Buck Showalter On What He Loves About Harbaugh, Free Agency

At Buck Showalter's Wednesday appearance at Pathfinders for Autism's Finding Your Path Leadership Conference in Towson, our own Brett Hollander caught up with the Orioles manager to see what sort of stuff he learned from his opposite number on the Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh.

"No, are you kidding me? I'm stealling like a son of a gun. I'm trying to get tot he car now and write some stuff down before I forget it," Showalter quipped. "I learn something every day."

Showalter was also asked about minicamp and spoke glowingly of top pitching prospects Dylan Bundy and Hunter Harvey. Under major league roster rules, Bundy must spend the season on the active Orioles roster if he's healthy.

"It makes you just want to go and let's go with what we've got. I'm not waiting for this guy, that guy" to sign, Showalter said.

But speaking of people signing, how about Chris Davis? Showalter said he's hands-off, but talks to GM Dan Duquette and ownership now and then.

"I really don't check in every day about it....I don't know if it'll come up or not, but it's not a topic I dwell on," Showalter said. "[Davis will] have to make a decision at some point and we'll be fine either way."

One free agent not coming back? Wei-Yin Chen. The starting pitcher just signed a five-year, $80 million deal with the Miami Marlins. He said he's proud of Chen, but that that particular deal is not a bet a Showalter-run team would take.

"History just tells you five years on a starting pitcher is a bad investment," Showalter said. "And really you're paying five to get two or three and we're not going to do that."