Oracle Park’s new dimensions

The Giants are turning the page in every way imaginable. Earlier tonight, they announced the bulk of their new major league coaching staff, and soon after, Henry Schulman tweeted out the new dimensions of Oracle Park following the relocation of the bullpen mounds.

• Left-center field trims down from 404’ to 399’.
• Straightaway center field comes in eight feet from 399’ to 391’.
• The 421’ space that created Mirabelli’s Alley loses six feet to become a San Francisco area code-friendly 415’.

We’ve caught glimpses of these changes here in there in stray tweets the past couple of months —

— but we haven’t really had a full sense of scope until today. Not only did Schulman reveal the math, but season ticket holders were given a glimpse of what this might look like by way of this 1980s-style computer graphics seating chart:

That wall in front of Triples Alley is used for special events which means the special event configuration for the outfield area served as the basis for the remodel. Or whatever. Some designer probably just had this file on hand and didn’t worry about it. There’s not going to be an ugly wall removing Triples Alley. Just focus on that mound area on the left side.

It looks like the home and visitor bullpens will share a wall and be on the same level rather than stacked. Hey, whatever works.

UPDATE: That’s exactly what’s happening.

UPDATE #2: Another look from Agustin Diaz (thanks, Agustin!):

This is good news. There’s no reason why players and coaches should be placed in harm’s way and if there ever was any charm from having the bullpen mounds on the field in foul territory, it disappeared so long ago that the void its absence created has fossilized.

If you haven’t caught on by now, this offseason is all about change. Sweeping, paradigm-shifting change. The Giants are committed to winning, but not in the ways we’ve known them to compete and the change won’t happen overnight.

Farhan Zaidi is giving us four anchors to hold onto throughout this purging storm: Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, and Ron Wotus. Everything and everyone else is subject to revision, removal, or evolution. Moving in the fences less than 10 feet won’t dramatically stall or reverse the steady decline of this championship trio (though stranger things have happened and they’re still in their early thirties), but it clears the deck for the next guys up who will only have to learn how to play within these new dimensions, with these new managers, and this new style of play.

12/12 UPDATE: The Giants have announced the design and dimensions.

I appreciate that they put in silhouettes . . . the ghosts of families who used to enjoy coming to the park.

This overhead view gives a better overall look, including thepossibility that one of the bullpens will be behind glass, enabling fans to gawk at relievers like zoo animals.

Finally, the fly ball view. A ball like this would’ve come up well short of a home run in years past. Now . . . who knows? The Giants might just score 690 runs in 2020.