The Baseball Writers' Association of America will announce the results of the Hall of Fame voting on Jan. 25. A recent update from Ryan Thibodaux (@NotMrTibbs), Twitter's king of Cooperstown calculators, had David Ortiz (83.2 percent), Barry Bonds (80.4) and Roger Clemens (79) above the 75 percent threshold for induction. No ballot is perfect. The inclusion of "cheaters" sickens fans or validates their beliefs. The media tries to figure out where lines should be drawn. Sadly, they're more...

If you glanced at the 2022 Hall of Fame ballot that was released Monday hoping to find some prominent Nationals representation, you were sorely disappointed. Sure, Jonathan Papelbon made the list, but you probably aren't going to find too many Nats fans excited to relive those regrettable 12 months in club history. You'll just have to wait another year, because among the players eligible to make the 2023 ballot is none other than Jayson Werth. We'll have some fun with that one when the time...

A few years back, Dominican scout Modesto Ulloa was the first to alert the Nationals to a left-handed pitcher/outfielder he wanted them to take a look at. Ulloa brought in Nationals vice president and assistant general manager of international operations Johnny DiPuglia to a workout in the Dominican Republic to see a teenager named Juan Soto. Ulloa has been a Dominican scout for the Indians, Padres and Nationals for many seasons. He signed the likes of Osvaldo Abreu, Freddy Guzmán and...

Jose Bautista on the Orioles? Yeah, that is really not a very good fit and is not going to happen. Probably not. But what if Bautista's market completely bottoms out and he is still looking for work in February or even March? Would the Orioles go for Bautista if he came at an enormous discount? That seems unlikely since they've already said they are not going there and a team will have to give up a first-round draft pick to sign Bautista, who perhaps unwisely turned down the qualifying offer...

After 20 American League seasons, Boston designated hitter David Ortiz will play his final regular-season game tonight at Camden Yards. That's good news for the Orioles, considering Ortiz's 54 career home runs against Baltimore, third-most behind the Minnesota Twins' Harmon Killebrew (68) and the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez (69). Ortiz has 30 home runs in Camden Yards. That's the third-highest total for him in a road ballpark. He's hit 41 in Toronto's Rogers Centre and 34 in Tampa Bay's...

On his last regular season trip as a player to Baltimore, during a dugout press conference where he mainly discussed his team, David Ortiz did take a few questions about playing against the Orioles and playing in Baltimore over the years. He was asked, of course, about what happened in the visiting dugout on July 27, 2013. Ortiz destroyed a dugout phone during a brief tirade. For that, a player that made an average of $86,419.75 per game that year was fined the sum of $5,000. He appealed the...

Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette - man, we really need to shorten that title - confirmed this morning that he met last night with agent Fernando Cuza. When I brought up David Ortiz's name and the assumption that the veteran designated hitter was the focus of that meeting, Duquette paused before replying, "He represents Vladimir Guerrero, too, by the way." Duquette said the Orioles need to decide "what we're doing with him." That also could mean...

In case you thought executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette has spent the entire day comparing cartoon birds and making sure the script on the road jerseys is no longer tapered, he's been sitting down with agents and rival executives at the GM meetings in Milwaukee. And according to one report, he's got an appointment tonight with agent Fern Cuza. The Boston Globe's Pete Abraham tweeted that Duquette is meeting with Cuza, who represents free agent David Ortiz. Abraham...