Bundy on his season: "It was an up and down year"

Dylan Bundy wasn't ready to reflect.

He was polite and funny about it. But the weekend wasn't the proper time to think about his season beyond the unevenness of it.

Get him back to Oklahoma first. Put him in a tree stand instead of a visiting clubhouse. Maybe that's the ideal setting for him.

"You know how I am," Bundy said. "I don't look too deep into it right now until the season's over and you get home and then you're like, thinking about the season and how things went."

Bundy offered a visual by tilting back his head and giving a thoughtful look.

You had to be there.

"But right now all I've got is I gave up less homers than last year. That's good," he said, smiling.

"It was an up and down year. Had some good starts, had some really bad starts. Missed one start with my knee and I'm not happy about that because last year I missed one start because of my ankle. I'm never happy about missing a start. I always want to be out there for the guys and that way they can say I'm out there for 30 to 33 or 34 starts. That's my main goal is getting to 33-34 one day.

"That's about as far as I've looked into the season so far."

Bundy's loss total doubled his win total for the second year in row, for what that's worth. His ERA dropped from 5.45 to 4.79 and his WHIP from 1.410 to 1.355 in 10 fewer innings. And yes, his home runs allowed fell from 41 to 29.

His walks were slightly up, his strikeouts down. Media and fan obsession over his fastball velocity stayed about the same.

Is Bundy certain that he'll be back in 2020 or is everyone on the table in a rebuild?

"I'd say you just answered your own question," he replied.

One of my favorite interviews of the season and it happened at the end.

"I don't know anything," he continued. "I haven't been told anything yes or no coming back. I know I'm under the arbitration process, but this is a different regime, so you don't know how it's going to go.

"I was drafted by this team, so obviously you want to stay with the team you were drafted by forever, but that's not always the case. This is a business and business decisions, they happen. I haven't really thought about leaving or staying or anything."

It must say something about this organization, about the people in place, that no one seems eager to leave it. And that's despite the upcoming projections that the Orioles won't come close to contending next summer.

"You know me," Bundy said. "First of all, I couldn't care less about projections. We beat those before.

"What was the question again? That was the first part I hung on to."

Easily a top three interview for me this season. Can't stress it enough.

(Also, I changed "could care less" to "couldn't care less" because it's a serious pet peeve of mine - to the point where I should be allowed to carry it on a plane for support.)

"This year was different than last year as far as the guys in the clubhouse," Bundy said. "This year it seemed like if we lost a game it didn't faze you the next day. We had a lot of fun times in the clubhouse and a great atmosphere inside the clubhouse with the guys we have.

"As far as me, Trey (Mancini) and other guys that have been here, yeah, we'd all love to be here. But like I said before, it's a business and they've got to make those decisions and that's not really up to us. We just go out there and play every day. Or they do. I play 30 days a year.

"That's all you can do is go out and play when you're told to. For the team you're told to."

Today's question: Which movie is the first that made you cry?

I'll go first: "Brian's Song"