In 2002, the Rockies installed a humidor at Coors Field to store the baseballs in, hoping to cut down on the number of home runs and runs scored in the Mile High City.By all accounts, it's worked. Now the Arizona Diamondbacks are considering similar measures, the Arizona Republic 's Nick Piecoro writes .
Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall tells Piecoro that the team is "looking at everything" to try to help the ballpark skew more toward pitchers.
The website ParkFactors.com rates Chase Field as the seventh most hitter-friendly park in the majors, saying that Chase Field produces 115 runs for every 100 runs in the average MLB park and 107 home runs for every 100 homers.
Chase Field is the second-highest park in the majors in term of elevation, which is one reason the Diamondbacks have considered the humidor option that has worked so well in Denver (although, ParkFactors.com still has Coors Field as the No. 1 park for hitters, but perhaps by not as large of a margin as it was pre-humidor).
The team is also considering changing the dimensions and raising the fences.
Part of the desire to lengthen the ballpark has to do with the Diamondbacks' young pitching talent. Arizona has seen how San Diego's Petco Park has helped the Padres young pitchers and hope to emulate that success.
"We have very young pitching and it looks like that's our future," Hall said. "So why wouldn't we tailor our ballpark to be an advantage there?"
-- C. Trent Rosecrans
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