During a lockout, we can't say it's baseball season yet. Hopefully, sooner than later. But we can say it is prospect ranking season. Multiple outlets have been coming out with player and team rankings. Today let's review what we have seen so far. Six Orioles were in the ESPN top 100: 1 - Adley Rutschman 8 - Grayson Rodriguez 74 - Colton Cowser 94 - DL Hall 96 - Gunnar Henderson 98 - Coby Mayo Five Orioles were in the Baseball America top 100: 1 - Rutschman 6 - Rodriguez 52 - Hall 57 -...

Ryan Mountcastle turned 25 on Friday. As he gets ready for his third big league season, let's take a look at a few ways he can take an impressive 117 career OPS+ and maybe even do a little better. After 140 plate appearances in his 2020 debut season, Mountcastle finished eighth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting and was still rookie-eligible in 2021. And he finished sixth in the voting after last season. Over 144 games and 586 plate appearances last season, he batted...

The first Sunday without football. No spring training. How about those Wizards? The mailbag isn't overflowing, but I'll dip into it anyway. There's always room for Jell-O and another sequel. This has been going on for a long time. Longer than I realized. A friend asked whether I could look up an article from Jan. 22, 2010 that she found amusing, to the point where she thanked me in a Facebook post for making her day. She didn't remember the content, just that it made her laugh. I did a...

What had already been widely understood was made official by Major League Baseball this afternoon: Spring training is delayed due to the ongoing labor battle that has yet to produce a new collective bargaining agreement. With camps across Florida and Arizona supposed to open earlier this week, and with the Grapefruit and Cactus league schedules set to commence Feb. 26, a postponement had become inevitable. In its formal announcement today, MLB - which enacted a lockout of the players when the...

Exhibition games have been postponed through March 4 due to the lockout. The inevitable became official yesterday afternoon. Shocked faces didn't exist. "We regret that, without a collective bargaining agreement in place, we must postpone the start of spring training games until no earlier than Saturday, March 5th," Major League Baseball said in a statement. "All 30 clubs are unified in their strong desire to bring players back to the field and fans back to the stands. The clubs have...

As baseball's lockout bleeds deeper into the month of February, threatening an on-time start to the 2022 season, Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos remains hopeful that his club will be on the field March 31 for opening day at Camden Yards. Negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association will resume next week, perhaps with daily sessions, as the sides attempt to reach agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement by Feb. 28. Commissioner Rob Manfred has...

Now that the celebration of Ryan Zimmerman's retirement has had its moment in the spotlight - and don't worry, I'm sure there will be plenty more celebrations this season and in the years to come - it's time for the Nationals to look ahead as to what their future looks like without their face of the franchise. The long-term ramifications are still to be determined. But as it pertains to the 2022 season, Zimmerman's retirement leaves an immediate hole to be filled on the Nats roster: backup...

The Orioles are opening Camden Yards to the concert scene again in 2022, with an announcement this morning that Paul McCartney will perform on June 12 as part of his 2022 GOT BACK tour. Presented by AEG and Orioles Entertainment, the concert will mark the first appearance in Baltimore for McCartney since 1964, during The Beatles' first North American tour. Tickets will be on sale beginning Feb. 25 at 10 a.m. American Express Card Members are allowed to purchase tickets before the general...

The Orioles today announced that legendary singer-songwriter Paul McCartney will perform the second-ever major concert at Camden Yards on Sunday, June 12, as part of his 2022 GOT BACK tour. Presented by AEG and Orioles Entertainment, the performance will be McCartney's first Baltimore concert in nearly 60 years, as he last visited Charm City in 1964 during The Beatles' first North American tour. "As one of the most illustrious and decorated performers of all time, Paul McCartney has changed...

An old tweet of mine popped up Thursday. Exactly two years old, to be precise. It featured a slow-motion video of the Nationals holding their now-infamous "Cabbage Race" outside their spring training clubhouse. Sean Doolittle, designated closer for the team captained by Max Scherzer, was last to receive a head of cabbage that made its way all the way down a line of teammates and slammed it to the ground just before Daniel Hudson, closing for Stephen Strasburg's team, slammed his. It set off...