Over the last few months I’ve been posting a series I titled: Minor League Ballpark And MLB Affiliate Resource. This resource is essential for any type of prospect research. Not only does the common baseball fan get a quick reference-guide to their team’s Top 4 minor league affiliates, but 3 year (2005-2007) ballpark data is also provided.
Lets take 3B prospect Matt Gamel, and CF prospect Dexter Fowler for example. Both are 22 years old, and both are position prospects present in BA’s Mid-Season top prospect list.
Gamel is batting .333/.399/.548 for the Huntsville Stars in AA, and Fowler is batting .337/.430/.514 for the Tulsa Drillers in AA.
Using this resource we can get a better sense of which batter’s line is more impressive given their run environments:
Gamel’s .333/.399/.548 comes in the neutral Southern League; other than a ballpark that is favorable to HR’s (1.07 HR Index), his ballpark is pretty neutral across the board.
Fowler’s .337/.430/.514 line comes in the Texas League, a league very favorable to hitters. His ballpark is extremely hitter friendly as well: (1.05 2B, 1.07 HR, & 1.05 BB Index) Remember 1.00 = Average. Even though Fowler’s line looks more impressive on the surface, Gamel’s line is being accomplished in a ballpark much less favorable to hitters.
Given this information, I can make an educated assumption that Gamel’s production is better than Fowler’s thus far. In the past, I had to visit 3 different websites to put this information together, now it is all here–on one page.
Based on my research and communications with scouts/prospect-experts, here is what I’ve gathered in terms of the run environments in the different MiLB leagues:
| League |
Favorable To: |
| Texas |
Hitters |
| Florida State |
Pitchers |
| Southern |
Neutral |
| Pacific Coast |
Hitters |
| Eastern |
Pitchers |
| California |
Pitchers |
| Midwest |
Pitchers |
| International |
Neutral |
| South Atlantic |
Hitters |
This is important to know, because the ballpark data provided is relative to league. So if Gamel’s ballpark has a HR index of 1.07 it is in context of the rest of the ballparks in the Southern League.
On the other hand, Fowler’s league (Texas League) is considered a Hitters heaven. His ballpark still rates highly in most offensive categories. Not only is Fowler helped out by hitting in a Hitter’s League, but his ballpark is one of the more hitter-friendly ballparks–in context of his hitter-friendly league.
San Francisco Giants