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Michael Lewis is famous for his awe-inspiring "how the improbable became possible" literature, and his 2003 tale Moneyball shed light on just how the 2002 Oakland Athletics were able to compete with baseball’s best, despite their bottom-feeder status on the baseball market. Using advanced metrics and analytics, the A’s were able to field a team full of undervalued but talented misfits and were able to steal the AL West division that season.

A decade later, not much has changed in Oakland.

The team still fields a bargain-basement roster full of players that, at first glace, might seem like cronies but are again leading the A’s to an improbable playoff run. The plot is so similar that it feels like a sequel to Lewis’ bestseller.

But unlike most sequels, this one doesn’t suck. Let’s examine the symmetry between the two rosters.