Nationals prospect Matt Skole picked up where he left off, going 2-for-4 with a two-run homer and four RBIs in Salt River's 8-3 win over Surprise on Wednesday night in the Arizona Fall League. Skole crushed the two-run shot in the fifth inning, walked in the first and smacked a two-run single in the third. He grounded out and flew out in his final two at-bats. His four RBIs marked the second game in a row a Nationals prospect connected for that total, and ran his RBI mark to a team-high 12...

No matter how many times I've been warned, I can't resist touching the hot stove. We learned yesterday through various reports from the GM meetings that the Orioles are interested in Josh Hamilton and Cody Ross as possibilities in left field. One is more realistic than the other. Care to guess? It would be a tremendous reversal in front office thinking if the Orioles were serious about making a run at Hamilton. Executive vice president Dan Duquette indicated the day after Game 5 of the...

Oakland Athletics vice president and general manager Billy Beane has been named The Sporting News' 2012 Major League Baseball Executive of the Year, as selected by a panel of 57 major league executives. You can read about it here. Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette didn't receive a single vote despite trading for Jason Hammel and signing Taiwanese left-hander Wei-Yin Chen, right-hander Miguel Gonzalez and outfielder Nate McLouth, among others. These moves helped the Orioles finish...

You don't see or hear this every day. One teammate openly criticizing another. Especially one that batted .285 with 43 homers, 128 RBIs and an OPS of .930. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers is a finalist for the AL's Most Valuable Player award with those numbers, but Rangers relief pitcher Mike Adams didn't sound like a huge Hamilton fan yesterday. In an interview on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM, Adams said, "Sometimes Josh is hard to figure out," and, when asked about Texas trying to...

The Nationals are well-represented in Major League Baseball's end-of-season award discussion. Nats manager Davey Johnson was named one of three finalists for National League Manager of the Year, Bryce Harper is up for NL Rookie of the Year and left-hander Gio Gonzalez is a finalist for the NL Cy Young Award. Johnson joins Reds manager Dusty Baker and Giants skipper Bruce Bochy as the finalists for NL Manager of the Year. Johnson led the Nats to a 98-win season and their first NL East...

Buck Showalter has been named as one of three finalists for the American League Manager of the Year Award, voted on by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. The winner will be announced next Tuesday during a live broadcast at 6 p.m. on MLB Network. The other finalists for the BBWAA award are Oakland's Bob Melvin and Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox. Showalter is a two-time winner of the award, winning with the 1994 New York Yankees and the 2004 Texas Rangers. Showalter led...

The Red Sox surprised the baseball world by hiring Juan Nieves as their pitching coach. All signs pointed toward Orioles director of pitching development Rick Peterson, a long-time friend and former minor league coach of new Boston manager John Farrell. Farrell reportedly favored Peterson. Maybe he didn't have the final vote. Peterson has his supporters and detractors within the Orioles organization. Not everyone is buying into his methods and philosophies. It would be erroneous to assume...

The finalists for the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) awards in both leagues will be revealed tonight beginning at 6 p.m. on MLB Network. At least we can be assured that the show won't be preempted by live coverage of a luge competition or dirt bike race. The BBWAA votes were submitted before the playoffs. I received a ballot in the mail for the American League Rookie of the Year. It must remain private, however, until the winners are announced next week. Let's just say I...

Today marks the beginning of the GM meetings out in Indian Wells, Calif., an event that runs through Friday. These meetings aren't nearly as significant as the annual Winter Meetings when it comes to free agent action or trade talk, but they serve as a nice starting point for a lot of offseason deals which are completed at a later date. While Mike Rizzo is taking part in all that action out in California, Anthony Rendon is starting to heat up in nearby Arizona. As pointed out by my...

There have been a few changes in the Orioles' scouting department. David Stockstill is now handling some amateur scouting work with assignments in Missouri and Arkansas, in addition to continuing to handle some international scouting as well. Stockstill added some amateur duties this summer before the draft last June. A member of the O's minor league staff for the last 17 years, Stockstill has been the Orioles director of international operations for the last three seasons. Jim Howard was...