Contact's importance in terms of Runs Scored

[CincyRedsFan30]

Contact
Leaders Trailers
+------+---------+ +------+---------+
| Team | Contact | | Team | Contact |
+------+---------+ +------+---------+
| ANA | 0.785 | | WAS | 0.729 |
| SFN | 0.779 | | BOS | 0.728 |
| CHN | 0.778 | | PHI | 0.727 |
| OAK | 0.776 | | LAN | 0.725 |
| BAL | 0.771 | | ARI | 0.725 |
| FLO | 0.766 | | MIL | 0.721 |
| DET | 0.760 | | CIN | 0.694 |
+------+---------+ +------+---------+

The Los Angeles Angels lead this category, which doesn't surprise me, since they have the reputation of a contact-oriented team. However, seeing Oakland among the leaders did surprise me a bit. It's been pointed out many times that since Moneyball was written in 2002 the A's have been shifting away from the walk-walk-home run paradigm, and this seems to be further evidence of that.
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That is a portion of the article from the "Hardball Times" that deals with the percentages of contact made by various teams. The teams on the left made it the most often last year, while the teams on the right made it the LEAST often last year.

[CincyRedsFan30]

The results, first for the teams with the MOST contact made:

Anaheim: 11th in Runs Scored
San Fran: 29th in Runs Scored
Chicago Cubs: 20th in Runs Scored
Oakland: 9th in Runs Scored
Baltimore: 15th in Runs Scored
Florida: 19th in Runs Scored
Detroit: 17th in Runs Scored


Now the teams with the LEAST contact made:

Washington: 30th in Runs Scored (not a good start, but...)
Boston: 1st in Runs Scored
Philadelphia: 5th in Runs Scored
LA Dodgers: 26th in Runs Scored
Arizona: 23rd in Runs Scored
Milwaukee: 16th in Runs Scored
Cincinnati: 4th in Runs Scored

Those are some interesting numbers. Of the teams making the least contact, more are in the bottom 10 in terms of Runs Scored than of those making more contact. However, only one of the teams with more contact is in the top 10 in terms of Runs Scored, while THREE teams with the least contact are in the top 10.

Is there a common theme between those teams that seemed to be built to not make much contact but score a ton of Runs?

Let's see:

Home Runs:

Cincinnati: 3rd
Boston: 6th
Philadelphia: 15th

Two of the teams were among the best at hitting HR and all three were in the top half.

Now let's take a quick look at contact vs. OPS vs. Runs Scored of each team and I will leave anything else open to discussion:

Anaheim: Most contact, 21st in OPS, 11th in Runs Scored
San Fran: Second most contact, 27th in OPS, 29th in Runs Scored
Chicago Cubs: Third most contact, 8th in OPS, 20th in Runs Scored
Oakland: Fourth most contact, 20th in OPS, 9th in Runs Scored
Baltimore: Fifth most contact, 10th in OPS, 15th in Runs Scored
Florida: Sixth most contact, 15th in OPS, 19th in Runs Scored
Detroit: Seventh in contact, 14th in OPS, 17th in Runs Scored

Washington: Seventh least contact, 30th in OPS, 30th in Runs Scored
Boston: Sixth least contact, 1st in OPS, 1st in Runs Scored
Philadelphia: Fifth least contact, 6th in OPS, 5th in Runs Scored
LA Dodgers: Fourth least contact, 25th in OPS, 26th in Runs Scored
Arizona: Third least contact, 13th in OPS, 23rd in Runs Scored
Milwaukee: Second least contact, 11th in OPS, 16th in Runs Scored
Cincinnati: Least contact, 5th in OPS, 4th in Runs Scored

[redsrbetter]

This brings up all the very hard to answer questions that follow the game. But it gives a great emphasis on the HR. A lot of people swear that the HR is the most overrated stat in baseball. I agree but only to an extent. How many times have we seen a HR completely change the final score of the game? A walk followed by a bloop single followed by a HR would likely be the most frustrating way an opposing pitcher could give up 3 quick runs. But all in all it was the HR that caused the damage and tacked on the runs. whereas the pitcher could have gotten out of the inning without any damage and each hitter making some form of contact. How many times do we see three hitters in a row hit the ball very hard but it is still recorded as an out? The HR is the no doubter. It does not allow the defense to use their effort in making something happen.

The Reds hit HR at a surplus and we have no doubt that it is why they score as many runs as they do. But this article shares that contact is not as important as we may think. And it also shows me how far a walk can go. OPS is the ultimate description of how the Reds get it done. They get on base through a Dunn or Hatteberg walk and the hit HRs off many powerful bats.