Thin Air

Here's a nice article on Coors Field by John Walsh over at The Hardball Times. Essentially the diminished offensive output at Coors that I wrote about in June has persisted although interestingly the Rockies fortunes at home and on the road have reverted to their historical trend.

On June 22nd the Rox stood at 16-16 at home and 18-18 on the road. Since then they've played 28-19 (.596) at home and 12-30 on the road (.286). I wrote in June that perhaps the decreased park factor would have the effect of leveling the playing field a bit as it seems the Rockies hitters suffer more on the road than their pitchers do. Unfortunately for the fans in Denver that doesn't appear to have been the case since Walsh also shows that the offense has averaged 5.53 runs per game at home and just 4.31 on the road while the defense has allowed 4.74 at home and 4.87 on the road. Clearly its the offense away from the thin air is to blame for their dismal second half. Outside of Brad Hawpe with his 929 OPS there has been little in the way of production in road games.

And speaking of Coors Field, I'm scoring my last game of the season for MLB.com tonight as the Dodgers hope to hold on to their wild card lead.

Update: Dave Metz at BP informs me that since August 3rd run scoring at Coors Field has been around 14.3 runs per game while on the road its at 9.79.