Weird Scenes Inside the SkyDome

Wednesday, July 31 2013 @ 09:10 PM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

(Hey, it just sounds better than "Inside the Rogers Centre.")

Anyway, the Jays have been playing full-time at their current digs since the 1990 season. Certain trends have been established. But what Toronto's pitchers have been doing at the Rogers Centre this season hasn't been seen before.

The RC is a decent home run park. Not ridiculously great, but pretty good. Since 1990, there have been 8125 HRs hit in Blue Jays games and 4268 of them (52.5%) were hit at home. Which means, of course, that 3857 (47.5%) were hit in road games. This characteristic of the Dome-by-the-Lake has helped the Jays hitters (who have hit 52.9% of their HRs at home) just slightly more than it's hurt their pitchers (who've allowed 52.1% of their HRs at home.)

Park factors are not constant from year to year. There have been a number of seasons the Jays hit or allowed (or both) more HRs in their road games than they did at home. Just five years ago, the 2008 pitching staff allowed 78 HRs on the road and just 56 (41.8) at home. Whereas In 1993, on their way to a championship, Jays pitchers allowed 83 of their 134 HRs at home, a whopping 60.4%.

The hitters have had similar swings - the 1999 team hit 116 HRs on the road and just 96 (45.3%) at home. They were happiest at home in 2006, when they hit 121 (60.8%) of their 199 HRs at home.

But we ain't never seen nothing like this. The 2013 pitching staff has allowed 133 HRs, and 92 of them - 69.2% - were hit at the Rogers Centre. Huh? The jaw drops, in confusion and bewilderment.

I don't know what's behind this, if anything, but I promise you this - it's a one-time fluke.

Data Tables, of course...

PITCHERS    Home    Pct        Road    Pct        Total

1990          82    .573    |    61    .427    |    143
1991          72    .595    |    49    .405    |    121
1992          60    .484    |    64    .516    |    124
1993          81    .604    |    53    .396    |    134
1994          64    .504    |    63    .496    |    127
1995          79    .545    |    66    .455    |    145
1996         102    .545    |    85    .455    |    187
1997          72    .431    |    95    .569    |    167
1998          77    .456    |    92    .544    |    169
1999          93    .487    |    98    .513    |    191
2000          92    .472    |   103    .528    |    195
2001          84    .509    |    81    .491    |    165
2002          89    .503    |    88    .497    |    177
2003         107    .582    |    77    .418    |    184
2004          93    .514    |    88    .486    |    181
2005         103    .557    |    82    .443    |    185
2006          94    .508    |    91    .492    |    185
2007          83    .529    |    74    .471    |    157
2008          56    .418    |    78    .582    |    134
2009          90    .497    |    91    .503    |    181
2010          81    .540    |    69    .460    |    150
2011          95    .531    |    84    .469    |    179
2012         102    .500    |   102    .500    |    204
2013          92    .692    |    41    .308    |    133

Total       2043    .521    |  1875    .479    |    3918

HITTERS    Home    Pct        Road    Pct        Total

1990          93    .557    |    74    .443    |    167
1991          75    .564    |    58    .436    |    133
1992          79    .485    |    84    .515    |    163
1993          90    .566    |    69    .434    |    159
1994          63    .548    |    52    .452    |    115
1995          73    .521    |    67    .479    |    140
1996          87    .492    |    90    .508    |    177
1997          68    .463    |    79    .537    |    147
1998         112    .507    |   109    .493    |    221
1999          96    .453    |   116    .547    |    212
2000         134    .549    |   110    .451    |    244
2001          94    .482    |   101    .518    |    195
2002         102    .545    |    85    .455    |    187
2003          94    .495    |    96    .505    |    190
2004          80    .552    |    65    .448    |    145
2005          76    .559    |    60    .441    |    136
2006         121    .608    |    78    .392    |    199
2007          90    .545    |    75    .455    |    165
2008          69    .548    |    57    .452    |    126
2009         104    .498    |   105    .502    |    209
2010         146    .568    |   111    .432    |    257
2011         103    .554    |    83    .446    |    186
2012         102    .515    |    96    .485    |    198
2013          74    .544    |    62    .456    |    136

Total       2225    .529    |  1982    .471    |    4207

EVERYBODY    Home    Pct        Road    Pct        Total

1990         175    .565    |   135    .435    |    310
1991         147    .579    |   107    .421    |    254
1992         139    .484    |   148    .516    |    287
1993         171    .584    |   122    .416    |    293
1994         127    .525    |   115    .475    |    242
1995         152    .533    |   133    .467    |    285
1996         189    .519    |   175    .481    |    364
1997         140    .446    |   174    .554    |    314
1998         189    .485    |   201    .515    |    390
1999         189    .469    |   214    .531    |    403
2000         226    .515    |   213    .485    |    439
2001         178    .494    |   182    .506    |    360
2002         191    .525    |   173    .475    |    364
2003         201    .537    |   173    .463    |    374
2004         173    .531    |   153    .469    |    326
2005         179    .558    |   142    .442    |    321
2006         215    .560    |   169    .440    |    384
2007         173    .537    |   149    .463    |    322
2008         125    .481    |   135    .519    |    260
2009         194    .497    |   196    .503    |    390
2010         227    .558    |   180    .442    |    407
2011         198    .542    |   167    .458    |    365
2012         204    .507    |   198    .493    |    402
2013         166    .617    |   103    .383    |    269

Total       4268    .525    |  3857    .475    |    8125


So yeah - the 2013 staff has already allowed more HRs at home than half the staffs that have ever played here. And they've still got two months to work with. But away from home, they've been positively stingy with the long ball.

We might as well look at this year's HR splits for individual pitchers:

Pitcher      Home          Road           Total

Dickey        18    0.750    6    0.250    24
Buehrle        8    0.500    8    0.500    16
Johnson       11    0.786    3    0.214    14
Morrow         8    0.667    4    0.333    12
Rogers         5    0.500    5    0.500    10
Ortiz          6    0.857    1    0.143    7
Redmond        3    0.500    3    0.500    6
Oliver         3    0.600    2    0.400    5
Loup           4    1.000    0    0.000    4
Wang           1    0.250    3    0.750    4
Bush           4    1.000    0    0.000    4
Happ           2    0.667    1    0.333    3
Cecil          2    0.667    1    0.333    3
Lincoln        3    1.000    0    0.000    3
Delabar        1    0.500    1    0.500    2
Perez          2    1.000    0    0.000    2
Wagner         2    1.000    0    0.000    2
McGowan        2    1.000    0    0.000    2
Gonzalez       0    0.000    2    1.000    2
Janssen        1    1.000    0    0.000    1
Jeffress       1    1.000    0    0.000    1
Jenkins        0    0.000    1    1.000    1
Santos         1    1.000    0    0.000    1
Romero         1    1.000    0    0.000    1
Weber          1    1.000    0    0.000    1
Germano        1    1.000    0    0.000    1
Nolin          1    1.000    0    0.000    1
                    
              92    0.692   41    0.308  133


Obviously, a significant contribution was made by the Gone-And-Not-Likely-To-Be-Seen-Again Gang - Ortiz and Bush gave up 11 HRs, 10 of them at home. (On the other hand, Wang and Gonzalez gave up 6 HRs, just 1 at home).

Still, the most obvious problem has been with two of the starters who came over from the NL. R.A. and Dickey and Josh Johnson have been ambushed by the Dome, allowing 29 HRs there and just 9 on the road. Mark Buehrle and Esmil Rogers have bucked this trend stoutly. Buehrle of course spent almost his entire career in the AL, pitching half his games at US Cellular. The White Sox home is actually a pretty decent pithcer's park but it's also a very good place to hit home runs. That's what Buehrle learned how to pitch in the majors, his coping mechanisms are quite well established...

While Dickey and Johnson may be adjusting to some kind of culture shock - "WTF? That ball is an easy out at Citi Field!" - it certainly doesn't explain what's happened to a big chunk of the bullpen. The current crew - Janssen, Delabar, Oliver, Loup, Cecil, Perez, and McGowan have allowed 19 HRs, 15 of them at home. The recently departed Lincoln and Wagner allowed 5 HRs, all at home.

Maybe they're doing something with the air-conditioning. And they're doing it wrong. I dunno.

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