[ortforshort]

I'm in the process of researching a book on what went into the success and failure of baseball franchises over the course of history. One of the aspects I'm looking at is whether owners, GM's and managers put teams on the field that worked with or against the advantages of what their ballparks offered.

It's a bit of a different perspective on ballparks than what you guys are looking to get out of the information.

There are obvious ones such as lefthanded hitters and pitchers in Yankee Stadium and, conversely, righthanded hitters and pitchers in Fenway. Speed guys in Busch Stadium and Comiskey Park, etc.

I haven't started looking at the park.dat file, but are there some tips you guys can give me when looking at the data or some insights that you've come up with for the types of players that management should be trying to procure for each park. Hitting, pitching, baserunning and fielding.

For example, what do you do in Coors Field when looking for a pitcher? If you're a fly ball pitcher, you're dead. However, the field is baked so dry and hard that if you're a ground ball pitcher, you're dead. What should you try to be getting and how well has management succeeded in getting what they need? And, if they do tailor a team for their ballpark, will that kill them on the road?

Also, I've never understood this obsession with trying to factor out ballpark effects when evaluating player's performance. For example, as a Yankee fan, I commend Cashman for obtaining Curtis Granderson (one of the only things I commend Cashman for). Granderson hit 41 home runs last year. He's made for Yankee Stadium and he produced. Why would you want to normalize his hitting by saying that if he was in a "normal" park, he would have only hit, say, 30 home runs? That's who he is and that's what he produced.