Former Detroit Tigers prospect roasts Comerica Park dimensions

Former Detroit Tigers prospect, Ryan Castellanos, brother of former Tiger Nick, roasts Comerica Park

Comerica Park has been the home of the Detroit Tigers for north of 20 years now and its dimensions have long been a topic of debate across the baseball landscape. Some will point to extra-base numbers to support the park is fairly neutral offensively while others will use the eye test and gesture at the 420 sign glaring in center field as reasons for why Comerica Park needs another restructure to make it more neutral for hitters.

Count Philadelphia Phillies outfielder and former Detroit Tiger Nick Castellanos as one of the players who has been more vocal about the park and its relentlessness to hitters. In an interview with the Detroit News during his Detroit Tigers playing days, Castellanos called Comerica Park ‘a joke.’

"“It’s to the point where how are we going to be compared to the rest of the people in the league in terms of power numbers, OPS, slugging, and all that stuff when we got a yard out here that’s 420 feet straight across center field? There’s no reason I hit a ball 434 feet off Anibal Sanchez and it goes in the first row.” – Nick Castellanos"

Castellanos isn’t wrong, and his brother and former Detroit Tigers prospect Ryan has adopted his brother’s animosity toward the park’s dimensions–so much so that two teams later, he’s still talking about it:

The comment was made in jest, of course, because that ball was crushed and Comerica Park’s dimensions down the left-field line are pretty reasonable (345 ft down left field and 330 down right). Nevertheless, Nick and Ryan have some beef with the baseball field located at 2100 Woodward in downtown Detroit.

I wrote recently about some ideas they could do to enhance the fan and player experience at Comerica Park; I made the outfield walls a big part of that improvement myself. I enjoy the quirks that come with crazy dimensions, but it makes sense to make it more comparable to the rest of the league from a competitive standpoint. It remains to be seen if some of the rumored upgrades to the ballpark will include these adjustments, though.

Ryan is Nick’s younger brother by just over two years and spent three years in the Detroit Tigers system as a starting pitcher–reaching as high as Lakeland, the then-High-A affiliate of the organization. Over his minor league career, Castellanos threw 201.2 innings with an ERA of 4.02 in 41 games, 30 of which were starts.

More recently, Ryan has developed a nice twitch following and does a good job of keeping up with pop culture on social media: