Angel Stadium of Anaheim will likely see an increase in home runs to right-center this coming season. Tuesday, the Angels announced that the right-center wall will be lowered from 18 feet to eight feet before the season begins.
The #Angels are lowering the right field fence height from 18 feet to 8 feet this year. It’s because of a new out of town scoreboard and “philosophical changes, a lot of thought went into it,” said spokesman Tim Mead.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) February 20, 2018
Obviously, lowering the wall by 10 feet will lead to more balls flying out of the ballpark. Kole Calhoun comes to mind as someone who has peppered that wall over the course of the last few seasons. Here's one example where a double might've been a home run with the new wall:
Luis Valbuena is also a lefty with some gap power that this could help.
Of course, there's also pitcher/DH Shohei Ohtani. He swings lefty and hit 30 home runs in 525 at-bats combined in the last two years in Japan's NPB.
There were 202 home runs in Angel Stadium last season, ranking 19th in the majors, but only 70 of those home runs came from left-handed hitters. Only eight full-time parks saw fewer homers from lefties last season. Even if it's slight, expect an uptick this coming season with the lower wall.
