How Elevation affects Major League Baseball Home Run

How Elevation affects Major League Baseball Home Run Distance Results Introduction Home runs have never been more valuable in Major League Baseball than they are today. In today’s era, MLB scouts look for launch angle hitters who have a high exit velocity and high home run potential. The infamous Colorado effect with elevation has impacted home runs for several generations, but how does elevation effect all MLB stadiums. We think that if you hit the ball harder at a higher elevation, it will travel further. Elevation has a severe influence in home run distance when the difference is as large as Colorado. The home run that travels 400 feet in Yankee Stadium would travel 440 feet in Colorado, 9. 1% further. Which has the possibility to impact most fly balls turned into home runs. Obviously, dependent on player’s abilities, weather conditions and stadium dimensions. Data We found that elevation plays a large role in helping the baseball travel further, but exit velocity plays a larger role in home run distance. Future research could include mapping how fly outs at sea level would travel in higher elevation and how many more home runs teams would hit in different ballparks. In comparing MLB stadiums, using MLB’s Stat. Cast, Colorado’s Coors Field elevation was a league-high 5, 280 feet compared to Marlins Park in Miami which is just 10 feet above sea level. The Marlins were second in the league in home run distance, but did not make the playoffs, but had outlier players who carried their distance and exit velocity with such a low elevation. Conclusions Figure 1: Shows where each Major League Baseball Stadium is symbolized based on elevation (feet above sea level). Bibliography Methods Using Baseball Savant and Stat. Cast, we were able to find Major League Baseball’s average exit velocities, home run distances, and elevation per stadium. We mapped data using Google Maps. Figure 2: Shows the average exit velocity at each stadium. Colorado is highlighted in Figure 1 and 2. Maillet, Jeff. “The Drill: Highest Stadiums above Sea Level. ” Journal Sentinel, 2011. Perpetua, Andrew. “Home And Road Exit Velocity. ” Roto. Graphs Fantasy Baseball, 16 June 2017. Willman, Darren. “Statcast Leaderboard. ” Baseballsavant. com. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Drew University, Professor Lisa Jordan, and Major League Baseball Stat. Cast for inspiring our research. . Figure 3: Compares exit velocity to the elevation of each MLB stadium. There is a negative correlation. Their elevation is a league high of 5280 feet, but have third lowest exit velocity in the league, 85. 3 mph. Figure 4: Compares home run distance to elevation. Colorado has a league high in home run distance and elevation. The New York Yankees have the lowest home run distance and an elevation of just 55 feet. Author, Contributors: Max Felsenstein and Brian Dagostino