Angel Stadium

  One of the most appealing aspects of MLB stadiums is how overlooked their extreme differences can go. While a 400-foot fly ball to center at Petco Park can be a game changing home run, the exact same hit at Comerica barely gets noticed. Perhaps more than any other park, Angel Stadium features fly balls that would have had a different result on a more standard field.

  The field in Anaheim is a horizontal oval shape. It can be effectively described as a sort of warped version of Dodger Stadium. While its cross-town counterpart is laid out perfectly symmetrical, Angel Stadium has a wacky off-center shape to it. It plays very deep down the lines (347 to left, 350 to right) and particularly long to the '390' sign in left field, which rivals PNC Park and Yankee Stadium for the most difficult HR in that direction. The kicker is how shallow it plays to center and right-center. While straight-away measures about 5 feet shorter than average, the fence angles in on both sides giving off-center fly balls the best chance to make it over the wall. Shallow right-center field used to be protected by an 18 foot-tall fence, but in 2018 the Angels lowered the home run line by 10 feet making that part of the field an extremely appealing home run target.

  Horizontally-oriented fields can make it difficult for doubles and triples. Similar to Dodger Stadium, much of the outfield can be covered laterally as outfielders don't have as much room to backtrack for fly balls. Ballpark Pal rates Angel Stadium 25th for extra base hits and 12th for home runs.

  External factors don't provide much day-to-day variation at Angel Stadium. The wind only averages 5 mph in Anaheim and start time temperature is between 60 and 80 degrees for 81% of games. Although the wind is typically light, it does blow out 92% of the time, which contributes to Angel Stadium ranking 6th in MLB in carry distance. Overall, the L.A. venue ranks 21st in park variation, which is toward the bottom for fully outdoor stadiums.