Sunday is Sarasota, Orioles manager Buck Showalter was asked what centerfielder Adam Jones would have to do to have a “super break out” season. Rock Kubatko reports that the Orioles skipper “didn’t appreciate the question.”

“I hear ‘a breakout year.’ Break out from what – .280, 20 (home runs) and 24, 25 years old? Ain’t a whole lot of those cats floating around as it is, so we’ll see what happens. I just left a guy in Sarasota who was soaking wet when I left. He’s been in the cage for about an hour. So the want-to is there, and I think he’s going to really feed off a lot of the people who are around him, too.”

“Want-to” has to be one of Buck’s highest compliments as it was even mentioned as an area of importance in his introductory press conference.

Showalter expanded on his comments saying that the Orioles think so highly of Jones that they “ain’t shopping him around” and that he feels that he’s “real close” to playing up to his full capability.

The support for Jones comes less than a week after his comments in Sports Illustrated about not wanting to discuss the new Orioles’ manager. Clearly, Showalter took them about as seriously as we did here on BSR.