Home field DISadvantage?

[The Chief]

Just some numbers to chew on:

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Brad Wilkerson:
home: .232
away: .262

Jose Vidro
home: .216
away: .316

Jose Guillen
home: .242
away: .321

Preston Wilson
home: .212
away: .308

Brian Schneider
home: .225
away: .306

Gary Bennett
home: .182
away: .250

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Nick Johnson is about about .020 better at home on the season (.302 vs .280), Cristian Guzman is over .300 this month both home and away, but I felt it pretty pointless to examine his performance prior to this month.  Vinny Castilla is the most consistent player in the regular lineup, hitting .255 at home and .252 on the road.

Other than these three (only one of whom has been significant at the plate all season anyway) you can see that our regular lineup suffers badly when playing at RFK, and in most cases excels on the road.  Even Gary Bennett hits a decent .250 when he gets out of D.C.

I used to think RFK was a huge advantage to us, and maybe during the first half, it was.  But man I bet these guys (at least the ones who are still around by then) can't wait to get out of RFK and into the new park

[tomterp]

Chief, it doesn't matter how well you hit at home vs. road, it matters do you hit better than the OTHER guys at home.  

In other words, look at our opponents averages away and at RFK, I bet you would see similar discounts.  More importantly is our runs scored vs opponents.

Scot has access to Baseball Prospectus, could tell us the RFK discount factor.

There is some free content at BP, one thing that was interesting is that although we are last in scoring, they rate us only 4th worst in offense, due to park effect.  Pittsburgh and Colorado were judged worse, I can't remember the other one (Houston?).

I bet next season the familiarity may narrow the gap, too.  

Rick Short and Ryan Zimmerman don't seemt o have any issues, either....

[The Chief]

Chief, it doesn't matter how well you hit at home vs. road, it matters do you hit better than the OTHER guys at home.

Well judging by our 12-24 home record since July 4th, I would say we are not

[Kenz aFan]

This season, the Nats have been outhit .279 to .263 on the road, and outhit .246 to .237 at home.  Pitching wise,  the Nats ERA on the road was 4.24, while at home the Nats ERA is 3.41 (after being at around 2.90 prior to the All Star break) while their opponent's is at 3.55

RFK with its vast dimensions has been more a disadvantage than an advantage this season. If the fences would have been the width of the warning track closer to home plate, the Nats would have hit between 30 and 40 more HRs, while the other team, who so often always seemed to hit it *just* over the fence, would have hit between 25 and 30 more.

What gives a team an advantage at home, is how the players feel in their own house, the distance of the fences means squat, but those at RFK have worked on the players minds, and that's effected their game.

I agree, the sooner the Nats get out of RFK the better. In the meantime, to help the player's psychological game, bringing the fences in a bit would be a good thing short and long term.