A national writer's take on Buck

In addition to all O's fans and the local media, the national media has certainly taken notice of the club's turnaround under Buck Showalter. Some of those media members were the same ones praising the club last winter, saying they were a team on the rise. ESPN's Jayson Stark was on MASN's and 105.7 the Fan's Scott Garceau Show on Thursday and talked about the improvement under Buck. Here are his comments: "I don't think this is an accident. It's really incredible, the way it looks, unless they completely collapse, Buck is going to wind up winning more games than the two managers that preceeded him combined and they both managed over 50 games. "Anytime over the last three years when someone asked me about hiring a manager, I always answered Buck Showalter. Buck is the most prepared man to ever manage a Major League baseball team that I've met in my life. "Whatever comes along, he's thought about it, he's researched it and he's ready. It starts right there. "But I think what you've seen in Baltimore is a case of a team where the bullpen melted down every day for the first week and a half of the season and the season was basically over for those players, on what April 9th. "At that point, the manager was going to get fired, the next manager was just passing through and it was a team playing for nothing. They took the field with no reason to be out there other than it was on the schedule. "Then Buck Showalter walked through the door. A man with clout and credentials. And, all of the sudden, there was a sense of purpose every night. If you wanted to be in the big leagues and you wanted to play for this guy, get everything out of your ability and prove you deserve the opportunity, this was a chance for everyone on the field. "What you are seeing is, the talent level, for the first 100 games, was not reflected in the record. I don't know that the record reflects the talent level now, it's been a little too good. "But obviously, this tells us something both about the manager and the players who were playing for him."