Notes on Denard Span, Miguel Gonzalez and the assistant hitting coach candidates

Another outfielder came off the board yesterday when Denard Span agreed to terms on a three-year, $31 million contract with the Giants that also includes a possible $5 million in incentives.

The Orioles liked Span as a right fielder and leadoff hitter, but they weren't offering more than one season. The deal would have been loaded with incentives.

I figured that Span would get two years from another team. I never imagined a third guaranteed year.

The Orioles never gave it a thought due to concerns about his durability.

* Miguel Gonzalez didn't waste much time reporting to the Ed Smith Stadium complex in Sarasota, Fla. He's already working out at the Orioles' spring training facility as he attempts to put a disappointing 2015 season behind him.

"I've been going to the field every day Monday through Friday and taking the weekends off," Gonzalez said last night on the "Hot Stove Show" on 105.7 The Fan. "We just started this week working every day."

This isn't Gonzalez's normal winter routine.

"I stepped it up a notch," he said. "I usually just work out three times a week. Now, I'm actually going on the field five times. I just want to make sure I'm coming into spring training 100 percent ready to go."

The workouts started in California, with Gonzalez again meeting up with vice president of baseball operations Brady Anderson.

"I was there for 10 days, and out of those 10 days, I worked out four times with him and I worked out three times by myself," Gonzalez said. "I didn't know where to go because Brady wasn't available during that time. But he always makes it interesting and changes it around."

Gonzalez went 9-12 with a career-high 4.91 ERA and 1.396 WHIP in 26 starts last season totaling 144 2/3 innings. He also made two trips to the disabled list with a strained right groin muscle and right shoulder tendinitis.

What did he learn from last year that will allow him to move forward and blossom?

"Well, first, make sure that I don't have any issues, and if I do have a little hiccup, step back a little bit and not push it too much to where it's going to take more time than I need it to," Gonzalez said. "We always learn something new every day, and coming into this spring training I'm going to try to do everything possible to stay in the rotation every fifth day. That's really my goal this year."

* I wrote a few days ago that the Orioles interviewed five candidates for the position of assistant hitting coach before hiring Mark Quinn. The others were Milt Thompson, Cory Snyder, Troy Gingrich and Dwayne Hosey.

Thompson is the Royals minor league outfield/baserunning/bunting coordinator. Snyder spent nine seasons in the majors and currently serves as hitting coach with Triple-A Tacoma in the Mariners system. Gingrich is the Nationals minor league hitting coordinator. Hosey played for the Red Sox from 1995-1996 and is a hitting instructor in Nebraska.

Anderson and manager Buck Showalter handled the interviews. Hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh met Quinn and Thompson during FanFest weekend in Baltimore.

"I hadn't spoken with Mark in about a decade," Anderson said last night. "The guy's a real baseball fan, which might sound normal, but it's not normal. A lot of guys when they get out of the game, they don't want to see the game for a while. There's always that dissatisfaction, I think, that they didn't achieve what they wanted to.

"He was a huge Astros fan before we hired him and he knew everything there was to know about every guy on the Astros. He's a really good addition. It's hard to find a player who had as much success as he had his first few years in the league and didn't really play a third year. It's almost unprecedented. But when he played, he always hit. Always. And he wasn't a big, strong, physical guy at all. He did it all with skill.

"It was interesting to listen to him talk introspectively about his lack of plate discipline and how he can kind of laugh at it now. 'I wanted to hit and they didn't want me to hit. And I didn't want to walk,' (Quinn) said. 'I was up there to hit. I didn't get it. They didn't want me to hit.' That's a big admission, you know? That's why I believe I'm a good hitting coach because my failures are always in the back of my head, even greater than my successes, and I think that's critical to being a teacher."

Anderson also spoke with Snyder several times, first at the Winter Meetings in Nashville.

"You know about his career," Anderson said. "He's another guy who had success in the majors, a lot of success. Was a high draft pick and obviously had one of the best arms in the league. And if you look at the players he coached last year, he had six or seven players that hit above .290.

"He gave a really good interview, as well. Positive guy, enthusiastic. You could tell he genuinely cares about the players he coaches.

Thompson was given serious consideration before the Orioles chose Quinn.

"He's a super well-rounded coach, another good personality, good demeanor, great career in the minors and majors," Anderson said.

"Gingrich is another guy with an interesting resume. A down-in-the-dirt, old-school work ethic. Another guy who loves to talk hitting, knows what he's talking about. Makes the correct analysis.

"Hosey is a super-nice guy, articulate, down to earth. Says unusually accurate things about hitting as well.

"The quality of the people and their own personal successes as professional baseball players and their ability to articulate how they teach was really, really top of the line. All of them."

The Orioles held no worries about Coolbaugh accepting the new hire.

"We're in an enviable position because Scott Coolbaugh is very confident in his job and he's very low-key," Anderson said. "He doesn't need the power, he doesn't want the fame. He just wants to do his job and he's great at it. He's underrated at how good he is at it. Anybody who can't get along with Scott Coolbaugh has a problem."

Coolbaugh didn't know that Quinn was at Camden Yards when he flew into Baltimore for FanFest. He was invited to meet Quinn and looks forward to building a relationship, as he did with Einar Diaz, who moves to the bullpen in a different coaching capacity.

"The way Mark talks, you can see that passion for hitting," Coolbaugh said. "I don't think there's going to be a tough transition due to the fact that I feel like I can get along with a lot of different types of personalities. It's just a matter of making it all work for the best for the players, and that's the bottom line. You want the players to feel comfortable, feel like they have somebody to go to. Just like somebody's always there working with them and has their best interest at heart."