I sarcastically made enough comments about the Ravens and Nationals making the postseason every year that I covered them that I might as well take responsibility for what happened last night, as well. The year that I stop covering the Ravens, they win a Super Bowl. Call it the Reverse Kolko Factor. Now that the NFL season is over, there's nothing but time standing between us and the start of baseball season. I fly down to Viera, Fla., in just six days, and the first official workout for...

I'd like to thank the city of New Orleans for a great idea. If I run out of material for a blog entry, I'll just turn out the lights. I just wish I hadn't overturned my own car last night. That was a dumb idea. Is it too soon to turn our complete attention to baseball? In exactly one week, I'll be flying to Sarasota for the start of spring training and hours upon hours of pitchers fielding practice, bunting drills and bullpen sessions. I'm basically taking off this week so I can get my...

During this winter, the message from the Orioles brass has been that they are reluctant to trade their young pitchers and that they place a high value on them. If they don't get a similar value in return, they have said they will be happy to hang onto them and not trade. We have heard basically that exact message for weeks from both Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter. There are a lot of ways to rank and value players. There are more stats in the game than ever, and more stories written and...

With most of the country focused on football today, I wanted to pass along a couple of Orioles notes and remind everyone that pitchers and catchers report in nine days. Nine ... days. I may need to start packing. Reliever Luis Ayala will be in Sarasota, but the Orioles aren't sure whether he's going to leave for the World Baseball Classic. Ayala is listed on Mexico's roster, and pitching coach Rick Adair is proceeding as though the veteran right-hander will eventually be marked absent....

The Nationals traded for center fielder Denard Span to be their leadoff man for 2013. This will give right fielder Jayson Werth a chance to move down in the lineup. Although the sample sizes are different because Span was the leadoff man three times more than Werth, it is interesting to see how close the numbers are for two very different styles. Obviously, the power numbers favor Werth a bit, but Span did a great job of making contact and keeping his on-base percentage at a good level. ...

The Orioles won't be introducing the newest addition to their pitching staff today. Jair Jurrjens is completing his physical, and the club hopes to make his signing official early next week. It's possible that an announcement will come Monday. Don't expect anything from the Orioles on Super Bowl Sunday besides tweets from Adam Jones, who arrived in New Orleans earlier today. Jurrjens agreed to a one-year, $1.5 million deal last week that includes a possible $2.5 million in incentives....

In 2012, the Nationals watched from their own division as the Atlanta Braves put together a final inning formula for shutting down opponents. With Eric O'Flaherty, Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel, the Braves had the seventh, eighth and ninth innings effectively extinguished for opposing hitters. And with the Braves' starting staff needing only to get through the sixth frame, the game was shortened to those 18 outs to start the game. Venters, with his sinkerball, pitched 45 of his 53 1/3...

I've heard from a few people in the organization that the Orioles aren't likely to sign left-hander Arthur Rhodes or infielder Fernando Tatis to minor league contracts. Rhodes threw for the Orioles this week and Tatis worked out for them in the Dominican Republic, as The Sun reported, but a reunion doesn't appear to be in the cards. Rhodes still lives in the area - I saw him in Ocean City last summer and he attended FanFest in January - but the Orioles really don't need another...

Welcome to the second edition of 10 questions for O's fans. This weekend, I'll throw out 10 more questions and topics and look forward to your responses and answers. Respond to one, two, three, six or all 10. It might help to number your answers to make it easier to follow the comments. Click here to read again the first 10 questions you were asked to respond to. Now on with 10 more questions. 1: If Jason Hammel, Wei-Yin Chen, Miguel Gonzalez and Chris Tillman do take the first four...

Nick Johnson finally hung up the spikes this week, according to MLBTradeRumors.com. Only 34, Johnson will be remembered as the backbone of the first Nationals team in 2005, and to those of us who wore his name proudly on the back of our first Nationals jerseys, he was the heart and soul of that team. The article highlights Johnson's ability to get on base, his "keen eye at the plate" that helped him achieve a "15.7% walk rate" that the article notes is "the 29th-highest mark of any...