The Kansas City Royals are bringing the outfield fences a little closer to home plate at Kauffman Stadium, the team announced \u200don Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Per the team-provided diagram, the left- and right-field corners will be pulled in 9 feet to 347 and 344 feet, respectively. Left- and right-center field will be moved in 10 feet to 379 feet as \u200cwell. Center field, however, will remain 410 \u200cfeet from home plate.<\/p>\n
The height of the walls also is being reduced, going from 10 to 8 1\/2 feet in most places.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of different things \u200bthat go into it,\u201d general manager J.J. Picollo said. \u201cDuring the course of the season, we just \u200dstarted doing some research, running \u200bsome numbers and trying to figure \u200bout how much this really impacts our offense. Consequently, \u200dhow would it affect our pitching staff? Ultimately, we concluded that we would be a better team offensively. With our current pitching staff, the changes in the dimensions wouldn\u2019t impact (pitching) negatively as much \u200das it impacts our offense positively.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Royals previously moved in the fences from 1995-2003 only to return to the \u200dstadium\u2019s original \u200ddimensions in 2004.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal here isn\u2019t \u200bto have an offensive ballpark,\u201d Picollo said. \u201cIt\u2019s \u200bto \u2060have a very fair ballpark. We \u200cdon\u2019t want it to turn into a bandbox and every ball up in the air turns into a home run. We just want hitters to be rewarded when they hit the ball well, particularly in the \u2060gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n
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