This seemed to make sense to me at first, but even your example turned out to be enough to prove otherwise. The infamous Tom Tango has a simple little Markov tool to find expected runs: Run Expectancy, Run Frequency, Runs Created, Linear Weights Generator. This is also linked to in the FG article that Oxtung posted about Markov a little earlier. If that 9th guy was also .400/.400, that would also be your team OBP/SLG. (I input 40 AB, 12H, 1 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 6.7BB, 7K.) That lineup provides expected runs of 6.527. If the 9th guy was actually .300/.500, your team OBP/SLG would end up .389/.411. (Here I input 40 AB, 12H, 1.45 2B, 0 3B, 1 HR, 5.8BB, 7K.) This lineup provides expected runs of only 6.246. So, we're talking almost a full .3 fewer runs per game. I think what we're seeing here is the value of OBP compared to SLG. Adjusted OPS puts the value of OBP at 1.8 to SLG. The 'outs are precious commodities' statement holds a lot of water.