Showalter: The Buck stops here

The Orioles will interview veteran manager Buck Showalter on Wednesday, bringing to three the number of prospective managers who have officially been placed in the candidate pool. Since you can eliminate Bobby Valentine from serious consideration -- since he essentially has eliminated himself -- it might end up coming down to a choice between Showalter and Eric Wedge, who is headed back for a second interview.

The reason I think that is because of Andy MacPhail's lukewarm comment about the likelihood of interviewing candidates that work for other organizations. He seemed to be saying that those interviews would depend on what comes of this initial round of interviews with managerial free agents.

There has been some speculation that the club may avoid an in-season hire by signing Wedge or Showalter, but keeping him upstairs to evaluate the club over the remainder of the season so he would not be soiled by the club's horrible performance. That was a concern that kept the Orioles from replacing Dave Trembley earlier in the season, but giving the new guy some room to get a handle on the club without having to manage it sounds like an pretty good idea to me.

I continue to believe the O's will hire Wedge, though they wouldn't be bringing in Showalter if they weren't really considering him. There's just no reason to do that if they've already made up their minds.