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To see how Sterling Sharp is a little bit different athletically than maybe your average baseball player, check out his dunking skills on his Twitter home page:
Incase @MiLB or @MLB ever decides to have a dunk contest 🙋ðŸ¾â€â™‚ï¸ðŸ¤·ðŸ½â€â™‚ï¸ pic.twitter.com/ZnE2kgyJir
-- Sterling Sharp (@DatDude_Ster42) November 19, 2017
In part two, we continue our conversation with the 24-year-old right-hander in the Nationals system, who demonstrated his...
As our offseason coverage kicks into high gear, we're going to review each significant player on the Nationals roster. We continue today with Juan Soto, whose second big league season was even more impressive than his historic rookie campaign.
PLAYER REVIEW: JUAN SOTO
Age on opening day 2020: 21
How acquired: Signed as international free agent, July 2015
MLB service time: 1 year, 134 days
2019 salary: $578,300
Contract status: Under club control, arbitration-eligible in 2022, free agent in...
Jacob deGrom won his second straight National League Cy Young Award this evening, the Mets ace honored again for a season that while short on wins was dominant in every other capacity.
In receiving 29 of 30 first place votes and 202 total points, deGrom easily bested Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu (one first-place vote, 88 points) and Nationals right-hander Max Scherzer (72 points). Scherzer's third place finish means he's been in the top five in Cy Young Award voting for the seventh...
They are two young guns who were once starting pitchers but now could be valuable to improvement for the Orioles bullpen. They were both drafted in the first round.
Both now enjoy pitching out of the bullpen, and next season 24-year-old Hunter Harvey and 25-year-old Dillon Tate could help improve an O's bullpen that posted a 5.63 ERA last year. That ranked last in the American League, well below the league average of 4.41.
Harvey, the Orioles' top pick (No. 22 overall) in 2013, was called up...
Mike Elias will board a flight this afternoon for the return trip from Scottsdale, Ariz., and the 2019 General Managers Meetings. Which also included anyone with "executive vice president" in their title.
No trades have been consummated and aren't expected to happen at this point. I got the sense that there wouldn't be much activity from the Orioles beyond the sit-downs with executives and agents that could lead to moves made at next month's Winter Meetings in San Diego.
The odds on Elias...
As our offseason coverage kicks into high gear, we're going to review each significant player on the Nationals roster. We continue today with Anthony Rendon, who picked the perfect time to put together an MVP-caliber regular season and postseason.
PLAYER REVIEW: ANTHONY RENDON
Age on opening day 2020: 29
How acquired: First-round pick, 2011 draft
MLB service time: 6 years, 130 days
2019 salary: $18.8 million
Contract status: Free agent
2019 stats: 146 G, 646 PA, 545 AB, 117 R, 174 H, 44 2B, 3...
So the Orioles' rotation depth chart right now is lacking a bit, you may have noticed. Surely they will add some pitchers before spring training, even if it's only minor league free agents and/or pitchers looking to make good after a poor or injury-marred season or seasons.
They could look to add a major league free agent or two, but any such signing would likely be a lower-dollar, one-year deal.
In its ranking of the top 50 current free agents, MLBTradeRumors.com's two lowest-ranked...
At this point, two weeks into November, nobody would dare suggest Davey Martinez didn't play a major role in leading the Nationals to their first World Series title and didn't deserve to be honored for it.
But all ballots for National League Manager of the Year were submitted before the start of the postseason, and on the final day of September, Martinez's work hadn't yet been fully appreciated. Which explains why the Nats skipper finished a distant fifth in voting that was revealed...
I wrote last week about infielder Jonathan Villar's 40 steals and how he ignited a running game that might not be sustainable without him. Besides ranking third in the majors, the stolen base total also tied for seventh in club history.
Luis Aparicio holds the record with 57 set in 1964. Brady Anderson is second on the list with 53 in 1992 and Brian Roberts is third with 50 in 2007.
Corey Patterson is fourth with 45 in 2006 and Al Bumbry occupies the next two spots with 44 in 1980 and 42 in...
We continue our offseason capsules getting to know some of the top prospects in the Nationals system who played in the Arizona Fall League. Today the spotlight falls on right-hander Sterling Sharp. The 24-year-old from Southfield, Mich., was a 22nd-round selection in 2016.
In part one of our sit-down with Sharp (Twitter: @DatDude_Ster42), we will focus on his return from an oblique injury and his time in the AFL.
Sharp worked his way back from the injury early in the season to post solid...