Before Trey Mancini and Christian Walker were Orioles first base prospects, there was another young lefty-hitting slugger working his way toward Baltimore. Drafted in round six in 2007, his path to the bigs included a 2010 season that ended with his winning the Brooks Robinson Award as the O's minor league Player of the Year. Joe Mahoney did make it to the major leagues - with both the Orioles and Marlins - but his big league career consisted of just 33 at-bats. His last season was 2013 and...

VIERA, Fla. - The Nationals know very much what it's like to be labeled as National League East favorites and know very much how little that actually means in the end. So as they gather in late February for the start of the long grind, they're perfectly fine ceding that designation to the division's reigning champs: the Mets. "The team to beat are the Mets," right fielder Bryce Harper said Monday in his first media session of 2016. "That's what it is right now. They kicked the crap out...

Outfielder Andrew Stevenson hit the ground running after being drafted by the Nationals and competing in the College World Series for LSU. The lefty-hitting 21-year-old was listed in the top 10 of Nationals prospects by Baseball America. He advanced quickly from short-season Single-A Auburn to low Single-A Hagerstown. The Nationals let Stevenson get into a groove his first month of professional ball, a philosophy that Nationals hitting coordinator Troy Gingrich said they implement with all of...

VIERA, Fla. - When he sat in the first base dugout at Space Coast Stadium one year ago for a 12-minute, first-day-of-spring session with reporters, Bryce Harper was a whirlwind of emotion, confidence and quips that was defined by a line that haunted him for months: "Where's my ring?" When he sat in the same dugout Monday morning for a 17-minute, first-day-of-spring session with reporters, Harper offered no such headline for the masses. Slowly but surely, he's learning how to avoid the kind...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Yovani Gallardo's physical is expected to continue this morning. We may not get an announcement on his signing before Wednesday. I'll let you decide whether he's worth the wait. Fans want to know if Dylan Bundy will surrender his No. 49 to Gallardo. Bundy doesn't seem overly attached to it and joked with me yesterday that he'll probably have new digits. I suggested that he hold out for something nice in return. Plant High School is retiring Mychal Givens' No. 10 tonight...

SARASOTA, Fla. - With Manny Machado's arrival this afternoon, every player on the Orioles' 40-man roster is in camp. I'm still not certain about non-roster outfielder Alfredo Marte. I really need to meet this guy and memorize his face. The first full-squad workout will be held on Wednesday. Manager Buck Showalter watched 15 pitchers throw their bullpen sessions today before meeting with the media behind the backstop. The group included top prospects Dylan Bundy and Hunter Harvey, who threw...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Yovani Gallardo is headed to the Ed Smith Stadium complex today, with his physical likely to begin around noon. Gallardo could be on the field for workouts as early as Tuesday, when the Orioles will be forced to make a corresponding roster move. It depends whether the physical is completed in one day. The Orioles can't make a roster move with Rule 5 pick Joey Rickard before March 14, in case anyone was speculating that he could be removed to make room for Gallardo or another...

VIERA, Fla. - Dusty Baker readily admits he's been scribbling out potential lineups since he was named Nationals manager in November, but he genuinely doesn't know yet what that lineup will actually look like once opening day arrives. "Not until I see them," he said. "I got an idea. But I can't tell you, because you're going to make up my lineup." Well, yeah, we all do tend to try to predict lineups before the manager does. It's human nature. Baker did offer some insight, though, into...

As Nationals pitchers and catchers settle in for their final spring training in Viera, Fla., some familiar faces will be elsewhere. Jordan Zimmermann, who came up in 2008 and had a 3.32 ERA in 117 starts, signed with Detroit. Reliever Craig Stammen, a National since 2009, is with Cleveland and Drew Storen, who saved 95 games after joining the team in 2010, was traded to Toronto. So after missing the playoffs in 2015, the Nationals takes aim at knocking off the New York Mets and their collection...

SARASOTA, Fla. - Adam Jones has reported to camp, ready to rise and grind a day before position players are due. We still haven't seen Manny Machado and Jimmy Paredes. I'm not sure whether I've seen Alfredo Marte. His locker definitely is here. Pitcher Todd Redmond finally made it today. His wife, Leigh Anne, gave birth to son Wyatt on Friday afternoon in Stuart, Fla. She was due last Monday, but Wyatt won't be fined for reporting late. "I was like, 'Why don't you just come Monday? It...