“Moneyball” did not explain the stunning success of the turn-of-this-century Oakland Athletics by the team’s use of on-base percentage, computer scouting or a general manager so handsome Brad Pitt played him in the movie. No, what the book detailed and what those A’s exploited was this: When the rest of the industry zigs, you zag.
That made me wonder whether what we call baseball today, with all that velocity and all those strikeouts and all those home runs, might not leave room for an opportunistic team to zag.
We know that strikeouts are prioritized because they eliminate the risk of a batted ball squirting past the infield, or out of the glove of a fielder.