How the Hell are the 2012 Oakland A's Doing It?

It's the last day of the regular baseball season and we know who the 10 playoff teams are�if not yet division winners. A's and Rangers are tied in the AL West. The O's are one game back of the Yankees (Suck) in the AL East. This isn't your last year's playoffs, either. The two wild cards play each other in a one-game death match and no team wants that so every team wants the division title. So they fight on.

Now that we've reach the near-end, here's the near-beginning: Each team's opening-day payroll, ranked by moolah, courtesy of USA Today. (Red, bolded teams = playoff teams):

�	TEAM	TOTAL PAYROLL	AVG SALARY
1.	New York Yankees	$�197,962,289	$�6,186,321
2.	Philadelphia Phillies	$�174,538,938	$�5,817,964
3.	Boston Red Sox	$�173,186,617	$�5,093,724
4.	Los Angeles Angels	$�154,485,166	$�5,327,074
5.	Detroit Tigers	$�132,300,000	$�4,562,068
6.	Texas Rangers	$�120,510,974	$�4,635,037
7.	Miami Marlins	$�118,078,000	$�4,373,259
8.	San Francisco Giants	$�117,620,683	$�3,920,689
9.	St. Louis Cardinals	$�110,300,862	$�3,939,316
10.	Milwaukee Brewers	$�97,653,944	$�3,755,920
11.	Chicago White Sox	$�96,919,500	$�3,876,780
12.	Los Angeles Dodgers	$�95,143,575	$�3,171,452
13.	Minnesota Twins	$�94,085,000	$�3,484,629
14.	New York Mets	$�93,353,983	$�3,457,554
15.	Chicago Cubs	$�88,197,033	$�3,392,193
16.	Atlanta Braves	$�83,309,942	$�2,776,998
17.	Cincinnati Reds	$�82,203,616	$�2,935,843
18.	Seattle Mariners	$�81,978,100	$�2,927,789
19.	Baltimore Orioles	$�81,428,999	$�2,807,896
20.	Washington Nationals	$�81,336,143	$�2,623,746
21.	Cleveland Indians	$�78,430,300	$�2,704,493
22.	Colorado Rockies	$�78,069,571	$�2,692,054
23.	Toronto Blue Jays	$�75,489,200	$�2,696,042
24.	Arizona Diamondbacks	$�74,284,833	$�2,653,029
25.	Tampa Bay Rays	$�64,173,500	$�2,291,910
26.	Pittsburgh Pirates	$�63,431,999	$�2,187,310
27.	Kansas City Royals	$�60,916,225	$�2,030,540
28.	Houston Astros	$�60,651,000	$�2,332,730
29.	Oakland Athletics	$�55,372,500	$�1,845,750
30.	San Diego Padres	$�55,244,700	$�1,973,025

The top third is well-represented, with five of the 10 playoff teams, including, of course, the “Hey Big Spender” team, the New York Yankees (Suck), which outspent every other team for the 14th year in a row. At least this year the gap between the Yanks and the No. 2 team isn't exorbitant. You couldn't fit the entire payroll of another team in the gap, for example. Just half of an entire team's payroll. So: progress.

The middle tier is well-represented as well, with four plucky teams.

The bottom tier? The dregs? Just one. Billy Beane's Oakland A's. 29 of 30. Even Borgs don't go that low.

How did Billy Beane of “Moneyball” fame do it again? Does anyone know? How did this team do it?

Pitching, mostly. And luck. There's always luck. This is baseball.

Beane is definitely not using the traditional “Moneyball” stats. The Oakland A's, as a team, rank 11th (of 14 AL teams) in OPS, 9th in SLG, and 12th in OBP. They're speedy. They're tied for 3rd in triples, tied for 5th in stolen bases, and 2nd in stolen-base percentage. They rank first in strikeouts (1,381) but second-to-last in grounded-into-double-plays (97). They rank last in ground balls and ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio. They're speedy guys who hit the ball in the air and strike out a lot. No one knows their names.

The pitching is easier to understand. Sort of. The team ERA is second-best in the AL, to Tampa Bay's, who won't be continuing. Oddly, the A's pitchers don't strike out many: they rank 12th there. But they have the second-best batting average against. How often does that happen? A lot of balls are in play but they just don't land?

Either way, I hope the A's keep on. I want to watch them play. I want to know their names.

I have my rooting interests, which aren't solely based on inverse payroll. Goes something like this: