Orioles to host fifth annual Birdland Golf Classic in Sarasota on Feb. 23

Orioles to host fifth annual Birdland Golf Classic in Sarasota on Feb. 23
On Monday, February 23, the Orioles will hold the 5th Annual OriolesREACH Birdland Golf Classic at The Founders Club to benefit the Miracle League of Manasota, an organization dedicated to providing an opportunity for every person to play baseball, regardless of their ability. The event begins with registration and lunch at 11:00 a.m., with a shotgun start set for 12:30 p.m. The registration deadline for this year's event is this Sunday, February 8. The classic will feature a silent auction...
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Palm Beach County joins West Palm Beach in approving land swap for new spring training facility (with teams' statement)

Palm Beach County joins West Palm Beach in approving land swap for new spring training facility (with teams' statement)
Palm Beach County commissioners voted 6-1 this morning to OK a land swap with the City of West Palm Beach and the conceptual plan for a new spring training complex in West Palm Beach that would be shared by the Astros and Nationals. The move means the teams will move a step closer to building a new spring training facility on 160 acres at the southeast corner of Haverhill Road and 45th Street on the site of a former landfill. In exchange for the city-owned parcel, West Palm Beach will receive...
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Orioles agree to terms with outfielder Steve Pearce on one-year contract

Orioles agree to terms with outfielder Steve Pearce on one-year contract
The Orioles today announced that they have agreed to terms with outfielder Steve Pearce on a one-year contract, thus avoiding arbitration. Pearce, 31, batted .293/.373/.556 with a career-high 21 home runs and 49 RBI in 102 games with the Orioles in 2014. He was named co-AL Player of the Week along with outfielder Adam Jones, June 30-July 6, after batting .333 with three home runs and nine RBI in that span. Originally selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the eighth round of the 2005 First Year...
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CBS Radio's 105.7 The Fan to broadcast 12 Orioles spring training games

CBS Radio's 105.7 The Fan to broadcast 12 Orioles spring training games
The Orioles and CBS Radio's 105.7 The Fan (WJZ-FM), the flagship station of the Orioles Radio Network, have announced that 12 Orioles spring training games will be broadcast in 2015. The schedule begins with the home opener against the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday, March 4, at 1:05 p.m. ET, and includes eight additional home games in Sarasota. Three of the 12 broadcasts will feature 30-minute pre-game and post-game shows. 105.7 The Fan will also broadcast all 162 Orioles 2015 regular season...
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Werth sentenced to five days in jail for reckless driving (updated with Nats statement)

Werth sentenced to five days in jail for reckless driving (updated with Nats statement)
Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth pleaded guilty to reckless driving charges today in Fairfax County Circuit Court and has been sentenced to serve five days in jail. In addition, his driver's license will be suspended for 30 days. Werth, 35, was sentenced to 10 days in jail (with 170 days suspended) on Dec. 5, and lost his driver's license as a result of the verdict. Werth appealed the verdict, leading to today's adjudication. He was cited on July 6 by a Virginia state trooper for driving...
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Nats, Astros hope Florida legislature can clear hurdle for new spring training complex

Nats, Astros hope Florida legislature can clear hurdle for new spring training complex
If the Astros and Nationals are going to get their long-awaited shared spring training complex in West Palm Beach, they're going to have to overcome a late-in-the-process hurdle. The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported Monday that drinking water protections on the parcel of land where the teams want to have a $135 million facility constructed could stand in the way of the project's completion. In order for the shared spring training home to move forward, the Florida legislature needs to...
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Rizzo: With Scherzer deal, Nats have "strengthened a strength"

Rizzo: With Scherzer deal, Nats have "strengthened a strength"
Most people looked at the Nationals rotation as 2014 morphed into 2015 and saw the strongest starting five in the major leagues. General manager Mike Rizzo looked at the potential juggernaut on the mound and thought about only one thing: making it even more imposing. The Nationals introduced Max Scherzer on Wednesday afternoon after the right-hander put pen to paper on a seven-year, $210 million contract. If the Nats weren't already the odds-on favorite to repeat as National League East...
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Orioles announce autograph lineup for FanFest (vouchers sell out)

Orioles announce autograph lineup for FanFest (vouchers sell out)
The Orioles have released their autograph schedule for FanFest. Autograph vouchers for the Esskay Autograph Stations will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17 at orioles.com/fanfest. FanFest will be held on Saturday, Jan. 31 at the Baltimore Convention Center from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., with early entry for Orioles season plan members beginning at 10 a.m. Autograph sessions will begin at 11:20 a.m., 12:40 p.m., 2 p.m., 3:20 p.m. and 4:40 p.m., and each will include three Orioles players, staff...
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Stammen joins Ramos, avoids arbitration (Espinosa, Lobaton agree to terms)

Stammen joins Ramos, avoids arbitration (Espinosa, Lobaton agree to terms)
The Nationals have been busy heading into Friday's deadline for arbitration-eligible players to come to contract terms before exchanging salary figures with their clubs. Earlier today, they announced that catcher Wilson Ramos had agreed to terms on a contract for 2015, avoiding arbitration. This evening, right-handed reliever Craig Stammen also came to terms, leaving the Nats with six unsigned players who are arbitration-eligible (the Nats removed one of their players on the list by trading...
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Mike Rizzo on the Nationals' acquisition of Yunel Escobar (Ramos wins award, signs)

Mike Rizzo on the Nationals' acquisition of Yunel Escobar (Ramos wins award, signs)
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo's reasoning for trading reliable reliever Tyler Clippard to the A's on Wednesday night for infielder Yunel Escobar was simple: The deal, made from a position of relative strength and involving a player who would be a free agent after 2015, fills an immediate need at second base with a veteran that the Nationals can control for up to three seasons. "It was a good baseball deal between Oakland and us," Rizzo said Thursday afternoon during a conference call...
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Orioles sign free agent Young to one-year contract

Orioles sign free agent Young to one-year contract
The Orioles today announced that they have signed free agent outfielder Delmon Young to a one-year contract. To make room on the 40-man roster, catcher Ryan Lavarnway has been designated for assignment. Young, 29, batted .302/.337/.442 with seven home runs and 30 RBI over 83 games with the Orioles in 2014, including a .316/.345/.481 slash line in 47 games at Oriole Park. He led the majors (min. 10 PA), batting .500 (10-20) as a pinch hitter. Originally selected by the Tampa Bay Rays with the...
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Carpenter, Holliday get Sportscaster of the Year honors

Carpenter, Holliday get Sportscaster of the Year honors
There's a distinctly MASN flavor to the Sportscaster of the Year awards announced today by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. Bob Carpenter, play-by-play voice of the Nationals on MASN, was chosen the co-winner of the Sportscaster of the Year award for Washington, D.C. Carpenter, who has called Nats games for nine years and 31 years of major league broadcasting under his belt, shares the D.C. honor with longtime Capitals play-by-play man Joe Beninati. Holliday, who...
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Orioles Hall of Famer Stu Miller has passed away

Orioles Hall of Famer Stu Miller has passed away
Orioles Hall of Fame member Stu Miller passed away Sunday, January 4, at his home in Cameron Park, Calif., after a brief illness. He was 87. Miller, a right-handed reliever throughout most of his 16 seasons in the major leagues, led the Orioles in saves from 1963-67 and was a member of the 1966 World Series Championship team. In his five seasons with the Orioles, Miller compiled a 38-36 record with a 2.37 ERA and 100 saves, leading the American League with 71 appearances and 27 saves in 1963,...
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West Palm Beach agrees to negotiate land swap for new Nats spring training site

West Palm Beach agrees to negotiate land swap for new Nats spring training site
The Nationals' long search for a new, permanent spring training home moved a step closer to a positive resolution on Monday. The city of West Palm Beach, Fla., has agreed to begin negotiations on a swap 160 acres of land at 45th Street and Haverhill Road to Palm Beach County for 1.8 acres of county-owned land in West Palm Beach. That transaction, if completed, could lead to the construction of a two-team spring training facility that would be shared by the Nationals and Houston Astros. "If an...
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Caps, Blackhawks turn Nationals Park into winter wonderland

Caps, Blackhawks turn Nationals Park into winter wonderland
Standing against the wall of an elevator descending to field level at Nationals Park, Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner blends in a little too well with the rest of the red-clad Capitals fans streaming into the ballyard for the National Hockey League's Bridgestone Winter Classic. Nationals curly W sweater? Check. Winter Classic jacket to brave the chilly temps and biting breeze? You bet. Caps toque? Of course, even the little snowball on top seems both festive and appropriate. Sunglasses?...
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Who will stay and who will go?

Who will stay and who will go?
In a previous life, I was a store Santa. For six years, beginning in college and lasting into my first newspaper job, I donned the red suit and white beard (and used professional makeup to whiten my eyebrows, mustache and facial hair), first for Montgomery Ward and later as a jolly ol' elf for hire at office functions, private parties and even delivered poinsettias for a florist friend. To this day, the Santa gig remains one of my all-time favorite jobs, especially when I could surprise...
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Why those minor league deals are important

Why those minor league deals are important
There's been some spirited debate in NatsTown over the past couple of days sparked by the announcement that the Nationals had signed Heath Bell to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league spring training. People are wondering why the Nats would need to invest time, money and innings on a guy on the downside of his career, a pitcher obviously past his prime. Or, in the case of yesterday's news that third baseman Ian Stewart had signed a minor league deal, an infielder who has...
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Is Cole ready to contribute? (updated with promotion, signing notes)

Is Cole ready to contribute? (updated with promotion, signing notes)
If now-departed outfielder Steven Souza Jr. was the most popular name brought up by other teams at the Winter Meetings in San Diego earlier this month, right-handed pitching prospect A.J. Cole might have been a close second. One scout told me in the lobby of the Manchester Grand Hyatt that his team had been trying to pry Cole away from the Nationals since general manager Mike Rizzo reacquired him from the A's in a three-team trade in January 2013. "No dice," the scout told me. "They ain't...
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Heath Bell signs minor league deal with Nationals

Heath Bell signs minor league deal with Nationals
Well, it wouldn't be spring training without at least one reclamation project, right? Former Padres All-Star closer Heath Bell announced in a self-penned post on The Players' Tribune this afternoon that he had signed a minor league deal with the Nationals. The contract includes an invitation to major league spring training, so Bell will be suiting up in Viera, Fla., when pitchers and catchers report on Feb. 19. Bell, 37, is the classic low-risk, high-reward guy at this stage of his career,...
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A few thoughts on Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang (updated)

A few thoughts on Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang (updated)
Later today, we'll learn the name of the major league club that won the opportuity to negotiate exclusively with Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang. So far, 18 teams have said they weren't engaged in the bidding through the posting system. But one club reportedly has paid $5,002,015 for the right to hash out a deal with Kang, a 27-year-old slugger who blasted 40 home runs and had 117 RBIs for the Korean Baseball Organization's Nexen Heroes in 2014. Here is a refresher to the posting system used...
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