Domenic Vadala: For resurgent O's, strong finish can affect next season

Many people are simply accepting the presumption that the Orioles aren't going to make the postseason in 2015. At this point, you have no choice but to admit that the season is certainly trending that way. However, one thing I try to convey in my columns each day is that until the team is mathematically eliminated, there's still hope.

People try to tell me that I'm naive for not accepting reality. Maybe it comes off as cliché to consistently say that the team still has a chance. But I see columnists as a go-between in a sense between the team and the fans. So my message to the fans is that the team's attitude absolutely has to be that they're trying to get into the postseason - that is, until they're mathematically out of it. There's often a big difference between saying that the odds are stacked against something and flat-out giving up.

The latter of those two options isn't really fashionable - let's just leave it at that. However, even once the team is mathematically eliminated (if, in fact, they are at some point), they still owe it to the fans to play hard. But perhaps more importantly, they owe it to themselves.

I'm a firm believer that how a team finishes a season can bleed into the following season. Look no further than the 2011 Orioles, as well as the 2011 Red Sox. We all know the story; I still call it the greatest closing act in sports history. The O's defeated Boston on the final night of the season on a walk-off RBI hit by Robert Andino, and less than five minutes later Tampa Bay defeated the New York Yankees on a walk-off homer by Evan Longoria.

Together, those two moments combined in a span of a few minutes to oust Boston from the postseason. For Orioles fans, it seemed to be frontier justice over a franchise that had long seemed to enjoy rubbing their noses in the ground. It made a folk hero out of Andino, and it ushered in an era where the Orioles were prosperous (this year included, as they're far from the dregs of the league).

That one game culminated a month in which the O's had dominated almost every team they played. They finished the season strong, and it continued into the next year. The Red Sox, on the other hand, had an AL East lead of more than 10 games on Labor Day - and they eventually played their way out of the playoffs. And history tells us that even after changing managers, that trend continued in 2012.

You might even look at this year's Orioles in the same light, although not anywhere close to Boston in 2011-12. But remember how the O's were bounced from the postseason last year? Kansas City never really hit the ball hard in that American League Championship Series, yet they beat the hard-slugging Orioles. That trend has continued in 2015. In many instances, the Birds have been beaten by bloop and broken-bat singles.

My point here isn't so much about the past as it is the future. Again, the 2015 Orioles are still alive for a postseason spot. The heartbeat might be faint and they may not control their own destiny, but they're still alive mathematically. But regardless of whether they qualify or not, how they finish up this month and this year might have a lot to say about how they pick back up in 2016.

The wild card (no pun intended) might be that the roster might very well be in a state of flux at this point in terms of the future. Chris Davis might very well finish the season strong and use that inspiration to help him begin strong in 2016. However it's unknown whether or not that will be with the Orioles next year.

What we do know however is that the likes of Adam Jones, Manny Machado, J.J. Hardy and others will be here next season from the beginning. Regardless of whether or not this team goes to the playoffs in 2015, all of these guys owe it to themselves and this franchise to finish strong and to hopefully use that to pick right back up where they left off next year.

You might argue whether or not there's a correlation year-over-year in terms of how teams finish and then begin anew. But does it cost you anything to finish strong?

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.