More on Bundy, Davis and the catching situation

Dylan Bundy already had expressed his opinions back in Sarasota on being the opening day starter, getting in touch with whatever feelings were circulating inside him. As a light rain fell yesterday at Camden Yards, Bundy again had to sort through his emotions after finishing a pickoff drill.

Not much changed besides the weather.

Asked if anything seemed different to him now that he was in Baltimore, his assignment less than 24 hours away, Bundy said, "No, it doesn't feel much different. Just new (protective) nets, I see, so feels the same.

"Just a little colder up here, I guess."

Maybe it's the ice water in his veins.

The jitters haven't reached Bundy and maybe he's immune to them. He's flat-lined since the day that manager Buck Showalter called the starters into his office at the Ed Smith Stadium complex and laid out the order of the rotation.

Bundy has received advice from Chris Tillman and Kevin Gausman on how to handle the distractions that come with opening day, how to avoid getting too pumped in front of a huge crowd on the first day of the season. How to just be himself.

"Just don't get caught up in all the activities on the field pregame," he said. "Just try to stay locked in and do your long toss, your stretching and get warmed up properly and try to control the adrenaline a little bit. But also have fun, obviously."

Bundy isn't so naïve that he expects today to feel like any other. Wait until he pulls into the players' parking lot, walks inside the clubhouse, slips on the home whites.

"I'm sure once (today) comes, it'll start getting amped up a little bit there," he said. "The emotion, adrenaline, excitement. Just to get back on the mound for 2018, it should be fun and I'm looking forward to it."

The starters are a tight group that aren't carbon copies.

"I think we've got a lot of versatility in the rotation even though we're all five right-handers," Bundy said. "It's different looks. Shorter, taller guys, different arm action, different leg kicks, stuff like that. Also, different pitchers, so I think we have a lot of versatility in the rotation."

Said Showalter: "I think you can see there's a real connection with these five guys and as we go forward they seem to have a really nice fraternity going."

Bundy said the starters want to forget about last year's embarrassments, including the 5.70 ERA that ranked as the worst in club history, "but you know it's still there and you can't really get rid of it."

"You've just got to put that in the rearview mirror," he said, "and realize it's a new season."

Chris Davis needs a fresh start after back-to-back seasons that fell way short of expectations. The low batting averages gnaw at him the hardest, but he doesn't easily accept the strikeouts.

"Believe me, you may see this façade of going back to the bench after a strikeout or whatever, but believe me, if you could stay up the runway between at-bats ..." Showalter said.

"He internalizes a lot of things, OK, because we live in a sports world where it's not very smart in a lot of cases to wear it on your sleeve all the time, so you have to pick your spots, but don't mistake that for not caring about being ... This guy wants to be perfect every time in an imperfect world. It's hard. But we missed him - when he wasn't on the field last year and when he wasn't productive. He knows that. But he's a driven guy.

"He knows what the job description is. It's got nothing to do with the commitment necessarily, but it does play into it where he's concerned. There's a lot of times people want to identify the bullseye. You take that on every night, every day."

The curiosity over where Davis bats will be satisfied later this morning. Meanwhile, Caleb Joseph will be behind the plate to catch Bundy. Rookie Chance Sisco must wait his turn.

"Let's let it develop," Showalter said. "They're both going to catch. In a perfect world you'd be able to split it and keep them all healthy and keep them all engaged. Chance fortunately got here last year and got his feet wet. I think he's another guy that once everything kind of calms down and the wheels quit turning and he settles into baseball, I think Chance will be more and more of a guy we're going to want to put out there.

"I'm going to play both of them, as you all well know. We'll start out with Caleb initially, but I'm hoping Chance develops into a guy that we're comfortable with either way."