Another look back at an aspect of the 2017 O's offense

When it comes to team offense, the Orioles are about average in the American League. That is in the most important stat of them all - runs scored.

And it has been that way for several seasons. In 2015, the Orioles ranked seventh in the AL in runs scored for the season. In 2016, they ranked seventh and last year they ranked eighth with 743 runs while the AL team average was 763. So the Orioles scored 4.59 runs/game while the league average was 4.71.

There are a lot of ways to break down some of those numbers, but yesterday I found some surprising results in looking at how the team fared versus other AL teams in specific counts.

The surprising results showed that the Orioles were among the AL's best hitting teams when down 0-1 in the count, but among the worst when ahead 2-0. As a team they actually hit much worse when the count was 2-0 compared to 0-1. Yep, surprising.

Orioles' team average & OPS with AL rank in specific counts, 2017:
* 0-0 count: .351 (9) and .960 (7)
* 0-1 count: .361 (1) and .955 (2)
* 0-2 count: .161 (6) and .405 (6)
* 1-0 count: .338 (9) and .934 (8)
* 2-0 count: .297 (14) and .767 (14)

All stats are courtesy of MLB.com.

By the way, when the O's batters were ahead in any count in 2017, they batted .309, fourth-best in the league. When behind in the count, they batted .215, second-best. Both ranked well compared to other teams but obviously you'd take the first average of .309 to produce more damage - and runs.

But yes, it is surprising that as a team last season the Orioles hit 64 points higher on an 0-1 count (.361) than when it was 2-0 (.297). All clubs have poor averages on an 0-2 count. In fact, Houston, batting .189, led the AL in such a count. But there is a huge falloff in the stats when the count goes from 0-1 to 0-2.

What is the morale to this story? Well, I'm not sure what conclusions to draw here and maybe the readers have their own thoughts. Perhaps O's batters just focused better when down a strike than they did in such a good hitter's count. Maybe at 2-0 they swung at pitches that were strikes, but more toward the corners than right down the middle. It could be that they needed to do a better job at getting grooved pitches and/or doing something with one when presented with it.

These stats go against the work-the-count philosophy. The O's did better last season on 0-0, 0-1 and 1-0 counts, then 0-2 or 2-0 counts. This doesn't mean to go up there hacking at anything. But it has been true for years that teams generally post good stats when putting the first pitch in play.

It is not quite this simple, but the performances of Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo will have a lot to say about the offense this season. Getting a strong bounceback season from one of the pair would be nice, from both might be huge.

So much has been written and said about Davis but less about Trumbo. From 2012 through 2016, he averaged .252/.307/.474 with 149 homers, to rank 10th in the majors for those five years, and 428 RBIs, to rank 19th. He was top 20 in both over that time, so some improvement seems reasonable off a 2017 season where he hit .234/.289/.397. Trumbo's OPS was .781 from 2012-16 and was .686 last season, including a .600 mark in the second half. He fell from 47 homers and 108 RBIs in 2016 to 23 home runs and 65 RBIs.

Maybe both have strong seasons in 2018. But will they do so on a 2-0 count?

Still waiting for top free agents to sign: MLBTradeRumors.com ranked the top nine remaining free agents available. Yep, plenty of good players including starting pitchers still can be had about four weeks before opening day. Click here to see the list and that the Orioles are linked to several of them.