It took a while, but the Nationals have signed their 2012 first-round pick, prep right-hander Lucas Giolito. With just minutes remaining until the league-imposed signing deadline of 5 p.m. this afternoon, the Nationals reached terms with Giolito, the 17-year-old they selected with the No. 16 overall pick in the June draft. The two sides agreed on a deal which gives Giolito a bonus of $2.925 million, according to reports, an amount which exceeds the Nationals' bonus pool limit. The Nats will...

Orioles manager Buck Showalter just answered two pressing questions regarding the lineup: Who's batting leadoff and who's playing left field. That would be Nick Markakis and Chris Davis, respectively. Markakis has never batted first in the majors before tonight. Davis has never played left field. For the Orioles: Nick Markakis RF J.J. Hardy SS Jim Thome DH Adam Jones CF Matt Wieters C Chris Davis LF Mark Reynolds 1B Wilson Betemit 3B Robert Andino 2B Jason Hammel RHP For the...

Only twice this season has Jordan Zimmermann allowed more than three earned runs in a start. One of those two outings came against the Marlins. Zimmermann gave up four runs on eight hits over six innings against the Fish back on May 28 in Miami in a game that the Nats lost 5-3. Surprisingly, Zimmermann has never beaten the Marlins in six career starts against them, making them the only National League East team he's yet to conquer. The righty has put up an 0-3 record and a 4.81 ERA against...

The Baltimore Orioles Productions department has been recognized by their peers in Major League Baseball as the "Best Overall Video Display In Baseball" at the annual Information Display Entertainment Association (IDEA) Conference held in Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this week. This marks the second time since the award was created in 2001 that the Orioles Productions staff has received the honor (2002). Video content of all aspects of the in-game show were submitted and five finalists...

Jason Hammel has lost three consecutive starts heading into tonight's game against the Tigers at Camden Yards. He hasn't won since June 22, when he held the Nationals to one unearned run in eight innings. He also won his previous start with a complete-game, one-hit shutout in Atlanta. On both victorious occasions, Hammel was working on five days rest instead of the standard four. Tonight, by my math, he'll be working on five days rest. In nine starts on four days rest, Hammel is 3-5 with a...

As of 11 a.m., the Orioles had not come to terms with top draft pick Kevin Gausman, the right-handed pitcher from LSU. But Orioles officials remain hopeful that they will have an agreement by today's 5 p.m. deadline. "I'd be stunned if the O's didn't get a deal done with Gausman," Baseball America's Jim Callis said. Callis expects an agreement to come at around the allotted $4.2 million for that pick. Some national media outlets are reporting that the Orioles have made "significant...

Greetings, MASNsports.com readers! My name is Domenic Vadala, and I'll be blogging on behalf of Birds Watcher for the remainder of the 2012 season. As we're all aware, the Orioles have exceeded expectations thus far this year, although the first half was ultimately marred by three of the original five starting pitchers being optioned to Triple-A. How is it that the likes of Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz and Tommy Hunter could have looked so promising, only to fizzle out after so little time?...

By the time the clock hits 5 p.m. today, the Nationals' minor league system could be significantly stronger than it is right now. Today marks the last day that teams can sign their 2012 draft picks, and for the Nationals, there's really only one guy they have left to do business with: Lucas Giolito, the 16th overall pick in the June draft. Giolito is a hard-throwing high schooler out of Harvard-Westlake (Calif.) School who can hit 100 mph with his fastball, has a power curveball that...

Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer. They, of course, are the Orioles starters who each won 20 games in 1971, matching the 1920 Chicago White Sox as the only teams with four 20-game winners. But how good were those pitchers when it came to hitting home runs? That's the question that occurred to me this week as I researched a Roar from 34 post about Palmer's All-Star outings. The designated hitter wasn't created until 1973, so each of the Orioles' 20-game winners in 1971...

The Orioles tonight announced that they have optioned outfielder Xavier Avery to Triple-A Norfolk. Avery has batted .233/.317/.356 in 24 games over three stints with Baltimore.