Even though they have signed 14 of their first 15 and 18 of their first 21 draft picks, the Orioles are still trying to get a few more signed between now and the July 12 deadline to sign this year's picks. The most recent selection to agree to terms was right-handed pitcher Jon Keller, taken in round 22 out of the University of Tampa. He pitched for the University of Nebraska for his first two seasons. The Orioles' only remaining unsigned top 10 round pick is Drew Dosch, a third baseman...

The Nationals have bolstered their catching depth, agreeing to terms with veteran Kelly Shoppach on a minor league deal. Shoppach, 33, will report to Triple-A Syracuse. A nine-year major league veteran, Shoppach played 35 games with the Mariners this season, posting a slash line of .196/.293/.346 with three home runs and nine RBIs in 107 at-bats. Shoppach's best offensive season came in 2008, when he hit .261/.348/.517 with 21 homers and 55 RBIs with the Indians. Considered a solid...

The Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs have announced that shortstop Zach Walters has been named to the International League All-Star Game to be played in Reno, Nev., on July 17. Walters has hit a career-high 18 home runs and 44 RBIs in his first 77 games this season for the Chiefs. The 23-year-old Walters has collected 40 extra-base hits, 20 of those doubles and two triples. He has been trending well recently at the dish. Walters is batting .316 since late May, with eight home runs and 20 RBIs. He has...

Stephen Strasburg's ERA this season - a miniscule 2.24 - is 24 points lower than his rotation mate Jordan Zimmermann's. Somehow, Zimmermann has 12 wins on the season, and Strasburg has one-third that many. Yet there are those who still view pitchers' wins as a crucial statistic. Doesn't make much sense to me. The Nationals are scoring an average of 4.71 runs per game when Zimmermann gets the start. When Strasburg pitches, that total is nearly cut in half. Strasburg has gotten 2.44 runs...

Baseball is not a momentum sport. Score 13 one night, 10 the next and then get shut out. The only thing predictable about baseball is that on any given night it is unpredictable. The best player on the team will go 0-for-4, while a fill-in scrub has a career night, and all of this is why no one analyzing the game puts any merit into what happens in one night, one week or even one month. For three months now, the Nationals have hovered around .500. They struggled in April because Adam LaRoche,...

Dan Duquette's successes as Orioles general manager (or whatever his title) have, for me, been a surprise from the jump. And, apparently, he's nowhere near finished surprising. In last week's guest blog, I talked about how there was no need for the Orioles to swing a win-now move. The thinking was that the depth-plus-progress model that has so far been the mark of his tenure is working just fine. What I didn't recognize (shame on me) was a strong middle option. Find an off-the-radar guy...

For whatever reason, it seems Jason Hammel is not getting the consistent sink on his fastball that he got last year for the Orioles. He had the best homer ratio of his career last season and now he has the worst. He gave up just nine homers in 118 innings in 2012 and he has given up 18 in 100 2/3 in 2013. He has gone from 0.7 homers allowed every nine innings to 1.6 homers every nine innings. As an aside, Chris Tillman has also given up 18 homers, so you can give up the longball and still...

Stephen Strasburg has gotten the lowest run support of any starter in the major leagues this season, at 2.44 runs per game. The Nationals have scored more than three runs in just three of his 16 starts, including tonight's 4-0 loss to the Brewers. Strasburg has now allowed two earned runs or fewer in last eight starts (and one earned run or fewer in seven of those eight), but it hasn't mattered. Still, despite having just four wins to go along with his 2.24 ERA - a mark that's sixth-best...

A lot happened to Nationals reliever Drew Storen to make everything unravel in Tuesday's four-run eighth inning for Milwaukee. On paper, it was a pair of doubles, and a pair of singles that did him in, as Milwaukee turned a tight pitchers' duel into a 4-0 victory. But it was how quickly it all changed for Storen and how Milwaukee attacked his delivery to the plate - to gain extra bases - that was so shocking. Brewers outfielder Logan Schafer led off with a single and then stole second...

Over the course of 162 games last season, the Nationals were shut out eight times. Tonight marked the ninth time they've been shut out in their first 83 games this season. The Nats lost to the Brewers 4-0 tonight, wasting another stellar outing from Stephen Strasburg, who threw seven scoreless innings, dropping his ERA to 2.24. They went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base, this after putting up 23 runs in their last two ballgames. "The other guy pitched a...