Atlanta Braves Reveal SunTrust Park Dimensions, New Wall
SunTrust Dimensions: Might Be a Little Premature to Call it ‘Freeman Field’
We now know how big SunTrust Park is going to be… and the guess here is that while the prevailing team declaration is that it will be roughly equivalent to Turner Field, there’s reason to think that hitters and pitchers might both have some reason to like what they see.
Tim Ticker, writing for the AJC.com and AlbanyHerald, gave us the scoop yesterday, along with an updated graphic to show the plan for the outfield wall. Here’s the tale of the tape:
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Of Particular Note
- Whereas the wall at Turner Field gently curves from foul pole to foul pole, SunTrust appears to use straight lines, going from point-to-point.
- There should be a little more outfield depth in left field, a little less from Left-center to Center (though an extra 2 feet required to launch a homer to not-quite straightaway center), and noticeably less in right field… with a caveat.
- Turner Field’s consistent wall height is gone. Poke to left field might thus be a little easier while shots to RF will need to clear a significant wall of 16 feet.
The wall is illustrated in the new rendering above, though it is enhanced below with a yellow line to better show where the height changes occur.
Less obvious in that graphic might be the foul territory areas, and indeed, there was no mention of this in the reports from yesterday. If the above picture is accurate, there could be a bit more foul territory down both 1st and 3rd base lines – something the pitchers would certainly like to see.
While more foul ground might normally mean pushing fans further back from the field as well, SunTrust’s design is also supposed to deal with that via seating that is a bit steeper, and with upper decks that are brought further forward toward the field of play. If that proves to be the case, then I would expect that fans in the same relative seat in either park would not notice a distance difference.
The Differences
The general idea of these changes was to add a bit of character and uniqueness to the stadium without getting carried away. Clearly, they didn’t push that envelope, but it’s at least interesting to see a change. But that does beg the question: who benefits?
We have made a “best guess” overlay of Turner Field dimensions (in orange at right) vs. the new SunTrust figures.
As you can see, it appears that SunTrust’s LF corner gives way to a bigger space more quickly than Turner Field, though until the 375′ mark is hit, that wall is noticeably lower: six feet.
I do anticipate players being able to ‘steal’ the cheap homer quite readily in that corner, perhaps even being able to leap up on top of the wall to attempt a catch. That will be interesting – and perhaps scary – to see.
The bigger change is in Right Field – up to a 15 feet shorter poke will be needed to homer with a noticeably smaller field area along the entire right side. However, that’s balanced by a sixteen foot high wall stretching from center field to the foul pole.
Next: So it's Different: Who Benefits?
Who Benefits the Most?
My first thought when seeing this: Freddie Freeman will love it.
Maybe.
That could be the case with a shorter ‘porch’ in Right Field. It actually rivals that of Yankee Stadium – that stadium features a longer 385 to the alley, but just 314 at the foul pole… albeit with a much shorter wall. The Braves have also promised that wind patterns have been studied, so perhaps there might not be a ‘wind tunnel’ effect that our friends in New York seem to have.
But anecdotally, Freeman tends to hit 2 different kinds of balls: the line drive and the moonshot. Moonshot balls will certainly have no trouble clearing this wall… or any other wall short of El Capitan.
On the right, you see his career spray chart. There seem to be fewer non-homer dots in key area of right field than I had expected. In fact, it almost appears that Freddie might benefit from shots down the LF line at least as much as those in the RCenter alleyway.
But also anecdotally, it seems that many fly balls hit to RF at Turner – from any bat – seem to fall within either the warning track or the first row of seats. Many of these may soon find their way into the pockets of fans as souvenirs given this shorter distance.
SunTrust Park will not be a cookie-cutter facility… that much is certain. It also won’t be radical: no Tal’s Hill, no swimming pool, no Green Monster, no funny notched outfield wall. That’s probably a good thing.
2017 can’t come soon enough… for lots of reasons.