Winning more games with better outfield wall padding
Entry posted by glunn in Player safety ·
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Twins Video
I believe that injuries to outfielders could be greatly reduced if the outfield padding at Target Field were replaced with high tech padding.
One option would be to replace the existing padding with much thicker padding that has a layer of low density foam on the outside (facing the players) and thicker densities closer to the concrete wall. I have a mattress that came in a box that has this arrangement and believe that this approach could be adapted to baseball to cut the trauma from hitting the wall by 80% or more.
Or the Twins could borrow from Hollywood stunt people and use technology based on the air bags and crash mats that lets stunt people fall from high places without injury. https://fall-pac.com/news/fall-protection-for-stunt-men/
Based on some rough math, I believe that for $500,000 of R&D, $1 million of manufacturing cost and $500,000 of installation costs, the Twins could have an outfield wall that could cut the injury rate by more than 50%, perhaps more than 90%. This would be peanuts compared with the loss of value if Buxton gets injured on the current wall. To me this is a lot like adding roll cages to race cars -- a small cost for a lot of safety.
What value of WAR will be lost if Buxton gets injured by the wall? And I firmly believe that Royce Lewis would not have been hurt at all last year by his wall collision if the high tech wall had been in place.
One small side benefit would be a slight home field advantage -- balls that hit the padding would tend to stick and die there, not bounce back into the field of play. The Twins players would develop expertise in dealing with that. Players from other teams would have to learn how to adapt, like with the ivy at Wrigley. Another side benefit would be that players could be more aggressive when they are near the wall, knowing that it is by far the safest wall on the planet.
I believe that eventually all teams will have this. Why not get out in front of it and maybe even develop some patents to make other teams pay to get it?
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