As various proposals to play an abridged and altered Major League Baseball season get leaked, and the sporting public debates the practicalities and merits of them all, we must remind ourselves of the following key point: Eventually, MLB is going to have to make an official proposal for the 2020 season. And then the players are going to have to agree to it. And the second part of that equation is essential to any plan actually becoming reality. Players and owners haven't exactly seen eye to...

Our long national nightmare continues, and we continue to go without the national pastime. We take comfort in knowing that our baseball heroes are stepping up to the plate to help the heros who are giving their all for our communities, but as we endure a public health crisis and steel ourselves for its economic repurcussions, we can't help but wish we could at least take in a ballgame. As we've been reminding you throughout the unpleasantness, you indeed can catch some exciting baseball...

So much for that. We had a 12th seed over a fifth seed in the opening round of the 32-squad MLB Dream Bracket. The fifth-seeded all-time Orioles were swept in four straight games by the No. 12 all-time Houston Astros. I recently wrote about how this simulation tournament worked here. So in the simulation, a team of Birds that included Cal Ripken Jr., Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Boog Powell and Jim Palmer didn't win a game. What the heck! They lost to Houston by scores of 9-3, 2-1, 8-3 and...

In support of the ongoing efforts to battle COVID-19, Baltimore Orioles Manager Brandon Hyde and Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Elias, in partnership with Baltimore Area Chick-fil-A, today donated 645 meals to employees at Baltimore's MedStar Harbor Hospital. The donation, split to be delivered for the daytime staff members and the night shift workers, provided meals for all employees of the Hospital. During these difficult and uncertain times, the entire Orioles...

As various cable networks keep reheating old broadcasts to satisfy the need for sports, I'm certain that the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network will skip the night of Aug. 14, 1997. Unless fans want to wait through a 2 hour, 25 minute delay while sitting at home. For a game that wasn't played. Then again, it could be part of a tribute package for Cal Ripken Jr. Include a silly rumor, which turned into an urban legend, with the 1983 World Series, 2,131 and the home run in his final All-Star Game. The...

Ryan and Heather Zimmerman were a couple of weeks into their unexpected spring together at home with nowhere to go when they started wondering what they could do to help their community through the coronavirus pandemic. They immediately thought of the doctors, nurses and other health care workers who were being overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, didn't have enough personal protective equipment and didn't have enough time to take care of themselves and their families while simultaneously taking...

During a conference call Monday on the launch of the Pros for Heroes charity campaign, Ryan Zimmerman provided more insight into last week's Zoom video call with his teammates and coaching staff as they watching MASN's rebroadcast of Game 7 of the 2019 World Series. Zimmerman had a really good time that night, reminiscing with his buddies on the historic franchise win in Houston. So much so he joked at a reporter's query: "How did I feel right afterwards or the morning when I woke up after...

Outs Above Average (OAA) is a range-based metric that shows how many outs a player has saved. It is impressive to look back at the OAA for Nationals center fielder Victor Robles in 2019. His mark of 23 was the best in baseball, and six points better than the next closest in Kevin Kiermaier of the Rays (17). Lorenzo Cain of Milwaukee was third with 14. Nats left fielder Juan Soto had a 6 OAA and right fielder Adam Eaton a 1 OAA. Compare that to the Phillies outfield: Scott Kingery and Adam...

We don't talk about the schedule much in baseball, because it really doesn't matter all that much under normal circumstances. During the course of a 162-game season, every team in the majors is going to play every other team in its division 19 times, every team in its league's two other divisions six or seven times and then 20 interleague games. Sure, teams in tougher divisions - and those that play the toughest division in interleague play - have a little bit of a disadvantage. But rarely...

In yesterday's article that mentioned some of the top Orioles closers since the franchise's move from St. Louis, I omitted a guy who saved 24 games in 1978 and 21 more in 1979 while making his only All-Star team. He also made Earl Weaver smoke as if the future Hall of Fame manager was electing a pope. Don Stanhouse registered a 2.89 ERA in '78, but he also had a 1.500 WHIP, blew seven save opportunities and averaged an anxiety-inducing 6.3 walks and only 5.1 strikeouts per nine innings. But...