Nationals Park: Hitter's friend or foe?

The Washington Nationals had their first practice at the new Nationals Park, and one question was on everyone's mind--would this be a park that was good for hitters? When the Nationals had previously played in RFK stadium, which is designed for football, the dimensions were so spacious that it tremendously favored pitchers.

Bad news, sluggers. Nationals Park is not much better. Nationals Park is 335 feet down the right field line, 370 in right-center, 402 in center, 377 in left-center and 336 down the left-field line. RFK's posted dimensions were 335-380-410-380-335, and even in an exhibition college game played there already with aluminum bats, the park did not give up a home run.

This could be decent news for the Nationals, who look to have a horrid pitching staff, so the bigger the ballpark, the better. While the park is a little bit more favored for pitchers, it certainly plays better overall for the Nat hitters, who couldn't stand hitting at RFK. Will it result in poor pitchers having good years? That's not necessarily true, but they won't have Colorado Rockies-like ERAs, either.

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