10 surprising park factors

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The terms pitchers' park and hitters' park are bandied about quite cavalierly when it comes to discussing players' expectations. There are a number of parks that are perceived to be helpful for pitchers and others favorable for hitters. For the most part, perceptions are reality. However, there are misperceptions about some parks that might lead to faulty conclusions, leading to a negative impact on how fantasy teams are constructed at the draft and managed during the season.

In a moment, 10 ballpark misnomers will be revealed that might be surprising and result in a re-evaluation of the expected performance of hitters and pitchers. Some players' market values are artificially inflated based on some flawed assumptions. These players should be avoided, at least at their going rate. Others are unfairly docked value based on an error in judgment; they can be acquired at a price below their actual potential and deployed in season in situations previously assumed to be too risky.

Before these 10 myths are unveiled, a brief review of park effects will be presented along with some more general observations. A park effect is quantified by means of a park factor. Park factors can be determined for every statistic. The two most common applicable park factors for fantasy baseball purposes are run factors and home run factors. However, there are some rather esoteric factors that can come into play, specifically strikeouts, walks and errors.

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