The stats are eye-catching. With about one-third of the schedule remaining, the Twins are often a different hitting ball club at their new home, Target Field, than on the road.
The Twins have the highest team batting average in major league baseball at .283. At Target Field the team is hitting .292 while on the road the average is .275, according to https://espn.go.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/min/minnesota-twins. But in their new home park the Twins have hit just 28 home runs in 50 games while on the road they have homered 63 times in 52 games.
Enough baseball has been played in different weather conditions at Target Field to know this is a pitcher’s ballpark. Balls that initially seem destined to fly over the fence more often end up as long outs. With the Twins so-so starting pitcher this seems more of an overall advantage to the team than having a home run happy ballpark.
But it has left Twins batters with some frustrations. Joe Mauer has been the poster boy for drives hit to the power alley in left field that don’t quite make it into the seats. He has six home runs this season, all on the road.
No Twins batter has more home runs at home than on the road. Jim Thome has hit six at Target Field, six on the road. Everyone else has hit fewer at home including Justin Morneau who has a team leading 18 home runs, with 14 on the road.
Twins president Dave St. Peter was asked by Sports Headliners if the club will consider changing outfield dimensions for next year. “We haven’t even gone there yet,” he said. “That’s not something that’s right now on our radar. We’re more focused on different elements that will impact fan experience. …
“But we’ll review a number of issues over the course of the last couple months of the season and into the offseason with hopes of making Target Field better. And certainly some of those issues will be playability issues. I can’t speak to whether dimensions will even be part of that discussion.”