Getting fat on home cooking

Most batters hit better in their own ballparks, but these guys carry it to an extreme

t’s a truism that most players hit better in their home stadiums. And the rule remained in force last season, when big-leaguers batted a collective .249 in their own ballparks, nine points higher than .240 on the road.

We’ve got a more accurate metric than batting average, of course, and it confirms the trend. Home teams reached .738 bases per out in 2020, compared to a BPO of .677 on the road, a difference of 61 points.

The team that benefited the most from home cooking — despite your expectations — was not the Colorado Rockies. It actually was the New York Yankees, who mounted a powerful .920 BPO at home, yet struggled to an anemic .635 everywhere else. That’s an astounding difference of 285 points. (Here are two other lopsided splits for the Yanks, should you be interested: .266 BA and 67 HR at home, .226 and 27 on the road.)

Perhaps a quick statistical refresher is in order at this point. Here’s how BPO is figured:

• 1. Count a player’s (or a team’s) bases. Begin with total bases (TB) reached by singles, doubles, triples, and homers. Then add walks, hit batsmen, stolen bases, sacrifice hits, and sacrifice flies.

• 2. Total the outs. Start with at-bats. Subtract hits. Then add caught stealings, double plays, sacrifice hits, and sacrifice flies. (SH and SF count as outs and bases because they trade a former for a latter.)

• 3. Divide bases by outs to determine BPO.

The result is the best measure of a batter’s overall skills, including his ability to hit consistently, to hit for power, and to reach base in other ways. The collective BPO for all major leaguers last year was .707.

Some of the game’s best players turned in unusually erratic home/road splits in 2020. Perhaps it was because of the shortened season. Or maybe it was because competition was confined within divisions, instead of the usual array of stadiums from coast to coast. We’ll learn more when play resumes under a more traditional setup next month.

Below are the 10 batters whose stats tilted most heavily toward home in 2020, a group that includes some of the game’s biggest names. They’re ranked by the gap between their home and road BPOs. The notes for each player focus on their performances in traditional stats, such as batting average and the like.

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1. Joey Votto

• Team: Reds

• Overall BPO: .805

• Home BPO: 1.359

• Road BPO: .388

• Home advantage: 971 points

• Notes: There was a time when Votto was a perennial All-Star. He batted over .300 eight times, and he led the National League in on-base percentage seven different seasons. But Votto turned 37 last year, and he suffered through his worst season. The strange thing is that he seemed just as good as ever in Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park (10 HR, .333 BA), but he was abysmal away from town (one HR, .118 BA).

2. DJ LeMahieu

• Team: Yankees

• Overall BPO: 1.086

• Home BPO: 1.517

• Road BPO: .729

• Home advantage: 788 points

• Notes: LeMahieu took the American League’s batting title last year with a .364 average. He couldn’t have won the crown without hitting consistently in all parks, could he? Yet that’s precisely what he did. LeMahieu batted an otherworldly .423 at Yankee Stadium, with eight homers and 19 RBIs. His numbers in other parks were decent, though certainly not league-leading: .306 BA, two HR, eight RBI.

3. Manny Machado

• Team: Padres

• Overall BPO: .965

• Home BPO: 1.306

• Road BPO: .632

• Home advantage: 674 points

• Notes: Machado sparked the Padres’ 2020 revival with his solid play at bat and in the field. He finished the season with 16 homers, 47 runs batted in, and a .304 batting average. You might assume that he did more damage on the road, given Petco Park’s pitcher-friendly reputation. Yet the splits for Machado tilt heavily toward home: .353 BA with 13 homers in San Diego, .248 with three home runs on the road.

4. Adalberto Mondesi

• Team: Royals

• Overall BPO: .729

• Home BPO: 1.108

• Road BPO: .456

• Home advantage: 652 points

• Notes: Mondesi put some spark into Kansas City’s lineup with 24 stolen bases, the highest total for any big leaguer in 2020. The bases are 90 feet apart in every ballpark, yet the strange thing is that Mondesi’s baserunning numbers were much better at Kauffman Stadium. He stole 15 bases at home, while getting caught only twice. He came much closer to breaking even on the road, with nine steals and six times caught.

5. Mike Trout

• Team: Angels

• Overall BPO: 1.094

• Home BPO: 1.424

• Road BPO: .831

• Home advantage: 593 points

• Notes: Trout, of course, is one of the game’s greatest hitters. He had what was a down season for him in 2020, yet he still finished fifth in the voting for Most Valuable Player. He might have won the award if all of his games had been played in Angel Stadium. Trout batted a torrid .344 at home, adding 10 homers and 26 RBIs. His corresponding numbers on the road were much closer to human: .223, seven, and 20.

6. Dansby Swanson

• Team: Braves

• Overall BPO: .821

• Home BPO: 1.145

• Road BPO: .567

• Home advantage: 578 points

• Notes: Swanson enjoyed the finest season of his five-year career in 2020, batting a solid .274 and drawing MVP consideration for the first time. But he seemed to be two different players. Swanson hit a blistering .345 in Atlanta’s Truist Park, chipping in 16 extra-base hits. Yet he descended to a .207 BA on the road, with only nine hits going for extra bases.

7. Eduardo Escobar

• Team: Diamondbacks

• Overall BPO: .527

• Home BPO: .824

• Road BPO: .290

• Home advantage: 534 points

• Notes: Last year was not a good one for Escobar, who batted only .212 as Arizona’s third baseman. That was 45 points below the 10-year veteran’s career average. He was solid enough at Phoenix’s Chase Field (.268 BA, 11 walks, 13 runs batted in), but he virtually disappeared whenever the Diamondbacks went on the road (.160 BA, four BB, seven RBI).

8. Luke Voit

• Team: Yankees

• Overall BPO: .950

• Home BPO: 1.195

• Road BPO: .688

• Home advantage: 507 points

• Notes: Voit exploded on the scene in 2020, leading the majors with 22 home runs in just 56 games. That was more homers than he blasted in any of his three previous seasons, all of which ran the traditional 162-game length. Yet an asterisk might be in order. Sixteen of those homers came in Yankee Stadium, where Voit batted .319. He was .227 with just six HRs on the road.

9. Michael Brantley

• Team: Astros

• Overall BPO: .820

• Home BPO: 1.077

• Road BPO: .629

• Home advantage: 448 points

• Notes: Brantley batted an even .300 for Houston in 2020, marking the fifth time in 12 seasons that he reached that benchmark as a big-league regular. His average in Minute Maid Park was an outstanding .354, coupled with 18 runs batted in. He struggled a bit more in other stadiums, batting .253 and driving in just four runs.

10. Ronald Acuna Jr.

• Team: Braves

• Overall BPO: 1.153

• Home BPO: 1.365

• Road BPO: .934

• Home advantage: 431 points

• Notes: Acuna slipped from a .280 BA in 2019 to .250 in 2020, yet he remained highly regarded, finishing 12th in the voting for Most Valuable Player. The strange thing is that Acuna had been remarkably consistent in 2019, posting home and road stats that were virtually identical. Not in 2020, when he batted .282 in Atlanta, .213 elsewhere.