I watched a replay of the 1997 home opener on channel 4 last night, and there was a huge difference in the way the ball was flying.

yeah I watched that too, what an awesome game!

i think moving in the fences as they were marked this offseason would still leave petco as a pitchers park. it would just make it less extreme. pitchers would still love to pitch here.

Make every field in every stadium the exact same.
This will solve all the Padres problems or just make all games exciting?
It doesn't make a different!
The Astros have an outfield that is all screwed up in my opinion. Just deal with what you have.
The Padres are too stupid to adjust.
I agree with Scottieboy on this!

www.thesportzzone.com/mlbsdpadres.html

I dug up this thread because its more fun to talk about the fences than all of the other junk that is going on with our Padres!

Brian and others want to bring in the fences. That's fine, who cares really. What I'm asking, if you do bring them in, what difference would it really make? Would the changes take it from a pitchers park to a hitters park? Would our team somehow get better? Would all of the good and somewhat older pitchers that have come to the Padres, still wanted to come, if it wasn't a pitchers Park?

One of the things that I have never understood, if Petco Park is a pitchers park and if the gaps are so big as they say they are, why don't we set up our team for the park? We seem to be changing the make up of our team now, shouldn't we try something like that out now, to see if that might work?

I would love to see us have some kind of a running game! That would be great. Some gap hitters and good obp type guys. Adrian could move to the four hole and drive them in, wouldn't that be fun? This base to base stuff isn't working, so why not?

Easier said than done?

moving the fences in like im suggesting will not make our park into a hitters park. it will still be a pitchers park, but it will not be to the extreme. its obvious the park has got in peoples heads. its become a huge mental and physical disadvantage.

its a lot easier to bring in the fences then change the philosophy. we do need to get some speed on this team though.

"moving the fences in like im suggesting will not make our park into a hitters park. it will still be a pitchers park, but it will not be to the extreme. its obvious the park has got in peoples heads. its become a huge mental and physical disadvantage.

its a lot easier to bring in the fences then change the philosophy. we do need to get some speed on this team though."

Have you been talking to P. Nevin???

Phil may have been a jerk about it, but he was right.

Jerk or not, the park was in the guys head, for sure.

All I'm saying and who knows maybe I'm a jerk, but if we are rebuilding the team and to me it looks like we are and if the fences are for this next year anyway, going to stay the same, why not try and run? Why not have the kids try and hit the gaps? Tell the team (as if they don't already know) this is a pitchers park learn to hit the gaps or grounders. Lets see if we can win like that?

Then in 2010 we can move the fences in anyway, just so we can make Brian happy! And why not do something that a lot of fans seem to want? I don't see it like that, but why not!

IMAO. The last thing anyone should do is change their swing to fit a park. Guys need to go up there, put a good swing on the ball and accept the results. The key is accepting the results. The park affects everyone, so hitting for a lower average and scoring few runs at Petco doesn't hurt the Padres. What hurts, is taking half swings and trying to place the ball. That is a disaster looking for a place to happen.

one more point:

In 2004 Phil put up line of: .289/.368/.492 with 26 HR and 105 RBI. He complained a lot, but when healthy he was productive at Petco, just not as productive as he would of been at the Q.

Hey I never said I didn't like Phil, I did like him. He was a bite of a jerk, but he could play the game.

Also, I think you missed my point. Not that a batter needs to change his swing, but rather he shouldn't try and him the ball out of the park here at Petco. Now with that said if a pitchers gives a batter a ball right down the middle, well sure go ahead and take your best shot. Its the approach of a batter, not going up to the plate looking to hit the ball out. Take a hard swing and like you said accept the results.

phils OPS was also about 60 points higher away.

if the players didnt alter their approach i could deal with it, but the park is in their heads and it forces them to change their approach.

Just to be clear. I do not like having a server pitchers park. I believe it skews the game just as much as a servere hitters park does.

its even worse to me than a bandbox. At least high scoring games are exciting. 1-0 games are not.

I'm 'on the fence' regarding moving the fences in. My seats are in right and I have seen soo many balls fall just short in that corner, but saying a lot of those balls are from none Padres.

Not really a clear answer either way for me, some wins saved by the park, some wins lost by the park. Seems a toss up with no clear winner IMHO.

Right, I'm with you. if most of those balls dropping in there were from the Padres the fence may not be a problem.
If the Padres had players who could run and hit in the gaps, why change it?
Like Scottieboy says make a team that fits the field. Don't try to make the field fit the team.
Does a team move the fences in and out and change dimensions every season to accommodate the type of players it has?
While their at it, why not widen homeplate for the opposing team batting and narrow it for the Padres.
Raise the mound 4 ft. too or put a wall behind the Padre pitcher's so balls cannot go up the middle and take it down when Padres are batting...
There are hundreds of field moves that can help the padres succeed!

"why not widen homeplate for the opposing team batting and narrow it for the Padres.
Raise the mound 4 ft. too or put a wall behind the Padre pitcher's so balls cannot go up the middle and take it down when Padres are batting..."

why do people make ridiculous comments comparing moving the fences in to this garbage?

the padres have a philosophy that doesnt match the park. this philosophy starts at the draft and goes all the way up from the DSL to the MLB. its much easier to change the park than the philosophy.

Did they come up with this philosophy after the Park was built?

no they have followed the philosophy for many years when fuson depo and alderson were with the a's