There is a lot to like about Mike Elias, who is expected to soon officially join the Orioles and head up the club's baseball operations. He got his start in scouting in a sharp and smart St. Louis Cardinals organization. He worked closely in Houston with general manager Jeff Luhnow for perhaps the most progressive and forward-thinking organization in the majors. Elias saw Houston lose 107 and 111 games in his first two years in that organization in 2012 and 2013, and then was a big part of...

If you've been following this week's Baseball Writers' Association of America awards announcements, you've perhaps noticed two developments: 1) The Nationals only had a finalist in two of the four award categories, and had no winners, and 2) The rest of the National League East has been front and center in these proceedings. The Nats had taken home at least one BBWAA award in each of the last four seasons, beginning with Matt Williams' Manager of the Year honor in 2014, continuing with...

Former Orioles second baseman Rich Dauer offered a strong endorsement yesterday of Mike Elias, who's been chosen to head the baseball operations department. Three seasons in Houston as first base coach and infield instructor gave him a nice perspective while Elias rose to assistant general manager and became a hotter commodity. Reached on the phone before attending last night's reunion of the 1983 World Series team, Dauer said the Orioles are "getting a good one." They just haven't made it...

Max Scherzer's league-leading stats in most pitching categories weren't enough to retain the Cy Young Award against the guy who led the majors in the most important category: ERA. Jacob deGrom was revealed tonight as the National League's top pitcher in 2018 in a lopsided vote over Scherzer, who was trying to join elite company with his fourth career and third consecutive Cy Young Award. The Mets ace received 29 of 30 first-place votes and 207 total points to Scherzer's one first-place vote...

The Fredericksburg City Council announced it has reached an agreement to build a multipurpose stadium at Celebrate Virginia South that would move the Single-A Potomac Nationals to the site after playing in Prince William County for decades, according to a report in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. The stadium plans to be operational for the 2020 campaign, beginning April 1, 2020, and will cost $35 million to build. The agreement reportedly calls for the Silber family, which owns the P-Nats,...

The title handed to the head of the Orioles' baseball operations department likely will be tailored to fit Mike Elias. No one associated with the Orioles has confirmed a late-night tweet from USA Today's Bob Nightengale that the club will hire Elias and finally conclude its extensive and methodical search for a replacement for executive vice president Dan Duquette, whose contract wasn't renewed following a 115-loss season. Nightengale wrote that Elias will become the new GM "barring a...

The Nationals like what they have seen from a pair of infielders from Venezuela in their system. Second baseman Andruw Monasterio came over from the Chicago Cubs late last season in the trade for Daniel Murphy. The 21-year-old from Caracas played 13 games for high Single-A Potomac. Nationals hitting coordinator Troy Gingrich laid eyes on him there and worked with him at instructional league. He was impressed with the youngster. "He has a lot of ability, things he does well, certainly a good...

Max Scherzer tonight could become only the fifth pitcher in history to win his fourth Cy Young Award, only the third in history to win three in a row. But don't get your hopes up too much, because the odds are heavily stacked against the Nationals right-hander. Even though Scherzer arguably was better in 2018 than he was when he won the National League Cy Young Award in 2016 and 2017, Jacob deGrom was even better this season and is decidedly favored to be revealed as the winner during...

I was not among the writers assigned to vote for the American League Cy Young Award this year, but that doesn't keep me from having an opinion on who should win. First, a quick look at the three finalists. In alphabetical order they are Corey Kluber of Cleveland, Blake Snell of Tampa Bay and Justin Verlander of Houston. Kluber won the AL Cy Young in both 2014 and 2017 and was third in 2016. Verlander won in 2011, finished second in 2012 and 2016 and has been in the top five six times. Kluber...

On the same afternoon that the Orioles activated Richard Bleier from the 60-day disabled list, the reliever was picking up a baseball at Cressey Sports Performance in Jupiter, Fla., and making his first throw since undergoing surgery to repair a Grade 3 tear in his left latissimus dorsi muscle. Bleier posted the video about a week later on his Instagram account, announcing to all of his followers and anyone else with access to it that his rehab was moving along at the proper pace and with the...