Aaron Judge vs. The Wall: What's the deal at Camden Yards?
By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer
Aaron Judge is tall. The wall is taller.
In Tuesday’s Yankees-Orioles game, Judge smashed a hanging slider 100.8 mph to deep left field. At all other 29 MLB stadiums, that blast would have zipped beyond the fence for a homer, but Camden Yards and its new dimensions had other plans.
Judge’s knock ricocheted off the top of the tall wall, just inches from its crest, and the superstar outfielder was thrown out trying to stretch his double into a triple.
Judge would get the last laugh, as he homered twice to push the Yankees to a one-run win. But after the game, a frustrated Judge pulled no punches when it came to his new arch nemesis, The Camden Cliff.
"It’s a travesty, man," Judge said to MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. "It looks like a create-a-park now."
Yankees manager Aaron Boone was just as ruthless, referring to the situation as "build-your-own park." The disdain on Twitter was similarly vicious, with the wall suddenly jumping Jeff Luhnow, Jason Varitek and Mike Brosseau as Yankee Nation’s Enemy No. 1.
Orioles hitters haven’t been happy about the new wall, either. Baltimore left fielder Austin Hays, who has spent more time in the shadow of "Wall-timore" than anyone else, admitted to being disappointed when he learned that the fence would be raised and pushed back over the winter.
"I remember I first saw it on Twitter," he said. "As a hitter — a right-handed hitter that likes to pull the ball — I did not like to hear it. As a defender, now I have more room to cover in the outfield."
Why did the Orioles choose to make such a drastic redesign to their outfield wall? For years, Baltimore had a reputation as a pretty offensive park, especially for right-handed hitters who took advantage of the old dimensions in left field. To try to negate that imbalance, the Orioles made a decision over the winter to raise the left-field wall by about six feet and push it back by 26 feet.
But it appears that the club might have overcorrected juuuuuuust a bit.
Through the team’s first 19 games at Camden Yards this season, only four hitters have managed to lift a ball up and over the mountainous Maryland Mesa: Hays, Ryan Mountcastle, Anthony Santander and Byron Buxton.
Through the first 19 games in Baltimore last season, there were 18 homers hit to left field.
Now, a big part of that drop-off has to do with the lead-weight baseball making the rounds right now, but the big and tall wall has played a role, too. If you compare Judge’s shoulda-been-a-dinger double from the other night to the last of those aforementioned 18 homers, the contrast becomes hilariously obvious.
The ball Judge hit this time last year went 383 feet for a homer. His blast Tuesday went 399 for a double.
Is the new wall fair? Yes. Because both teams have to deal with it; it’s not like the Orioles get to move it in when they’re hitting. And altering field dimensions to create a more balanced playing environment is nothing new.
But while the Mets, Mariners, Tigers, Marlins and Padres all moved their fences in years after opening their ballparks to try to increase offense, the Orioles are the first team in recent memory to go the other way and try to decrease home run totals.
Early returns show that the organization has achieved its intended goal, but it probably succeeded a bit too much. The combination of moving the wall back plus raising it by six feet plus the deadened baseball (not that the Birds could’ve seen that coming) has turned Oriole Park’s left field into a bit of a joke.
Yes, there is beauty in baseball’s lack of dimensional uniformity; it’s one of the quirks that makes the sport unique. It’s what gives us the Green Monster and the Yankee Stadium Short Porch and Triples Alley in San Francisco. But while I’m all for bizarre field alterations that add a new layer to the game (bring back Tal’s Hill in Houston ASAP, please), the Baltimore Megawall commits the biggest sin of all: It’s boring.
It’s a big, green blob. A cultureless void. The blank ad space to the right of the "Weis Markets" sign is chilling and creates the vibe of an endless abyss. Different? Yes. Jarring? Certainly.
As a whole, the new fence lacks the character and charm that have made Camden Yards perhaps the most beloved and respected ballyard in America. I don’t care if it dampens offense when it’s also so markedly lame. I say if you’re gonna do something weird, go all the way.
I want to love this weird new wall, but so far, I haven’t been given a reason to.
Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.