Wind Stops More Home Runs At Philly's Citizens Bank Park Than Most Of MLB: Data

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Baseball, for all the endless statistical analysis and data science and tinkering and innovating, is a game of inches and sometimes centimeters, often determined by the most random vagrancies of nature.

Wind stopped more home runs at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park than all other MLB stadiums but three, according to a new analysis of MLB Statcast data.

The Phillies home stadium lost 48 home runs due to wind over the past two seasons, more than anywhere except Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium (67), Chicago’s famously windy Wrigley Field (56) and Seattle’s notoriously pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park (55), a report shows.

Bryce Harper, for instance, missed six home runs at home over the past two seasons due to the Philly wind, the data shows.

Citizens Bank Park is generally considered to be a very hitter friendly stadium, and most stats still bear that out. Statcast's own "Park Factor" tool, which takes into account a stadium's dimensions, quirks, weather, general climate, and historical performance, places the Bank seventh in baseball.

Harper told MLB.com that the data tells the players in the Phillies clubhouse nothing new. He primarily notices it on balls hit to the left-center field gap.

"We all talk about it in here," he reportedly said. "Early in the year, it’s tough. In the summer, it’s good. Then, later in the year, it gets tougher again."

The data comes from Statcast's new "Weather Applied Metrics" tool, which has been active since the start of the 2023 season. So while the data does not taken into account out anything from 2022 or earlier, Harper's comments indicate that the wind's impact has been ongoing. It remains an interesting metric to monitor for the Phillies in particular because so much of their offense is reliant on big home runs.

The winds of change are not always a bad thing. They inevitably turn home runs into fly outs for Phillies pitchers, too. However, the wind matters less for the Phillies, at least in the short term. Their elite starting rotation induces a ton of ground balls, which often die down quickly on the Bank's infield of Kentucky bluegrass. For the next several years of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez, and possibly Ranger Suarez and Jesus Luzardo, the Bank is a perfect match.

Opening Day for the Phillies is March 27 is Washington.