What is the basic advantage of a home MLB team?

pats3peat · Jun 17, 2011

-115? Is there even such a thing? with how sophisticated/weird MLB is with how pitchers do at home vs the road. Maybe the type of information we should be lookin for is like past 5 years what are home teams batting OPS, vs away teams. I dont know.

What do you think the line advantage is for two teams that would be equal on a "neutral field"? and is it even quantifiable

gynecologist · Jun 17, 2011

the only advantage could be mental..

there is no advantage, is there?

pats3peat · Jun 18, 2011

gynecologist said:
the only advantage could be mental..

there is no advantage, is there?

heh I dont know - do the linesmakers think there is one? im guessing they give like an automatic "-10" to home team or something at least. all i know is we see teams have better home records and a lot of teams absolutely suck on the road. i dont know if its like 75% mental or some shit and just feeling comfortable. i think if we look at historical info on how teams perform home at away maybe it will help

Coaster · Jun 18, 2011

Batting last

DwayneBowe · Jun 18, 2011

Throughout the spread of baseball history, the home team has won roughly 54 percent of the time, so that’s the baseline — a 4 percent advantage, which is significant.

MLB contenders' home and away records in 2010 season. AL HOME WIN % ROAD WIN %
Rangers 0.644 0.479
Rays 0.620 0.589
Twins 0.676 0.521
Yankees 0.662 0.549
NL HOME WIN % ROAD WIN %
Braves 0.703 0.431
Giants 0.600 0.520
Padres 0.568 0.571
Phillies 0.627 0.535
Reds 0.603 0.528
Rockies 0.676 0.408

barman · Jun 18, 2011

Actually "54%" (if that's the number we use) would represent about an 8% advantage

For non-contending teams, the H/A difference is even greater....often 60/40 or a bit more

pats3peat · Jun 19, 2011

barman said:
Actually "54%" (if that's the number we use) would represent about an 8% advantage

For non-contending teams, the H/A difference is even greater....often 60/40 or a bit more

very interesting. I notice in the nba how horrible away records are with crappy teams, like 5-17 while their home record is like 13-13, so that makes sense. But does anyone know where I could find this 60/40 number (I know not exactly 60% but it'll be helpful to see the source just because it would be good info to look at)

Coaster said:
Batting last

thats true too

pats3peat · Jun 19, 2011

pats3peat · Jun 19, 2011

Cubs/Houston this year are 16-21 & 13-25 at home. vs 13-20 & 14-20 on the road respectively.
Pretty close to each other. Padres and Dodgers also with better road records than home this year.

15-21 @ home for dodgers, 16-20 on the road..
14-26 @ home for padres, on the road 16-16.

The padres are a statistical anamoly of a team though with the road record though, right and it will even out during the year, or is there a reason they are doing better on the road?

I guess these crowds must also suck pretty bad when a team is not contending. Their fanbases are probably pretty poor generally when they are winnin too like Kansas City because of their large history of non-winning. But a team like the Dodgers has to have a decent fanbase

gynecologist · Jun 19, 2011

I thought we were talking about an in game advantage...

Of course there is many obvious reasons a home team has an advantage like:

feeling more comfortable at home, sleeping in own bed etc.
crowd noise/enviroment
knowing your own park.

pats3peat · Jun 19, 2011

gynecologist said:
I thought we were talking about an in game advantage...

Of course there is many obvious reasons a home team has an advantage like:

feeling more comfortable at home, sleeping in own bed etc.
crowd noise/enviroment
knowing your own park.

yes.
Which teams get a better / how big is the advantage for a team knowing their own park?
Also, Of the major sports mlb must be the least important when talking about crowd noise imo because the noise is so intermittent, right?

Maris9 · Jun 19, 2011

I'd say there's a couple.

-Batting last (already mentioned)
-Familiarity with the hitting backdrop. (This one is pretty big in my opinion.)
-Crowd effect on the umpiring. (Probably not much and doesn't happen every game, but it does have some effet).

powerz · Jun 19, 2011

pitching mound

park angles

pats3peat · Jun 19, 2011

Maris9 said:
I'd say there's a couple.

-Batting last (already mentioned)
-Familiarity with the hitting backdrop. (This one is pretty big in my opinion.)
-Crowd effect on the umpiring. (Probably not much and doesn't happen every game, but it does have some effet).

Good point about the umpiring

pats3peat · Jun 23, 2011

pats3peat · Jul 2, 2011

Donkwin47 · Jul 2, 2011

powerz said:
pitching mound

park angles

Yeah.. Knowing the park.. Knowing how to play the walls or any weird areas in the outfield more efficiently, saving an extra base here and there, knowing foul territory and getting the occasional extra out, etc..

seer · Jul 2, 2011

home team is allowed to inject 4 batters with roids

donkeybucks · Jul 2, 2011

Donkwin47 said:
Yeah.. Knowing the park.. Knowing how to play the walls or any weird areas in the outfield more efficiently, saving an extra base here and there, knowing foul territory and getting the occasional extra out, etc..

Yeah but, one plays around and gets around and gets used to fields and does practice warm ups. These guys are pro's. They've been playing oppositon fields since T Ball. I don't really see this as a major major major factor........however,,,,,going from field to field has to have some affect on a human being no matter who you are. Again though...effect on line must be worth something like -05.

pats3peat · Jul 2, 2011

donkeybucks said:
Yeah but, one plays around and gets around and gets used to fields and does practice warm ups. These guys are pro's. They've been playing oppositon fields since T Ball. I don't really see this as a major major major factor........however,,,,,going from field to field has to have some affect on a human being no matter who you are. Again though...effect on line must be worth something like -05.

yeah agreed
any other view points on this issue gentlemen?