During a conference call Monday on the launch of the Pros for Heroes charity campaign, Ryan Zimmerman provided more insight into last week's Zoom video call with his teammates and coaching staff as they watching MASN's rebroadcast of Game 7 of the 2019 World Series. Zimmerman had a really good time that night, reminiscing with his buddies on the historic franchise win in Houston. So much so he joked at a reporter's query: "How did I feel right afterwards or the morning when I woke up after...

Outs Above Average (OAA) is a range-based metric that shows how many outs a player has saved. It is impressive to look back at the OAA for Nationals center fielder Victor Robles in 2019. His mark of 23 was the best in baseball, and six points better than the next closest in Kevin Kiermaier of the Rays (17). Lorenzo Cain of Milwaukee was third with 14. Nats left fielder Juan Soto had a 6 OAA and right fielder Adam Eaton a 1 OAA. Compare that to the Phillies outfield: Scott Kingery and Adam...

We don't talk about the schedule much in baseball, because it really doesn't matter all that much under normal circumstances. During the course of a 162-game season, every team in the majors is going to play every other team in its division 19 times, every team in its league's two other divisions six or seven times and then 20 interleague games. Sure, teams in tougher divisions - and those that play the toughest division in interleague play - have a little bit of a disadvantage. But rarely...

In yesterday's article that mentioned some of the top Orioles closers since the franchise's move from St. Louis, I omitted a guy who saved 24 games in 1978 and 21 more in 1979 while making his only All-Star team. He also made Earl Weaver smoke as if the future Hall of Fame manager was electing a pope. Don Stanhouse registered a 2.89 ERA in '78, but he also had a 1.500 WHIP, blew seven save opportunities and averaged an anxiety-inducing 6.3 walks and only 5.1 strikeouts per nine innings. But...

Recently in this space, I wrote about how the Orioles minor league staff was keeping in touch with farm players, often through Zoom videos. They have been working with and instructing players on a variety of aspects of the game. One of the coaches taking part in the videos is 28-year-old Patrick Jones, one of the organization's first-year coaches. Before the season was put on hold, he would have been working with young players in extended spring training right now and then was set to be...

The Nationals have a new pitching coach at high Single-A Fredericksburg for 2020, and he is a familiar face in the Carolina League. Justin Lord, who spent seven seasons as a pitching coach in the Baltimore system, comes to the Fredericksburg and takes over for Sam Narron, who is now the pitching coach for Double-A Harrisburg. Lord most recently was the pitching coach at high Single-A Frederick. "It's really good. I'm excited about being with the Nats," Lord said by telephone from his home...

If the baseball season begins in its altered state, and in whichever states are deemed acceptable for hosting teams, we're still going to be left wondering what would have happened under the usual circumstances. It's impossible to simulate normal with spring training shut down on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic and months lost past the anticipated opening day. For example, no matter how many games are salvaged - and this is assuming that health risks are reduced and the travel and...

How would an all-time Orioles team do against all-time teams from the rest of Major League Baseball? We're about to find out through the magic of game simulation. Obviously, they can't actually take the field! MLB, in conjunction with Out of the Park Baseball, on Thursday unveiled the MLB Dream Bracket with the tournament to begin Monday and Tuesday. The MLB Dream Bracket is a 32-team best-of-seven simulation featuring all-time teams for each of the 30 current MLB franchises, as well as teams...

An obvious starting point for who will be next to have a good chance of making the big leagues is found in the Nationals top prospect lists. But what is also intriguing are players who are not on this list just yet or were not considered for some reason or another. Similar to undrafted rookies or free agents in the National Football League, these prospects can reside under the radar for a time but then burst onto the scene. I asked Nationals minor league hitting coordinator Troy Gingrich for a...

His last start of an outstanding 2019 season never made it into his final season stats. That's because it was a postseason start. But in a season when right-hander Gray Fenter reminded the organization why he got an overslot draft bonus, it was a gem. In a best-of-three South Atlantic League playoff series against Hickory last September, Single-A Delmarva faced a must-win Game 2. Fenter pitched 6 1/3 scoreless on four hits with no walks and 13 strikeouts. He was dominant, but the Shorebirds...