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Orioles Hot Stove Show: Buck Showalter & Matt Wieters

MASN's Orioles insider Roch Kubatko and O's broadcaster Jim Hunter debut on the new home for the Baltimore Orioles, 105.7 The Fan for their Hot Stove Show.

Their first guest of the night is Orioles skipper and AL Manager of the year, Buck Showalter.


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The first topic of conversation is the Dan Duquette situation and how that is effecting the offseason thus far. Buck reiterates that Dan has been working really hard despite the speculation that he could be sandbagging the Hot Stove season. Fan perception is one thing but Buck talks about the reality of the situation, "We've got a lot of really good people in place, obviously Dan included, that do a lot of things behind the scenes that people don't see they're very well in-depth at taking care of things. There's an ebb and flow to it but the off-season is a very important time for us and around the corner we'll be held accountable for what we did."

Jim asks Buck about the pitching staff that really came together in the 2014 season, including the bullpen and the loss of Andrew Miller. Buck said, "The reason that we got into the opportunities we had last year was because we pitched better. That's how it works. Our bullpen guys, minus Andrew [Miller], I found out in the off-season, they're a little sensitive about the [topic].They liked Andrew and they wished he was back, we all do, but they were pretty good before he got here. They were part of the reason why we were doing some things pretty well down there. We like some of the additions and things that we're going to do that could potentially make that better. We're going to have to be. But if we pitch well and we get deeper into the games with our starters then we're going to have some fun this summer."

Roch and Buck talk about the newest addition of Chris Parmalee and what he can bring to the club. They also discuss the roster and how the return of Manny Machado, Matt Wieters and Chris Davis can impact the team. Buck said that "Chris is in a good spot. There's a lot of arrows pointing up for him. I know what he thinks about Scott Coolbaugh and trust me, we didn't hire Scott Coolbaugh to be Chris Davis' personal hitting coach, in fact he made that very apparent to all of us, but I think Chris is positioned for a very big year again." They also talk about Matt and Manny's return from surgeries being right on track.

Buck talks about the starting pitching and how they really have 6 guys penciled into the 5-man rotation. Kevin Gausman is viewed as the 6th man at this point but Buck feels like they're in a pretty good spot with him. "We're not going to use Gausman having options against him. If he's one of our best 12 pitchers, he's going north."


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Next up in the show was all-star catcher Matt Wieters joining Roch and Jim from his home in Atlanta.

They discuss Matt's rehab from Tommy John surgery, throwing progression and how he's preparing for Opening Day.

"The rehab's going well and going how it's supposed to from all the talk I've gotten with Dr. Andrews and my physical therapist down here and Richie [Bancells]," Wieters said. "Everything's kind of moved along and we're preparing for me to be ready for Opening Day. We still have a good couple of months before we're there, so it's still going to be a lot of work to put into it, but that's what I'm preparing for. We're trying to get all the steps checked off before we get there."

"Today we went out to 150 [feet] just to test it out a little bit," Matt said, "and everything has kind of checked out and we've had nothing really major to set back the progression."

Be sure to tune in and catch Roch and Jim next Monday night from 6pm – 7pm right here on The Fan!
 

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