A "Moneyball" Team, Five Years Later

It’s about time:

“Trembley allowed for special credit to shortstop Luis Hernandez, who has batted .364 and drawn three walks in his first seven games. The manager said he's put the take sign on Hernandez in several 1-0 and 2-0 counts, forcing the infielder to work deeper into counts and to have a better chance at snagging a free base via a walk.

That approach has been stressed to the entire team, and the Orioles have walked 27 times in seven games.

"We've done a much better job of working the counts, trying to get deeper in the counts," said Trembley. "And you have to have a game plan each day. You can't have a game plan for a week or a month. ... You've got to have a game plan for each game and a game plan for each at-bat. I think our sense of preparation, from top to bottom, has been very good."”

That’s how an offense with less than All-Star talent can score some runs. If they can bump their OBP up an extra 5 points over what I projected, that would result in another 28 runs scored and another 2 or 3 wins.

Work the count; draw walks; make the pitchers work; and get good pitches to hit. It's not rocket science (well, maybe to Dusty Baker).