20 players mimimally impacted by their new 2008 home ballpark

Wrapping up the series on the impact of park factors for players switching teams in 2008 is the group of players who's new home ballpark is relatively neutral in comparison to last year's home ballpark. Here they are, ranked from slight positive impact to slight negative impact:

1. Pedro Feliz (.047 factor gap)
2. Brian Schneider (.042)
3. Ryan Church (.042)
4. Geoff Jenkins (.023)
5. Dontrelle Willis (.017)
6. David Eckstein (.011)
7. Scott Rolen (.011)
8. Tom Glavine (.004)
9. Orlando Cabrera (-0.001)
10. Jon Garland (-0.001)
11. Troy Glaus (-0.011)
12. Miguel Cabrera (-0.017)
13. Delmon Young (-0.026)
14. Matt Garza (-0.026)
15. Carlos Quentin (-0.027)
16. Brad Wilkerson (-0.031)
17. Eric Gagne (-0.032)
18. Miguel Olivo (-0.035)
19. Aaron Rowand (-0.047)
20. Johan Santana (-0.049)

Frankly, I was surprised to see that the gap between Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park and San Francisco's SBC Park wasn't larger - you see that gap reflected for both Aaron Rowand and Pedro Feliz who cross paths en route to their new teams.

The other surprise to me was for Johan Santana. My gut reaction was that pitching in Shea Stadium would be an even bigger boost for him, but not so. Of course the switch to the NL will more than make up for the park factor variance.

The 15 players hurt most by their new 2008 home ballpark

Part Two of answering the question "How will the switch in home ballparks impact players switching teams?" I've completed a somewhat simplistic analysis using the 2007 park factors and calculated the gap from old to new home park - here are the results, listed in ascending order (#1 is hurt the most) by the size of the gap in factors from the old home park to the new home park:

1. Tadahito Iguchi (-0.329 factor gap)
2. Cliff Floyd (-0.279)
3. Dan Haren (-0.278)
4. Miguel Tejada (-0.208)
5. Matt Albers (-0.208)
6. Jim Edmonds (-0.178)
7. Jon Lieber (-0.138)
8. Michael Bourn (-0.133)
9. Brad Lidge (-0.133)
10. Edinson Volquez (-0.116)
11. Josh Hamilton (-0.116)
12. Francisco Cordero (-0.084)
13. Carlos Silva (-0.081)
14. Jason Jennings (-0.078)
15. Salomon Torres (-0.066)

Only a few names on this list really standout as many of these players didn't put in a full season in the majors last year. Of note are:

• Dan Haren - the fact that he's switching from the AL to the NL should mitigate the negative impact of his park change.
• Miguel Tejada
• Brad Lidge
• Josh Hamilton

Next post - the players who should experience negligible impact from their home ballpark switch for 2008. A few on that list are surprising as you might have expected them to be on either the helped or hurt lists.

The 16 Players most helped by their new home park

One of the big questions heading into a new season is "How will the switch in home ballparks impact players switching teams?" I've completed a somewhat simplistic analysis using the 2007 park factors and calculated the gap from old to new home park - here are the results, listed in descending order by the size of the gap in factors from the old home park to the new home park:

1. Marcus Giles (.405 factor gap)
2. Randy Wolf (.298)
3. Mike Cameron (.256)
4. Nick Swisher (.251)
5. Livan Hernandez (.244)
6. Milton Bradley (.224)
7. Torii Hunter (.218)
8. Chris Burke (.210)
9. Jose Valverde (.210)
10. Luke Scott (.208)
11. Erik Bedard (.161)
12. Adam Jones (.161)
13. Andruw Jones (.141)
14. Edgar Renteria (.139)
15. Jose Guillen (.085)
16. Lastings Milledge (.084 - using a neutral park factor of 1.000 for Nationals Park)

The most intriguing players on this list for me are Nick Swisher, Torii Hunter, and Erik Bedard - they really will have a nice 'tailwind' pushing them in their new home ballparks in 2008!