In this formula, all runs scored by or against a team at home are divided by all runs scored on the road. Parks with a Park Factor over 1 are those where more overall runs are scored when the team is at home than are scored when the team is away. While some variation can be attributable to fluctuations in offensive and defensive performance, PF accounts for the production of both teams in each park and, correspondingly, is very useful in determining which actual ballparks are "hitter friendly" and which are "pitcher friendly".
I use some sabermetrics in my handicapping and thought I'd share this just in case others may not know about it...
Knowing your parks is obviously a crucial aspect of all baseball capping. That's a good start, but of course there is a lot more to it. Remember a few things:
1) Parks do change their dimensions over the offseason, not often, but it does happen. The most notable one that comes to mind was when Philly did it to make theirs less "hitter-friendly".
2) Weather and wind affects things a great deal of course, and affects things differently in different parks. The best example of course is Wrigley, but it matters a lot in others as well, Jacobs is the first that comes to mind after Wrigley. And domes matter as well. For instance, common thought is that knuckleballers do well indoors, while sinkerballers suffer due to the turf letting more grounders through for hits.
3) Various kinds of pitchers derive greater benefit or harm from various kinds of parks than others do. In other words, a "pitcher-friendly" park is not equally friendly to all. And of course, the same goes for hitters. "Hitter-friendly" parks are more friendly to some lineups than others.
4) Some parks act differently in the daytime than at night, due to factors such as humidity and shadows.
Knows your parks, and in more ways than just which ones are hitter- or pitcher-friendly.
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FYI - Park Factor
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