Baseball America's List of Minor League Park Effects

Baseball America came out with a list of minor league park effects yesterday with an article by Matt Eddy. It is not behind the subscriber wall, but you can see the list here. BA does great work; give them a click.

To summarize, the list covers the Top Ten best and worst minor league ballparks for various forms of offense, including overall runs, hits, and home runs for the years 2010 through 2012. Here is what they found:

BEST PARKS FOR RUNS: High Desert (High-A, Mariners), Albuquerque (Triple-A, Dodgers), Colorado Springs (Triple-A, Rockies), Reno (Triple-A, Diamondbacks), Lancaster (High-A, Astros), Las Vegas (Triple-A, Mets) Asheville (Low-A, Rockies), Salt Lake (Triple-A, Angels), Tucson (Triple-A, Padres), Northwest Arkansas (Double-A Royals)

BEST PARKS FOR HOME RUNS: High Desert, Albuquerque, Lancaster, Columbus (Triple-A, Indians), Stockton (High-A Athletics), Springfield (Double-A Cardinals), Las Vegas, Reno, Bakersfield (High-A Reds), Tacoma (Triple-A Mariners)

BEST PARKS FOR HITS: High Desert, Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, Las Vegas, Reno, Lancaster, Tucson, Salt Lake, Asheville, Round Rock (Triple-A Rangers)

COMMENT: Pretty much the usual suspects here, primarily parks from the California and Pacific Coast Leagues, with the notorious bandboxes at High Desert and Albuquerque standing out. The newly-installed humidor at Colorado Springs reduced runs scored in 2012 but it was still above average. I did not realize that Tacoma was such a good home run park.

WORST PARKS FOR RUNS: Savannah (Low-A Mets), Palm Beach (High-A Cardinals), Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Triple-A Yankees), Arkansas (Double-A Angels), Wilmington (High-A Royals), Jupiter (High-A Marlins), Lehigh Valley, Richmond (Double-A Giants) Augusta (Low-A Giants), Brevard County (High-A Brewers)

WORST PARKS FOR HOME RUNS: Savannah, Augusta, Jupiter, Lakewood (Low-A Phillies), Birmingham (Double-A White Sox, Mississippi (Double-A Braves), Palm Beach, West Michigan (Low-A Tigers), Rome (Low-A Braves), Wilmington

WORST PARKS FOR HITS: Savannah, Pensacola (Double-A Reds), Arkansas, Wilmington, Lakewood, Palm Beach, Bowling Green (Low-A Rays), Great Lakes (Low-A Dodgers), Birmingham, Charlotte (Triple-A White Sox)

COMMENT: Savannah looks great for pitching, perhaps a reason to be cautious about Mets mound prospects, though we should also give more slack to the hitters that go through there. The presence of several Florida State League parks is not surprising. Wilmington has long had a reputation as being difficult for hitters.