Citi Field

In theory, I'm a Mets fan, although the ugly truth is that I'll root for whoever will help my fantasy teams the most, even if the Mets playoff hopes are at stake. That said, I'm very interested in the Mets new ballpark, Citi Field. In particular, I'm interested to see if it plays like Shea Stadium did (favored pitchers across the board), is more neutral, or actually ends up being favorable to hitters.

On balance, I'm guessing that it will favor pitchers, but maybe not in exactly the same way that Shea did.

1. Near sea level. Higher altitude parks tend to lead to more home runs.
2. Higher than normal outfield walls. Some home runs are going to turn into doubles and triples.
3. Outfield overhang. Actually the part of the stands that hangs over the field is a little tricky to predict. I would think it will turn some more home runs into doubles and triples...but depending on the trajectory, could also turn some outs into extra base hits.

So I think instead of turning home runs into outs (as Shea did), we may see it turning home runs into doubles and triples. If that's the case, faster players may be hurt a little less than slow players.