"Pitcher's Park"

The one thing you can always count on when we go to San Diego is way too much talk about Petco being a "Pitcher's Park." What exactly makes a park a "pitcher's park?"

The dimensions:
334 to left, 402 to left-center, 396 to center, 411 to right-center, 322 to right

Compare that with The Cit, known as a "hitter's park":
329 to left, 374 to left-center, 401 to center, 369 to right-center, 330 to right

It's obvious that the Cit is much smaller than Petco so I won't argue that. And I won't argue that Citizens Bank is not a hitter's park. It is much easier to hit a home run there than it is in Petco. But wouldn't you think that a pitcher's park would be the same as a fielder's park? A pitcher is really only as good as the people behind him. In a ballpark like Petco, the fielders have a lot more ground to cover than at a place like Citizens Bank. Although it's more difficult to hit home runs, it has to be much easier to hit doubles and triples with the outfielders having up to 42 more feet to cover to get to a ball depending upon where it's hit.

So while Wheels and T Mac are making out with each other and talking about how huge Petco is, keep in mind the 11 runners we left on base in the game, the 12 hits we had, and the 18 at bats we had with runners in scoring position. The problem is not Petco's size, it's the Phillies' execution. We were just 3 for 18 with runners in scoring position. We had 12 hits yet scored only 5 runs. The problem is not getting hits, it's getting hits at the right time. Coming into this series, we were averaging 3.85 extra base hits per game. That's doubles, triples, and home runs combined. Last night, we had 4 doubles and 2 home runs. Although the home runs may not be normal for this park, I am not surprised at the amount of other extra base hits we got and will be getting over the next 2 days. There are simply too many places for a ball to go that a fielder cannot get to it quickly. This even applies for singles. There was one hit last night that landed right in between Werth and Utley. Had we been at home, Werth would not have been so deep and most likely would have at least been able to make a play on the ball. The same happened when we were up to bat. It looked like Victorino had popped out to shallow center, but he actually turned this into a double as 3 different players could not get to the ball and no one covered second.
So tonight when you watch the game (which is on at 10, don't be fooled by the encore of last night's game at 7), don't buy into all that pitcher's park crap. Any time Wheels says something stupid about how amazed he is at the size of the park, just call him an idiot. Maybe if we all say it at once, it will be loud enough that someone in the Phillies organization will hear it and do something about our broadcast team.

One other quick note:
Something that is often a problem with some of our hitters coughJimmycough is that they too often swing at the first pitch. I've noticed over Chase Utley's career that he absolutely never swings at the first pitch. Well, each of the past 2 games, he has swung at a first pitch, and on both of those he has gotten a hit. He's the smartest person in the world. This is just further proof that Chase Utley is baseball.