Joel Sherman of the New York Post says the Mets could learn a lot by watching how this season’s World Series combatants constructed their teams to excel and win within their spacious ballparks. Both the Giants and Royals play in parks that are not conducive to hitting home runs.
The teams competing in the World Series play their home games in huge parks. AT&T Park in San Francisco annually comes in as either the toughest or one of the toughest stadiums to hit a homer in the majors, according to Park Factors, which compares stat rates at home versus on the road.
Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium has the most square footage in the outfield of any major league park. The Royals, fittingly, hit the fewest homers, just 95 with an MLB-low 43 coming at home. The Giants were in the middle of the pack with 132, but their 53 at home were the fewest in the NL — six less than the Mets had at the old dimensions at Citi.
The Giants, who are gunning for their third World Series championship in five years, have embraced their big ballpark and team president Larry Baer intends to keep it that way. “We don’t think we have anything to fix,” Baer told Sherman.
Offensively, the Giants emphasize a philosophy of making contact, using a line-drive stroke, and maximizing their base running.
Giants hitting coach Hensley Meulens says: “Our ballpark is not a home-run park, so why try to hit for power? We have to utilize the park to our advantage, the strange caroms. Strikeouts don’t help.”
Sherman believes the Mets have an outdated philosophy where home runs are prized too highly and strikeouts don’t matter.
“Alderson has always preached building an offense around long at-bats and long balls, and if strikeouts come, so be it.”
In the end, however, Sherman sums up the Mets as follows:.
Is it the size of the park or the size of the talent or the size of the payroll?
