After hitting .305, can Hanser Alberto do it again?

Maybe Orioles infielder Hanser Alberto won't be thrilled to see 2019 blend into the background. It was a pretty good year for him and now we find out what he can do for an encore.

A surprise .300 hitter in 2019, can Alberto produce a similar average for the 2020 Orioles? His .305 average last season ranked eighth-best in the American League and was 16th in Major League Baseball.

Maybe Alberto's numbers should not have been a complete surprise. For the Orioles, over 139 games and 550 plate appearances he batted .305/.329/.422 with a .751 OPS. Those numbers were very close to what he produced over four seasons at the Triple-A level when he batted a combined .309/.330/.438 with a .768 OPS.

Alberto successfully used a combination of attacking pitches early in the count with the ability to put the ball in play with two strikes. That, and he tore up left-handed pitching.

Alberto told me about his early-count approach during a mid-summer interview.

"I look mostly fastball up to two strikes," he said. "Some days you are feeling different, and you can get a hanger and you feel good. But often I stay up there looking fastball up to two strikes. There are some pitchers that may throw curves in any count. You need to be ready for that, but most of the time I'm looking fastball."

When Alberto had the edge early in the count, he was extremely good in 2019. Among many impressive stats Alberto posted last season was this: He hit .440 with a 1-0 count, while the major league average was .351. Yep, be aggressive with fastballs early in the count. He hit .364 on a 2-0 count, which was actually a few ticks below the big league average of .367.

But the low strikeout totals and putting the ball in play when down in the count were big too. And he didn't just put the ball in play. In fact, Alberto hit .291 when the count was 0-2. Pretty remarkable, since the major league average was .149.

Among players in the majors with 500 or more plate appearances, Alberto had the best strikeout rate at 9.1 percent, ahead of the Angels' David Fletcher at 9.8 and Houston's Michael Brantley at 10.4.

Alberto became the first Oriole since Deivi Cruz in 2003, and only the second since 1992, with at least 500 at-bats and 50 strikeouts or fewer, producing the 18th such season in Orioles history.

While Alberto hit .398 off lefty pitchers, he hit just .238 versus right-handers. He got 41 percent of his plate appearances off lefties in 2019.

The challenge for Alberto to hit .300 again could be playing even more next season. As of today he's probably the regular at second base with Jonathan Villar traded away.

Will pitchers adjust more on Alberto moving forward and throw him fewer fastballs early in the count? How will be do if he faces a higher percentage of righty pitchers?

Few players that got a chance in 2019 ran with it better than Alberto. He seemed to be having the time of his life with a smile that held up as well as his batting average.

The calendar will soon turn, but Alberto hopes the good times for him with the Orioles do not.