The great Orioles teams won because of “pitching, defense, and the three-run homer.”
How many times have you heard this or a similar statement? Yes, those teams had great pitching. Yes, they typically played some darn good defense. Yes, they hit quite a few home runs. The one thing that seems to be overlooked when talking about pitching, defense, and the three-run homer is that you can’t hit a three-run homer if you don’t have people on base. This, to me, is the hidden gem in the Earl Weaver philosophy.
So I did some research. Below is how the Orioles ranked in certain categories in the years they played in a World Series (the number in parentheses is the average rank).
R/G > 1st – 2nd – 1st – 1st – 6th – 2nd (2.2)
OBP > 1st – 1st – 1st – 1st – 7th – 1st (2.0)
SLG > 1st – 2nd – 3rd – 2nd – 5th – 3rd (2.7)
OPS+ > 1st – 1st – 1st – 1st – 4th – 3rd (1.8)
ERA > 4th – 1st – 1st – 1st – 1st – 2nd (1.7)
ERA + > 4th – 1st – 1st – 1st – 1st – 3rd (1.8)
Def Eff > 4th – 1st – 3rd – 2nd – 1st – 5th (2.7)
Yes, pitching was a key part of the equation. Those were obviously well balanced teams. Notice that they led the AL in OBP in each of those seasons except for 1979. These numbers also tell us something else about those teams that often seems to get overlooked. They were very good offensive teams (finishing 1st or 2nd in runs 5 of 6 seasons, and 1st in OPS+ 4 times).
I bring up the offensive prowess of these teams because of something that was recently posted on an Orioles internet message board. Someone stated something to the effect that the great Orioles teams had great pitching, played great defense, and did enough to get by on offense. The above numbers tell us they did quite a bit more than just get by.
Nowick Gray wrote a very good column for The Orioles Hangout on this subject, and how the current front office seems to have forgotten a very important part of the equation.
