Domenic Vadala: Looking at O's misfortunes going into offseason

Over the past month or so, I've gotten various comments and tweets on Birds Watcher to the extent of blaming various people for the Orioles' misfortunes. And while I don't think anyone's going to say that the likes of Buck Showalter or Dan Duquette are in any danger of losing their jobs, it's an interesting question. Who or what is to blame?

I'll start by absolving the players - in terms of the effort put forth. Again, a lot of folks seem to want me to come out and say that the Orioles either don't care, are collecting a paycheck or in some other manner just aren't trying hard enough. I see it as bad form for a writer, who's never done their job at the level they do it, to raise that point. I never played baseball past little league, and while I can still shoot a mean jump shot, I'm not a professional athlete.

My point would be that it's unfair to say that a professional isn't putting the effort forth, regardless of his field. I don't see Chris Davis and Adam Jones coming into offices across Baltimore and saying that people aren't doing their jobs.

That said, I would also submit that the coaching has been just as good this year. Similarly, I'm not going to argue that Buck Showalter just isn't doing as good a job as he did in years past when it comes to x's and o's. Now I do think it's possible that some of his moves might be anticipated by opponents of late, but there's no question he's doing all he can.

And that leaves us with Dan Duquette. No folks, this isn't the time where we hash out the absence of Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis. Would they have helped? Absolutely. But as I've said many times, I know that I wouldn't have wanted the Orioles saddled with bad contracts. Those two were voted the absolute worst of the offseason in terms of being team-friendly.

But there is one area where I would submit that Dan Duquette could have stepped it up just a bit, but it's not what you might think. The Orioles roster was full of guys who were either out of options or couldn't be sent down from the very beginning. As often as we like to talk about how the O's use their entire system from top to bottom, that's a bit of an issue.

One of the great things about a manager like Buck Showalter is the fact that he holds players accountable. If guys aren't cutting it, they're probably going to find themselves on the way back to Triple-A Norfolk or Double-A Bowie. But it's tough to hold guys accountable when you literally can't send them down or risk losing them. And I would argue that simply because a guy isn't hacking it at the big league level, it doesn't mean he isn't still valuable to have in the organization.

There are folks out there who flat out don't care whether someone has options or could be sent down. Luckily, most MLB teams don't operate in that manner. It is worth mentioning that a situation in which the Orioles would be unable to send guys down was probably bound to happen at some point. The manner in which they've manipulated the roster has worked for some time, but at a certain point time also runs out.

Roster flexibility is a must in a Showalter/Duquette managed operation. So perhaps from the very beginning things had to play out absolutely perfectly for this team to have had success. The roster itself wasn't necessarily poorly constructed; however, there was just no flexibility built in.

Heck, there are a million things to which you can point. The Orioles took Ryan Lavarnway as their backup catcher out of spring training. That surprised me at the time, but they had their reasons. Who could have anticipated that J.P. Arencibia would not only make an impact for a rival, but do so against the Orioles. That's all part of the unknown of a baseball season, and while Orioles fans are seeing the downside of that right now, they've also seen plenty of upside in it as well.

Assuming the O's don't make a miracle run into the postseason, the tarp will eventually be put on the field and the gates locked for the winter. But that's when Dan Duquette falls into action, and the wheeling and dealing starts. And before we know it, hope will spring eternal.

Domenic Vadala blogs about the Orioles at Birds Watcher, and his opinions appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. Follow him on Twitter: @DomenicVadala. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.