A change in strategy doesn’t seem worth it. Even with fences changed, the park will still play very big. Just look at Citi Field’s fences change. Offense went down in a one year sample. Not worth the risk to assume the fence change will affect the park in a big way.
He had scoreles outings against the Astros, Mariners and Dodgers…not very potent lineups. I think matchups impacted his splits. Also, take a look at Volquez career splits pre/post allstar, one could argue his worst away outings came between Jul30-Sep1 (9.90ERA in 5 starts), historically his worst months… I remember Latos was better away from Petco, Ervin Santana 2005-2007 could not pitch away from LA and turned it around in 2009, Jeff Francis prefers Coors vs Petco/AT&T…
Not a great believer of park effects. They have certain effect but not of great impact.
One thing I don’t understand: you reference his ground balls numbers (53 percent home, 48 percent away)”, yet he threw almost twice as many sinkers on the road than at home. Is there something I’m missing here?
Dan Rozenson says:
January 30, 2013 at 3:03 pm
Now that Petco’s fences are being moved in, perhaps his home pitch usage will adjust closer to his road strategy. Nice find, though.
Sean D. says:
January 30, 2013 at 4:52 pm
A change in strategy doesn’t seem worth it. Even with fences changed, the park will still play very big. Just look at Citi Field’s fences change. Offense went down in a one year sample. Not worth the risk to assume the fence change will affect the park in a big way.
eliasll says:
January 30, 2013 at 6:22 pm
He had scoreles outings against the Astros, Mariners and Dodgers…not very potent lineups. I think matchups impacted his splits. Also, take a look at Volquez career splits pre/post allstar, one could argue his worst away outings came between Jul30-Sep1 (9.90ERA in 5 starts), historically his worst months… I remember Latos was better away from Petco, Ervin Santana 2005-2007 could not pitch away from LA and turned it around in 2009, Jeff Francis prefers Coors vs Petco/AT&T…
Not a great believer of park effects. They have certain effect but not of great impact.
Brandon T says:
January 31, 2013 at 8:30 am
One thing I don’t understand: you reference his ground balls numbers (53 percent home, 48 percent away)”, yet he threw almost twice as many sinkers on the road than at home. Is there something I’m missing here?
Jared says:
January 31, 2013 at 10:53 am
Also, his xFIP is 3.88 at home, and 4.58 away. Maybe he should use the same strategy home and away?