Editor's note: One year after the Orioles won 96 games and their first American League East title since 1997, they can finish no better than .500 and will miss the postseason. In the coming days, The Baltimore Sun will break down what went wrong in 2015 and how to fix it.
It is a simple enough matter to break down the past season and find all the reasons the Orioles did not score enough runs — or distribute them more evenly — to deliver their fans a fourth consecutive winning season.
The Orioles offense was consistently inconsistent because it was not built with enough versatility and connectivity to overcome the predictable ebb and flow of a free-swinging lineup with an inordinate dependence on the home run.