3 Attachment(s)
Home Runs at Target Field
If we look at the number of home runs hit at home by both teams and compare it to the number of home runs hit by both teams in road games, Target Field was above average in home runs this year. (click the charts to see them better).
Attachment 2566
Twins hitters hit 69 homers at TF and 62 on the road. Twins pitchers gave up 98 at home and 100 away. So 81 home games had 167 home runs and 81 road games had 162. That gives TF a +3% in 2012 and makes it 14th of the 30 major league fields in that comparison.
In Target Field's inaugural season, 2010, that value was -36% (116 home, 181 road). 2011 saw an increase in home runs at TF and the deficit "improved" to only -9%. That makes a three year total of 481 home runs on the road versus 409 at home or -15%. Or, perhaps, a trend...
Attachment 2567
Or perhaps not. This comparison of home vs away home runs fluctuates a lot. A good example of this would be Met Stadium in '65 and '66, -3% and 67.0%, respectively. Or 71-73 which saw 4%, 61% and 2% in three consecutive seasons.
What about the dome? 1982-1988 saw five "positive" seasons. But by 1997, it was decidedly a "negative" stadium. All twelve seasons from 1997-2008 were "negative" (2003 was even at 0). In its final season,2009, the dome was positive, 11%, for the first time since 1996.
Finally, if we compare the three Target Field seasons with the 28 seasons at the Dome, 2010 would have been the lowest. 2011 would have been the eighth lowest and 2012 would have been the 10th highest.
Attachment 2568
So is Target Field a home run "Death Valley?" Is it middle of the pack? Or is it too early to tell?