Chase Field may be having impact on D-backs’ offense

Most professional sports teams tend to play better at their home stadium. You don’t have to deal with the travel, can use your own practice facilities and actually feel the support of the crowd.

The Diamondbacks have not been one of those teams this season. They were 17-22 at home through Wednesday, a mark that ranked them 24th in baseball, despite having five more wins than any team behind them in that measure.

The D-backs and Boston Red Sox were the only two teams in baseball who were at or above the .500 mark but had an at- or below-average record at home as of Wednesday.

Part of the issue might be the offense. The D-backs bat .240 at home compared to .271 on the road. They score 4.4 runs per game at home (tied for sixth-worst in baseball) and 5.6 runs on the road (fourth-best in baseball). Almost every offensive statistic that is not a counting stat is lower at home than on the road, and even in counting stats, the difference is stark enough to pause.

Much was made of the humidor installed at Chase Field before the 2018 season. The humidor was supposed to help pitchers out in Chase Field, long-considered to be a hitter’s ballpark, by giving them more grip on the ball and making the air thicker and harder for balls to push through. But it’s possible the D-backs are finding their offense suffering from its installment, as well.

The D-backs have hit 81 home runs on the road compared to 42 at home. Sure, those numbers could be skewed by the amount of games played at each location, but the D-backs have only played nine more games away from Chase Field than they have inside of it.

Hitting half as many home runs in a 10 game difference is highly improbable.

This is backed up the D-backs’ ISO, which is short for Isolated Power and calculates a hitter’s true power. Essentially, it is how well a hitter or team gets extra base hits.

At home, the D-backs ranked 24th in baseball in ISO. On the road, they rank fourth.

The home run difference is perhaps the most stark and concerning. In a league where teams are hitting home runs at record numbers thanks to what some speculate is a juiced ball, not being able to do the same in the place where you play half your games will keep you behind.

From July 3 of the 2016 season through the end of the 2017 season, the D-backs hit the third-most home runs in baseball in their own ballpark. Since the beginning of the 2018 season (when the humidor was installed), the D-backs have hit the 18th-most home runs in their own ballpark in baseball.

Other stats, like home run to fly ball rate, indicate a change too. In 2016 and 2017, the D-backs HR/FB rate was 17.7% and 17.1%, respectively. Since the humidor’s installation before the 2018 season, that number has dropped to 12%.

While fly ball and hard-hit percentages haven’t dropped as substantially or at all, the numbers could explain that the humidor is limiting the distance balls are traveling.

Balls still may be getting hit hard, or in the air, but aren’t getting out of the ballpark as much as they used to. With home runs having a much larger impact on the game these days, the D-backs may find themselves a little behind the curve with the installation of the humidor.