Orioles fans, you are awesome! We saw more than 15,000 of you come to the Baltimore Convention Center this past Saturday for the annual FanFest event. We were thrilled to be right in the middle of the action, meeting lots of fans throughout the day. We edited MASNsports.com content live on location, hosted a Twitter takeover with Jim Hunter, held trivia games for fans, and - of course - had photo sessions and prize giveaways all day. By the time FanFest was over, we had held photo sessions...

Now that the Major League Baseball Rules Committee has voted to outlaw collisions at home plate, the question hanging over the sport is how it's going to be enforced. Runners will be required to slide into home plate, not initiate contact with the catcher. And catchers no longer will be permitted to block the plate. Runners must be given a path to the plate, just as fielders do at any base. Catchers must tag them instead of impersonating a brick wall. This movement gained steam after...

When Russell Wilson walked off the field as a Super Bowl champion quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks Sunday night, it led one Orioles scout to recall the 2007 baseball season. That was the year the Orioles drafted Wilson in the 41st round out of the Collegiate School in Richmond, Va. He was an excellent high school baseball player with potentially top 10 round talent. The only reason he was drafted so low was because he had a pretty firm commitment to go to North Carolina State to play...

The Orioles continue to work the international market while seeking upgrades, and they remain in the running to sign Korean pitcher Suk-min Yoon. A member of the organization watched Yoon throw during the weekend on the Cal-Irvine campus, along with a representative for the Giants. It wasn't anyone in international scouting, but the Orioles had a presence. Executive vice president Dan Duquette declined comment on Yoon during Saturday's FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center. "We...

Last night featured a lopsided, less-than-thrilling game, a mediocre batch of commercials and an overall boring night on Super Bowl Sunday. Bring on baseball season. We've talked a lot this offseason about Danny Espinosa and how he might fit into the Nationals' plans for 2014. General manager Mike Rizzo says that he feels Espinosa could be valuable to the Nats as a reserve middle infielder, given his defensive ability. Espinosa says he's been told he'll be given a chance to win his...

There was a great crowd Saturday at FanFest. We could hear you often from behind the main stage where the media spent most of the day interviewing O's players and coaches, past and present. Here are a few quotes and notes worth passing along: * Pitcher Troy Patton will miss the season's first 25 games after testing positive for an amphetamine in violation of Major League Baseball's joint drug prevention and treatment program. He said he took an Adderall pill, not to enhance his...

Orioles fans had a chance to watch Bud Norris pitch last season. Or they didn't. Technically, Norris wore an Orioles uniform after the July 31 trade with the Astros. He made nine starts and two relief appearances. But it wasn't the real Norris. The Orioles scratched him from a September start against the Blue Jays because of elbow soreness, a condition that hindered him over that final month. He was Norris, but he wasn't quite right. Does he feel as though Orioles fans haven't really...

Super Bowl Sunday might be the biggest day of the football calendar, but to me, it always serves as a reminder that baseball is just around the corner. There's just one more football game remaining this winter, one more major sporting event left before pitchers and catchers report to spring training and we start the transition towards the warmer-weather sports. That's not to say that I don't enjoy the heck out of Super Bowl Sunday and all that comes with it (except that the NFL forces...

Anyone surprised that FanFest drew more than 15,000 people yesterday at the Baltimore Convention Center? Yes, the attendance fell short of the 18,000 in 2013, but judging by a few comments here, I assumed that yesterday's crowd would rival a Tuesday night at Applebee's. Not much news came out of the event. Manny Machado poured a little cold water on the optimism that he'd be ready on opening day. Just being cautious, I suppose, but fans would have preferred a Joe Namath-type guarantee that...

He hasn't thrown a pitch in a game for the Orioles in nearly 30 years, but Hall of Famer Jim Palmer remains one of the most popular people in the organization with O's fans. As you may have heard, he knows pitching pretty well, so it was worth hearing his opinion about the O's current pitching rotation and particularly their pursuit of free agent pitcher A.J. Burnett, the current hottest O's topic. What does the three-time Cy Young winner, eight-time 20-game winner, MASN broadcaster and...