The hot stove league may be tepid right now, but at least baseball is providing us something us to get excited about later today: the Hall of Fame election announcement. Yes, it's time to find out who's in the class of 2019 in addition to Lee Smith and Harold Baines (who were elected last month by what used to be called the Veterans' Committee but now has a confusing and completely unnecessary longer name). The announcement is scheduled for 6 p.m. Eastern time on MLB Network, after which...

A few more takes and opinions on the Hall of Fame, ahead of the announcement of the latest balloting to get to Cooperstown to be revealed live tonight on MLB Network sometime around 6 p.m. Will we finally have a unanimous selection?: This seems possible actually. In 2016, Ken Griffey Jr. missed by just three votes, getting 437 of 440 votes. If Griffey came that close, maybe today former Yankee Mariano Rivera will get every vote and set a baseball first. Rivera was a dominant one-pitch reliever...

We'll find out later today whether former Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina is going into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown or stuck again outside of its doors while the debate continues to rage over his worthiness. I keep voting for Mussina as a nod to his amazing consistency during the "steroid era," as it's become to be known, and while pitching in the grueling American League East. The 270 career wins, 3.68 ERA and 1.192 WHIP. The 82.9 WAR accumulated over 18 seasons, the first 10 with the...

How should a sporting event that's tied at the end of regulation be decided? Just make the two teams keep playing until someone scores? Give both teams an opportunity before it's over? Create a whole new set of rules in an attempt to get a final result sooner? If you watched yesterday's NFL conference championships, surely you found yourself contemplating this very question. Was it fair that the Patriots, by virtue of winning a coin toss, were able to march down the field and score the...

Can one pitch turn around a season? For Orioles right-hander David Hess, that may be exactly what happened on one he threw last Aug. 17 in Cleveland. Hess was making his 12th of the 19 starts during the 2018 season. He had allowed a two-run homer in the first inning and was in more trouble in the last of the third. With two outs, he issued two walks around a hit batsman and up came Yonder Alonso with the bases loaded looking to break the game open. Hess fanned Alonso and even though the Orioles...

I thought that I had more time. More time to be with my dad even after the August diagnosis of esophagus cancer and the later news that it was Stage 4. Even after the stroke he suffered last Monday that put him in a hospital in Salisbury. Even after his oncologist decided last week to stop the treatments, my dad's body no longer able to handle the poison, and aim for quality of life at home. More time to say the things that, while he probably already knew, needed to be said again. My parents...

For all the attention lavished upon Bryce Harper and Manny Machado and their long, slow quest to sign with somebody before the start of spring training, there are a ton of other free agents still unemployed as we reach late January. And that includes a whole bunch of guys who played for the Nationals in 2018. Let's look at those still-unsigned free agents and figure out what it might take to get them in a uniform before pitchers and catchers report ... MATT WIETERS Wieters had to know he was...

Will the sixth time be the charm for former Orioles and Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina? Is his call to the Hall of Fame coming on Tuesday? He's already an Orioles Hall of Famer, inducted in August 2012, and now it seems the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., may be calling. Finally. Without throwing a pitch, Mussina has become more popular with the voters - much more popular - in recent years. In his first year of eligibility in 2014, he got just 20.3 percent of the vote. But...

Should we read anything into a FanFest autograph lineup that places Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins between first baseman Chris Davis and infielder Jonathan Villar at Station 1? Does this lend further credence to the notion that Mullins will sit atop another lineup, the one introduced on opening day? This could be a reach considering that Davis also is joined at Station 2 by minor league infielder Ryan Mountcastle and pitcher Yefry Ramírez. Mountcastle won't make the club out of...

Joel Hanrahan and Micah Bowie were teammates on the 2007 Nationals pitching staff, after which their respective careers took very different paths. Hanrahan, after crashing and burning when the Nats tried to make him their closer in 2009, wound up a two-time All-Star with the Pirates. Bowie, the consummate journeyman left-hander, appeared in only 10 big league games after leaving the Nats following that 2007 season. Both wound up in the news on Friday, for very different reasons. Hanrahan was...