General manager Mike Rizzo's Nationals made the playoffs for the first time in team history, posting the best record in the majors in the process. His team's skipper won Manager of the Year. His teenage center fielder won Rookie of the Year. He had four players make the All-Star team, had three win Silver Sluggers and one win a Gold Glove. Now Rizzo has gotten some national recognition himself. Rizzo has been named Executive of the Year by the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers'...

By 11:59 p.m. Eastern time tonight, the Orioles will have to set their 40-man roster for the Rule 5 draft which will be held Dec. 6 during the upcoming Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tenn. Essentially the rules state that a player in your organization that is not on your 40-man roster can be taken by another team in the Rule 5 draft if the player was drafted and signed at age 18 or younger and has five years with your club, or the player was drafted and signed at 19 and older and has four years...

Brian Roberts is lifting weights, running and hitting off a tee in Sarasota. He doesn't really think about his surgically repaired hip, and the concussion symptoms are forgotten unless he's asked about them. Starting at second base on opening day? That's the plan. Playing beyond 2013? Ditto. And, yes, Roberts will attend FanFest on Jan. 19 at the Baltimore Convention Center. To say it's all good right now would be an understatement. The key is to maintain it. "I'm doing as well as...

The Orioles today announced that they have named Matt Haas National Crosschecker. Haas, 40, joins the Orioles organization after four years as a Regional Crosschecker for the Miami Marlins. Prior to his time with the Marlins, Haas spent four years as a Midwest Area Scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks and six years as a Midwest Area Scout for the Boston Red Sox. Some of Haas' notable signings as an area scout include Kevin Youkilis (8th round, 2001), Collin Cowgill (5th round, 2008) and Josh...

Jim Presley joked that he's been playing phone tag today with executive vice president Dan Duquette, who has made a contract offer to the team's hitting coach. "I fully expect to get it done," Presley said, taking a break from doing yard work at his Florida home. "It may be today. I don't know." Presley hasn't talked to Duquette since last week, and attempts so far today have failed, though not for lack of effort. "They've been good to me," Presley said, "and I look for it to...

The Red Sox released their 2013 Grapefruit League schedule today, and it includes five games against the Orioles. Two of those games will start at 7:05 p.m. The Orioles host the Red Sox on Feb. 27 at Ed Smith Stadium, and they travel to Fort Myers on March 9. Those are the prime time games. The two teams also have 1:05 p.m. games slated for March 15 and 25 in Sarasota and March 19 in Fort Myers. As always, plan accordingly. Here's the Orioles' updated schedule. The full one will be...

For years, when asked why he never played in the majors, former Orioles manager Earl Weaver has cracked wise about his path to the St. Louis Cardinals being blocked by Marty Marion, a pretty good player in his own right who was nicknamed "Mr. Shortstop." Marion, who died in 2011, was a defensive whiz at a time when glove artistry was appreciated as much as the three-run homer. The guy nicknamed "Octopus" because of his propensity for getting to everything hit near him, was a career .263...

The Nationals family lost a cherished former major league player and valued mentor this week. Boyd Gail Harris Jr., a left-handed hitting first baseman with the New York Giants and the Detroit Tigers from 1955-60, and father of Hagerstown Suns hitting coach Mark Harris, passed away in Gainesville, Va., on Nov. 14. He was 81. Gail Harris played in 437 games for the Giants and Tigers, hitting .240 with 38 doubles, 15 triples, 51 homers and 190 RBIs. In 1958, at the age of 26, Harris played in...

An opinion I have heard is that one reason the Orioles were able to make a 24-win improvement during the 2012 season was tied to the fall of the Boston Red Sox, who lost 21 more games in 2012 than the previous year. The Orioles moved forward and the Red Sox fell back. It may be not that simple, but that is a theory that you hear. Even with Boston having a losing season, the American League East remained a beast last year. Three teams won 90 or more games and once again, two made the...

Not all that much went on in the baseball world over the weekend, but the last couple days were pretty eventful for Michael Morse. Morse and his fiancé Jessica got married on Saturday, tying the knot with a number of Morse's Nationals teammates and manager Davey Johnson in attendance. Congrats to the happy couple. Morse tweeted out a number of pictures from the reception and posted a couple to his Facebook page, as well. My favorite is this one, in which the Nationals' left fielder...