Taking a page from the School of Roch blog, today I'm trying to answer some of your minor league questions. Some you have specifically asked and some I'm pretty sure you may be curious about. How did you feel about Frederick losing its O's affiliation this week? In a word, sad. I worked at WFMD Radio in Frederick out of college from 1982 into 1987. That was even before the Keys' first year of 1989. I've been to many games there and have come to love the Frederick community and still have...

The Orioles took a deliberate approach to filling their 40-man roster, but the deed is done. It's stuffed like a holiday turkey. Just don't assume that it's staying that way. Anyone who signs a major league contract is going to bump a player off the roster, and the Orioles are at least willing to consider it. In the meantime, it's impossible to make an exact prediction about the roster when you wake up in the morning and find pitchers Ashton Goudeau, Mac Sceroler and Tyler Wells on...

Ben McDonald and his nephew chatted last weekend in Louisiana about two of their favorite topics, the hunting and baseball seasons intertwined. McDonald, the first-overall selection in the 1989 amateur draft who spent nine years in the majors. Mac Sceroler, a former fifth-round selection of the Reds out of Southeastern Louisiana who was the fifth player chosen Thursday morning in the Rule 5 draft. A former high-profile Orioles pitcher and current MASN analyst, and a close relative who will...

Nothing lasts forever in baseball. Change is inevitable. No roster, good or bad, stays intact from year to year. So this isn't unusual. But it's still somewhat striking when you pause to think about it: More than half of the Nationals' 2019 World Series roster isn't going to be part of their 2021 roster. At the moment, only 11 of the 25 players who were in uniform for Game 7 in Houston a mere 13 1/2 months ago remain employed by the Nationals. Only four of those 11 are position players:...

When the Orioles lost two players in the major league phase of Thursday's Rule 5 draft, it was a good news/bad news situation. On the one hand, for the first time since 2015 the O's lost a player in the Rule 5. And only five Major League Baseball clubs lost two or more players in this draft. On the other hand, the Orioles may have lost two players for good. Players often get sent back to their original teams in this draft, but it's not a given, obviously. The O's never sent Richie Martin...

The Orioles added two right-handed starting pitchers today in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft. And they added two-right handed pitchers and a catcher in the Triple-A phase of the draft. While it cost $100,000 to make a pick in the major league phase and that player must stay on the selecting team's big league roster all year or be offered back to his former club, no such rules apply in the minor league phase. Each selection costs $24,000 there and the player is now fully part of the...

The normal Winter Meetings would have wrapped up yesterday following the Rule 5 draft. The virtual version, however, keeps rolling along. No checkout times, stops at the front desk or luggage to be dragged through the lobby and toward the exits, where fresh air is breathed for the first time in four days. What I miss most is my annual lap around the lobby after filing my Rule 5 story. The sense of calm as media and executives race to the airport. The thought in my head that whispers, "Well,...

The Nationals announced their minor league affiliate invitations for 2021 on Wednesday, and the list did not include the Hagerstown Suns, signaling the end of a 13-year relationship. Kevin Reichard, the editor and publisher of Ballpark Digest, believes Suns owner Bruce Quinn might consider becoming an independent-league team going forward. "I don't know what Bruce is going to do, quite honestly," Reichard said. "He's got various business interests. I haven't heard much out of his camp as...

The Orioles again made two selections in today's Rule 5 draft and they again focused on pitching. The fifth overall pick turned into right-hander Mac Sceroler, the nephew of former Orioles pitcher Ben McDonald. The Orioles took right-hander Tyler Wells in the second round to fill out their 40-man roster. Sceroler, 25, came from the Reds organization, where he posted a 3.69 ERA and a 1.111 WHIP in 26 games (20 starts) at high Single-A Daytona in 2019 and averaged 9.8 strikeouts per nine...

The first virtual Rule 5 draft is set to be held today at noon Eastern, and who isn't excited about that? Well, hardly anyone's excited about it. Unless you work for a major league club's player development unit, are a rabid follower of third-tier minor league prospects or are one of the players whose livelihood is actually at stake today, you really have no good reason to pay more than glancing attention at this event. This is especially true for the Nationals, who essentially have been...