The latest Oriole who needs your help in the voting is this year's Heart & Hustle Award nominee, Ty Wigginton. After approaching the 2010 season without a distinct concept of what his role might be, Wigginton proved to be a big part of this year's Orioles team. Wigginton wound up playing 154 of the Birds' 162 games and finished the season with a .248 average at the plate; his 76 RBI led the team, while his 22 homers put him second only to Luke Scott and his 29 doubles tied him with...

Did you ever wonder...... *Why in baseball, when a fly ball hits that big yellow pole down the line, it's a home run even though it just hit the "foul" pole. *Why baseball doesn't have a stat for team error? When a pop that clearly should be caught, drops between two defenders, the batter should not get credit for that hit. That should be an example of a team error. *If baseball will play a weekday World Series game in the daytime ever again. *Why some fans are so quick to rush to...

Here is an update on a few of the prospects that continue to improve as the offseason rolls along. All of these players were at the instructional league camp in Viera. Nationals hitting coordinator Rick Schu says the entire camp went very well and turned out to be an excellent teaching tool for the organization as several players refined their offensive and defensive skills before heading off to winter ball or back home for offseason work. Carolina League MVP Tyler Moore showed what he has...

Koji Uehara went 1-2, 2.86 this season with 13 saves in 15 chances and didn't walk a batter over his last 32 appearances. But to this point, it appears the Orioles haven't made much of an attempt to resign him and Uehara can soon become a Major League free agent. Makes you wonder if the O's are skeptical of Koji's late-season success and ability to handle the closer's role. Maybe they are scared off by all the time he spent on the DL in his two seasons with the club or the fact that...

The Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award will be presented next month, which makes sense, considering that we're down to our final day of this month. Happy Halloween. The two leading candidates are Vladimir Guerrero and David Ortiz. One player looked like he was finished and didn't draw a tremendous amount of interest on the free agent market. The other player looked like he was finished once the season began and dealt with all sorts of speculation about being benched or...

Just when you thought it was safe... You'll recall that I passed along a tweet yesterday from Patrick Newman at NPB Tracker that said Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima wouldn't be posted, and therefore wouldn't be allowed to play in the majors next season. Here's the latest tweet - I just pounded my fist on the kitchen table - from Newman: "Despite announcement, Nakajima not giving up on posting, wants to talk with Seibu mgmt again" So Nakajima might still be in play, though his...

The early projections among members of the media had manager Buck Showalter keeping a few of the holdovers on his coaching staff and going outside the organization to fill the remaining spots. As the process dragged out, reporters began to wonder whether most, if not all, of the coaches on the Orioles' payroll would return. As you survey the landscape this morning, it's fair to assume that no one is coming back. We'll know for sure once the Orioles make a formal announcement - with the...

With the news yesterday that Jim Presley is going to be named the new Orioles' hitting coach, I wonder what that means for Terry Crowley. The Crow will become an "offensive evaluator" for the organization, according to reports. Until we hear from Buck Showalter or Andy MacPhail when the new coaching staff is officially announced, I am not sure what his role will be exactly. Is this the club's way of phasing Crowley out or realizing that they need a new voice as hitting coach? Crowley...

The Orioles aren't ready to announce their coaching staff, but Jim Presley is set to replace Terry Crowley as hitting coach. An industry source said it's a done deal, though Presley has received offers from "two or three clubs." This news coincides with an early report from MLB.com. Manager Buck Showalter, driving back to Baltimore from the ESPN studios in Bristol, Conn., would only confirm that Presley is among "two or three guys" on the final list. Crowley has offered his...

That's probably the last time I can use this joke for a while. You're officially spared. According to a tweet from Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker, Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima won't be posted. That means he won't be free to sign with a major league team. The tweet - there's that word again- reads as follows: "Official -- Nakajima posting denied" The Orioles were counted among the teams that scouted Nakajima multiple times. I wrote about it here.