Buck Showalter Should Help Orioles Reach Their Potential

Here's what the Orioles get with Buck Showalter, who will take over Monday as their new manager:

• A judge of talent -- someone who can figure out which players can be part of a winning team and which can't;

• A strong in-game strategist;

• Someone with experience in building a winner, whether the pre-Joe Torre Yankees, the 1999 Diamondbacks team that improved by 35 games from the year before, or the 2004 Rangers club that lost 91 games the previous year.

Here's what the Orioles need in their new manager:

• Someone to figure out why some of the young, talented players plateaued or regressed this year;

• Someone to help president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail set a course that isn't altered by interference from ownership or Orioles alumni;

• Someone unafraid of the AL East who commands a presence in the clubhouse and is able to change the culture and losing atmosphere.

OK, that may not make it sound like a good match. But it is.



Showalter will help Baltimore reach its potential. And there is potential there. The old axiom is that clubs are built up the middle, and the Orioles have a center fielder (Adam Jones), catcher (Matt Wieters) and pitchers (Brian Matusz, Jake Arrieta, David Hernandez, Chris Tillman).

That's a nice core.

But that was true going into this year. And the Orioles got off to a woeful start and have spiraled downward from there.

So Showalter's task is to get those young players back on track. And he will be able to figure out which ones can help and which ones should go; his eye for talent is a keen one. He also has a way of finding those players who don't have eye-popping tools but can help a team win.

Showalter will also be worth a few wins a year on his preparation, eye for detail and strategy in the game. I once sat in the manager's office with him as he made out his lineup, and the detailed reasoning that went into it was educational.

He won't be out-prepared or out-thought.

Perhaps the toughest part will be shedding a label of wearing on veteran players.

It's not a completely fair label. Sometimes Showalter has run afoul of upper management, often because of his passionate desire for his team to do everything the right way. And sometimes, when a team is losing, someone gets pegged as the problem and it snowballs into scapegoating.

There was some thought that MacPhail was reluctant to hire Showalter, based on his reputation. If so, Showalter has a chance to show MacPhail, and everyone else, that the reputation isn't correct.

Here's hoping that Showalter has learned from his experiences in New York, Arizona and Texas. If he applies his baseball mind, which has never been doubted, to the task at hand and contributes to the direction of the organization while also staying within the chain of command, this will work out.