Showalter: Orioles aim to prove last year was no fluke

Manager Buck Showalter says he welcomes the naysayers. From the deepest statistical analyses to the sports books of Las Vegas, the consensus is the Orioles are due for a significant turn for the worse.

“Thank you,” says Showalter, who managed the Orioles to a stunning 24-game improvement. “That’s fine. Our guys know the biggest liar in sports is, ‘They say.’

“I’ve got to tell you, if and when I see one of those prognostications and I know the majority of them are doing that, it kind of fits us.”

...The Orioles insist they didn’t revel in their surprise improvement over 2011 and first playoff berth in 15 years. They wear T-shirts, handed out by center fielder Adam Jones, that read, “To be continued … “

“Our guys are very proud of their improvement last year, but they’re not proud of losing Game 5 (of the division series to the New York Yankees),” Showalter says. “There’s a core group here that got their noses bloodied together. They don’t want to do that again. That want to do the things it takes to keep that momentum.”

And make it just like last year.

“We thought we had a good team,” Hardy says. “We didn’t care what anyone else was thinking.

“We’re pretty set.”

Thanks to Los.