Should the Cardinals alter Busch Stadium to boost offense ?

[rightthinker4]

It's a bold strategy says this article.

Before giving a knee-jerk simplistic reaction of 'No, the other team will do better too so it's a wash' check out what the adjustment at Kaufaman Stadium has done for the KC Royals.
The Cardinals offensive stats are so much better in road games than in home games. The pitcher friendly Busch has become even more so with the construction of One Cardianls Way building beyond centerfield.
https://redbirdrants.com/should-the-car ... st-offense

One of the stats in the article notes that Busch has a ballpark factor of 70 making it the toughest for home runs in all of baseball in 2026. Also check out the 'splits' between our team's offensive production in road games vs. home games . 'Egrigious' was the word used to describe the stark difference.
Though DeWitt III hasn't put this issue up for discussions, the numbers don't lie. The present Busch Stadium is going to supress offensive production .
For long term , think about this .. If you were a free agent hitter in MLB with good power bat , would you want to play half your games (81 ) of 162 at Busch.
Remember , the Cardinals are 9th in OPS on the road and 28th in OPS at home . IF we could duplicate the home numbers with road, I will take my chances (at 9th ).. the top 8 may be better at Busch than us but there would be 21 other teams that we would outhit at Busch according to this year's stats. Something to think about.

Opponents have no trouble hitting HR’s. The Cardinals problem is lack of hitters. They don’t hit the ball hard or consistent enough. Strikeout too much!

[icon]

Baseball is not all about the long ball. The triple is a thing of beauty. OFers running down balls and making leaping catches in gaps. Parks like Cincy are a joke. I would vote for leaving the fences right where they are. My 2 cents.

+1 Leave it alone. I do not want to see cheap HRs flying out of Busch as in Cincy or elsewhere. The park is fair enough for me. And it's actually easier to hit HRs down the lines in Busch than in Wrigley, which has those significant wells in the corners.

[Cardinals4Life]

With their pitching staff still being 27th in MLB in K/9, you might argue that a home park that suppresses HRs does more to help the Cardinals pitching than it does to hurt the offense right now.

Yeah, this is the ONLY explanation why guys like McGreevy have success.
Couldn't be because he makes good pitches.... Nah!

[MIDMOBIRDTWO]

Baseball is not all about the long ball. The triple is a thing of beauty. OFers running down balls and making leaping catches in gaps. Parks like Cincy are a joke. I would vote for leaving the fences right where they are. My 2 cents.

+1 Leave it alone. I do not want to see cheap HRs flying out of Busch as in Cincy or elsewhere. The park is fair enough for me. And it's actually easier to hit HRs down the lines in Busch than in Wrigley, which has those significant wells in the corners.

Agree.

[greyhawk]

Read the same article the other day.

Yes, I'd lower the wall & bring in the fences.

Bernie has been on this for some time, checkout these stats from his last week column:

But since May 1, when the Cards offense began showing signs of strain, here’s a snapshot look at their Busch bashing compared to their big-hit road shows.

Cardinals runs per game on the road: 5.43, ranking 3rd in the majors.

Cardinals runs per game at home: 3.67, which ranks 30th in the majors.

Isolated Power: .150 on road and .118 at Busch Stadium.

Slugging percentage: .450 on road, and .350 at Busch.

AB/HR: one home run every 28.8 at-bats for the Cardinals on the road, and a homer every 42 at-bats at Busch.

He goes really in depth w/stats in this column:

https://www.stlsportscentral.com/2026/0 ... ew-7-24-26

I agree with all of the above.
I would rather see a 6-5 game than a 3-2 game.
There are too many boring games at Busch.

wouldn't you think the dewallets would want this too?? more offense equal longer games and more beverage sales....

[greyhawk]

Yes, they should put a billion dollars into adding a retractable roof. Then fans wouldn't have to sit in 115 degrees heat indexes to watch the bullpen (bleep) games away.

So heard Horton say during the broadcast the heat index was at 123 during the game. Was that the high for the day in STL?
Had 119 heat index here a couple hundred miles N. of STL.

Sunday here in SW stl county it was 98/99 --- just quite a bit higher humidity, same as today... really disgusting outside.

[butsir01]

Back in the late seventies, Columbus got back their AAA international League team, the Clippers, who were a Yanks farm club. We also got a men’s pro softball team, the Capitols. They brought the walls in to 250 feet with portable board walls, which interlocked at their base. You guessed it, an outfielder ran through the wall, which turned over from RF to LF. It took forever to reset (see what I did there) the wall.
Another thing that concerns me is that the view of those in the bleachers may be obstructed. That is not good.

[She didn't know I was a midget]

See the way the ball is flying out tonight. With Global Warming it should take care of itself.....sometime after I'm dead.

[DIAMONDINTHEROUGH]

If it really helped the Royals so much, why are they still in last place?