After my rant about the A’s not driving in runs I heard: “The A’s will be fine. Small sample size.”

Sure the A’s will be fine. They’ve been fine for four years. It’s just this one detail about them, their inability to drive in runs, that annoys me. But I disagree about the sample size. The sample size is not that small.

With 2 outs, when a walk is not as good as a hit, is when I get the most annoyed at the A’s failure to drive in runs. So here are the AL batting averages for Runners in Scoring Position, 2 Outs for the last three seasons (’04/’03/’02):

Sure, the A’s might improve on their current .217 average with RISP and 2 outs. I keep waiting for our luck to even out. But I’ve been waiting over two years now, and the A’s keep regressing to Detroit instead of to the mean.

So far this year, it looks like the same old stuff as the last two years. How much longer should I hold onto my faith in regression to the mean before I give up and declare this a flaw in the design?