the last single on a batters chart to be changed into a double and the last double can be changed to a triple due to the really big outfield in this stadium. This is another stadium where you want to avoid C speed as you cant take advantage of the park if you are super slow.

Next up we have Guaranteed Rate Field. The abilities reflect the fact that Chicago is very windy so once per game for each manager can change a fb to a single or a single to a fb. This one must be used strategically and can be back breaking if used correctly. For this reason you probably want to draft low FB pitchers. The other ability gets rid of the mistake pitch which is great for pitchers.

Next we have Target Field and this is just a great stadium to draft home run hitters. You also want to avoid pitchers who give up homers on their chart. This is also a great stadium for managers who love drafting those high control pitchers as they wont be giving up too many advantages for players to have a chance to hit homers.

Next we have Kauffman Stadium.This is a great stadium for lower control pitchers with big K charts. This is also great if you happen to strike out the side when you would be tired next inning you essentially just got +1 IP




AL West

Next we have Globe Life Park. So on researching this park I saw that they have something in center field known as Greene's Hill which is basically a green slope in center which helps batters pick up the ball betters out of the pitchers hand. So this ability really reflects that where it gives every batter a bonus when they get the advantage. This is another stadium where having high control pitchers is essential.

Next we have Angels Stadium. Im not really sure how you would draft for this but its a big risk big reward stadium which only the home team can activate. it gives them +2 to their swing for the inning until an out is recorded. If the home team doesnt score they get -2 to their swing until they get on base. This is a huge advantage if you can activate it and keep the rally going. You probably want to draft high OB guys to give you the best chance to get the advantage.

Next on the list is Oakland Coliseum. This stadium has a huge foul territory and because of this all PU's are now FB. Also we all know about Money Ball and i reflected this by boosting players with 10 OB or more and under 500 points. So if you get the advantage you cant get out on your chart. That's HUGE! Obviously you want to target the bargain 10 OB players in the draft.

Next we have T-Mobile Park. So you may be thinking why does it matter if PUs are Ks. They pretty much do the same thing and dont allow runners to advance but if we look at the second ability it ties into the first by giving you a higher K range and allowing you to reroll walks on your pitchers chart if you recorded a K last batter. With this stadium you want to target High K and High walk pitchers. Off the top of my head this is an amazing stadium for 2000 Kerry Wood.

So i wanted to implement this ability on a stadium and what better stadium than Minute Maid Park. Yeah i tried doing something with trash cans and cheating but i settled for this one. So when teams steal signs fairly its usually someone on 2nd base stealing those signs and relaying them to the batter. This ability signifies it perfectly by giving batters +3 once per inning if a runner is on 2nd. Managers either want to draft high speed players so they can swipe 2nd and start stealing some signs or players with high double rates. This is probably my favorite stadium from the set.




NL East

Next up we have Marlins Park. This park is also known for having a huge outfield so i gave players with A or B speed the ability to try and go for triples on the last result of a double. The second ability also lets you take advantage of having a big outfield by drafting Speed A guys to cover more ground.. So if you draft 3 Speed A outfielders you automatically have a +3 outfield. So lets say we draft the two standard +2 corner outfielders and +3 center fielder. That gives you a whopping 10 outfield. We have also seen players go as high as +4 outfield so you can get to extremely high outfield checks as long as everyone has speed A.

Next up we have the defending champ's stadium so im sure we all know about the Baby Shark! So extra bases is the name of the game for this manager when drafting players. The more the better. Every time a hitter gets an extra base hit the next batter gets +2 to their swing.

Next we have Truist Park. As was pointed out to me by Showdown fan on the discord who is a big Braves fan, Truist Park has a "Mini green monster" in right field which has a restaurant above it called "the chop house" so in order to showcase this once a batter has struck out this game they lose some power in which the last homer on their chart becomes a double. If we look at the next ability, it allows us to change a k to a walk or a walk to a k once per game. This is a strong ability on its own but if we look deeper a manager can strategically change a walk to a K on the other managers scariest hitter to bring them down a notch power wise. A thing of note is this does not effect Braves players so you may want to focus on the Big Braves boppers when drafting

Next up we have Citi Field. This is a nice pitcher spark and in order to showcase this, i used the ability to nerf player's power by changing the lowest home run on a hitters chart to a double. Also note this doesnt effect Mets players so you may want to target the mets power hitters when drafting.

Next up we have Citizens Bank Park.Since Phillies fans are batshit crazy i gave this stadium an ability to boost mistake pitches in the late innings when the stadium is probably loudest.




NL Central

Next up we have Great American Ball Park. This is a great hitters park so this park simply gives you a boost on mistake pitches.

Next we have another one of my favorite stadiums, Busch Stadium. This ability allows your starter to go the distance without losing control if he has given up 3 or fewer runs and 3 or fewer walks. This is a great park to pitch no hitters or perfect games! This also makes pitchers like Tyler Glasnow monsters. For people who dont know. Glasnow is a tier 1 pitcher but has a huge down side of only being able to pitch 4 innings. But with this park as long as you have not walked more than 3 batters and given up more than 3 runs you have a 9 ip tier 1 pitcher!

Next on the list we have Wrigley Field. This park has really fun abilities and allows super fast players who rolls doubles to hit an inside the park home run. So lets say you have a speed 24 player who just hit a double on the last result of their chart, you are automatically rewarded a triple and then you can try coming home by doing an outfield check + SS so unless you have a high fielding shortstop and outfield this is probably an easy inside the parker. Managers want to take advantage of this by drafting speedsters and drafting high defensive short stops and high defensive outfielders to be able to fight against this in case it happens to you.

Next up we have PNC Park which is probably the most beautiful park in the MLB. This stadium really helps you hold runners if you draft LHP. And if you do happen to catch a runner stealing, this boosts your starters control for the next batter. High speed lineups beware when playing at this park.

Next up we have Miller Park. This is a great park for pitchers. If a single is rolled of the pitchers chart and there is a runner on 2nd, he cant score no matter his speed or how many outs there are in the inning. He must stay on 3rd. This is great for players who are not sure if they should draft this player due to him having so many singles on his chart such as 2000 Greg Maddux.



NL West

Next up we have Coors Field. Oh boy if mistake pitches scare you and you have high blood pressure you will hate this park. This makes mistake pitches possible on a "1" and a "2". This is the perfect ability because due to the high altitude, the pitchers pitches dont break as much as if you played in a normal park and this can lead to more hanging pitches hence why this park features so many high scoring games.

Next we have Petco Park which is the opposite of Coors and a very pitcher friendly park. To showcase this batters suffer a penalty every time they roll off their chart. This is a great stadium for low control pitchers so dont be afraid to draft them when this is your home ball park.

Next we have an interesting park. Oracle Park. This ball park features the "triples alley" which hurts high speed players with power. If they roll a 20, instead of it being a homer it is now a triple. Note this is a once per game effect.Oracle park being by the water is also know for having moist air which really hinders homeruns as shown in 2019 having the lowest home run rate by a significant amount. If you look at the ability this is portrayed by making hitters with multiple homers being at a huge disadvantage. The lowest homer on a players chart with multiple homers is now a FB. Managers drafting with this stadium can make the most of it by drafting either C Speed power hitters which wont be effected by the first ability or High OB guys with only a 20 on their hr chart.

Next we have Dodgers stadium and playing in LA and LA loves stars. So with this stadium anyone with a salary of 500 or higher get +1 to their swings on their charts. Also if a batter hits into a dp this can be very deflating and this is shown by the next batter getting -1 to their swing. When drafting you either want to draft 500+ salary hitters or gb pitchers who cant take advantage of those DPs.

Lastly we have Chase Field. As we know its really hot in Arizona and to showcase this stadiums ability i used the heat to debilitate a pitcher by tiring them if they throw too many pitches in the heat. So every time someone is walked the next pitch is at -1 control. Managers can take advantage of this by drafting low walk pitchers and high walk hitters which are usually the players managers shy away from so this adds a different wrinkle to drafting.




Thanks for reading guys. Comment on what you think would make a great ability for a stadium that i may have missed ( I am by no means a stadium expert) and test these out and let me know what is too powerful or very underwhelming. Also in the future i would love to do some old school stadiums that no longer exist so if you have any ideas leave them in the comments below!