Has "leveling the playing field" helped the Cubs home record

[Lowblow]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this previously, but I was pondering on the Cubs dramatically improved home record and I was looking at what's changed. One thing for certain that's changed is the playing surface itself. I wonder if the project to eliminate the highly crowned surface in favor of a lower flat surface has had any impact on their improvement.

 

I'm uncertain if their is a causal relationship, but it is a dramatic change......

[Transmogrified Tiger]

A Lowblow sighting!

 

I think it's a combination of home field advantage being up this year(Hardball Times had a recent article on it), as well as this year's edition of the Cubs being a very good team.

[Banedon]

I would imagine this would help their defense more than anything else...is there a big difference between errors at home in previous years and errors at home this year?

[Ding Dong Johnson]

I think it's a byproduct of putting better talent on the field. their team ERA is about 0.71 lower than last year, and their team OPS is over .100 higher. they are 5th in MLB (2nd in the NL) in defensive efficiency, but my guess is there have been quite a few more balls in put play this year since their strikeout numbers are considerably lower so I don't know how fair a comparison would be to previous seasons