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What Effect Would A Humidor Have In Arizona's Chase Field?

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 PadresHeath 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?

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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.

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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:

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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.

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

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