The humidor at Coors Field elicits a number of responses. From the Giants' Tim Lincecum being caught on video cursing about a "juiced ball" to the Padres' Heath Bell calling the Rockies cheaters, the humidor gets a bad reputation. But the Arizona Diamondbacks have given thought to using their own humidor because of the low humidity there. How would one play at Chase Field?

Over at Baseball Prospectus, guest columnist Alan M. Nathan digs into the numbers and formulas to come to a conclusion on the impact the humidor has in Coors Field and offers some perspective on what would happen in Arizona. In Coors Field, Nathan finds that there is a likely correlation between the use of the humidor and the reduction of home runs since 2002. His calculation is within range of the actual percentage drop in home runs.

In Arizona, Nathan takes into account the lower relative humidity of 20 percent in projecting the results there. If a humidor is installed, there would be a definite impact:

Putting these things together, I would expect to find a reduction at Chase approximately 1.5 times that at Coors, or a whopping (45±9) percent! That’s not a small number, folks.

Wow, talk about a game-changer. Go read the full article to get a deeper understanding of why this could happen.