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As a power-hitting catcher, Brian McCann will be a welcomed addition to the Yankees. As a left-handed pull-hitter, he will be a welcomed addition to Yankee Stadium. We all know about the short porch in right field and I bet McCann is salivating right now just thinking about it.
In 2013, McCann hit 20 home runs over the course of the season. A total of 17 of them were to right field, with one coming to center and another two to left field. He has hit 176 home runs across nine seasons, 79.5% of those home runs went out to right field, while 16% went to center and only 4.5% went out to left. Basically, he is a dead pull power hitter who will only be limited by the size of right field.
In his career he has hit only six more home runs at Turner Field (91) than everywhere else (85). In 2013, Turner Field had a league-average park factor of 101 for right-handed home runs, while Yankee Stadium scored 116. If you compare the home run environments for left-handed hitters in each division, the NL East averaged a park factor of 99.6, while the AL East averaged 108, a little more than eight runs higher in 2013.
But how will Yankee Stadium help him specifically? There exists nearly a 50-foot difference between right field in Atlanta and right field in New York:
If we play the game of "What If" it becomes clear that Brian McCann could become much more than a 20-home run hitter. He could reach 30 with a strong healthy season.
He can expect more of his fly balls to right field to go over the fence, when he's at home and touring his new division rivals. His home run-fly ball rate over the last five years has been 34% on the pull side, which leads all qualified catchers. That could be going way up in 2014.