Steve On Baseball Podcast

We are now one week away from the start of the 2026 MLB Draft. The first four rounds will be selected on Saturday July 11 beginning at 1:30 p.m. in Philadelphia. Rounds five through 20 go off on Sunday July 12. The Steve on Baseball podcast returned today with a great guest - Baseball America national writer Carlos Collazo. He heads up BA’s draft coverage and you will also see Carlos as part of th...

His pro career is off to a fine start for the High-A Frederick Keys. Lefty Joseph Dzierwa is 3-1 with a 2.33 ERA for Frederick. Over 27 innings he’s allowed just 15 hits with seven walks to 29 strikeouts. Showing a low-to-mid 90s heater and plus changeup, he has an 0.81 WHIP and opponents are hitting just .160 with a .497 OPS off Dzierwa. O’s fans likely first saw him when he had a dominant outing...

Collin Woody, once drafted by the Orioles in Round 38 of the 2016 MLB Draft, is my guest this week on the Steve on Baseball podcast. It’s a return trip for Woody on the podcast. We first talked late last year when he was the manager of the Low-A Delmarva Shorebirds. This season Woody, age 31, is skipper of the Frederick Keys. He will lead his team as Frederick rejoins the O’s organization this yea...

For a pitcher that was signed after the 2023 MLB Draft out of Liberty University, right-hander Trey Gibson had quite the 2025 season on the O’s farm. He started with High-A Aberdeen, making nine appearances before he moved to Double-A Chesapeake and rolled through 10 starts with an ERA of 1.55 for the Baysox. He ended the year with seven starts for Triple-A Norfolk. For the full year, Gibson, age...

The Orioles have back-to-back wins for the first time in the Grapefruit League after beating Tampa Bay 4-3 on Wednesday afternoon. It was a well-pitched game, as seven Baltimore pitchers combined on a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts. Reliever Andrew Kittredge allowed a three-run shot in the fourth and was the only Baltimore pitcher to give up any runs. Here is a video entry today noting good days f...

Just two Polish guys from Baltimore on the podcast today talking Orioles. Like myself, Dan Szymborski is from Baltimore and is a popular radio and podcast guest this time of year to discuss his ZiPS projection system which can be found on FanGraphs.com. That stands for Zymborski Projection System. Dan, a 1996 Towson High School grad and 2000 grad of Loyola College, is a Senior writer for FanGraphs...

At the ripe “old” age of just 31, Anthony Villa is about to begin his third season as one of the top front office members running the O’s farm system. He is the club’s Director of Player Development. Villa, hired by the Orioles ahead of the 2020 season, has been a fast riser in the organization, spending time as a hitting coach and as the O’s minor league hitting coordinator for the 2023 season. T...

Now that the Super Bowl is in the record books for another year, many sports fans, and certainly our baseball-loving fans here, turn their attention to hardball. O’s pitcher and catchers report tomorrow to Sarasota and the first workout is set for Wednesday. In this video entry today I discussed FanGraphs.com’s playoff odds and where the O’s are rated in addition to some Zips projections for O’s b...

When it comes to covering international amateur signings, few do it better and with more experience than Ben Badler of Baseball America. Ben is my guest this week on the Steve on Baseball podcast, the initial edition of calender year 2026. Next Thursday, Jan. 15, is the first day of the new international signing period. Under the Mike Elias front office the O’s have signed six players to million d...

I really enjoyed recording today’s edition of this podcast, taped about a week ago with O’s minor league player Ethan Anderson. Anderson, 22, was the O’s second-round pick (No. 61 overall) in the 2024 draft out of the University of Virgina. He just completed his first full year and second season on the O’s farm. It ended with him playing well for Peoria in the Arizona Fall League where he hit .300...

Good Monday Birdland! Let’s start the week with a video entry discussing a few topics. More talking, less writing. Friday’s press conference introducing new Oriole Pete Alonso was interesting for a lot of reasons. Alonso was impressive and clearly was impressed with numerous aspects of the Orioles’ organization. He got off to a great start with his new club. Take a few minutes to watch the video a...

Hey let’s talk more about the O’s signing of Pete Alonso which became official yesterday afternoon. Alonso will be introduced later this afternoon at a Camden Yards press conference. Once again on this podcast I am joined by my former MASN teammate Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com. He returned from the Winter Meetings late Wednesday after a stunning day that saw the O’s reach an agreement with Alons...

Took a few minutes to talk about the O’s five-year agreement for $155 million today with slugging first baseman Pete Alonso. The fans have waited for this day - the day when the O’s won one in free agency against the big boys. He’s not going back to the Mets or joining the Red Sox. Alonso is heading to Baltimore. Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in...

After a season that ended with the Orioles ranked 24th in MLB in runs per game and 19th in slugging, the team recently traded for outfielder Taylor Ward. He hit 36 homers in 2025 for the Los Angeles Angels to rank tied for fifth in the American League. That may not be the only big bat the O’s add this offseason. Several outlets have now reported that the Orioles are expected to meet today with fre...

Jim Duquette is one of the real bright minds in baseball media today. One reason for that may be the time he spent over the years working in MLB front offices. Today we’re all lucky he took time to do this podcast just days ahead of the start of the 2025 Winter Meetings in Orlando. O’s fans know Jim well, both from his time as Orioles’ co-general manager with Mike Flanagan in 2006 and 2007 to his...

Hey Birdland and welcome to another work week after the extended Thanksgiving break. Hope many of you had a great time with your family as I did. Now back to the business of baseball, which of course continued even during the long weekend. The O’s reached agreement on two-year deal with right-hander Ryan Helsley on Saturday afternoon. Yes he pitched to a 4.50 ERA for the Mets and Cardinals last ye...

Happy Thanksgiving Birdland! In and around your family fun today or while you are traveling, hope you can find time to listen to my latest Steve on Baseball podcast. My guest is John Eisenberg, who for 23 years starting in 1984 wrote over 3,000 columns for the Baltimore Sun. He has also written about and worked for the Baltimore Ravens and is the author of 11 books. Wow, yep, 11! His third was tit...

O’s right-handed pitching prospect Nestor German is from a school without a big name but one with a big name MLB pitcher among its former players. In 2023, German was the Orioles’ 11th-round pick out of Seattle University. In 2018, the same school sent lefty Tarik Skubal to the Detroit Tigers. They got him in the ninth round and 254 players were selected ahead of him. Now he’s the back-to-back Cy...

If you went to bed at a certain time last night, maybe you awoke to a surprise today in that the Orioles pulled off their first big move of this offseason late last night. They acquired outfielder Taylor Ward from the Los Angeles Angels for O’s right-handed pitcher Grayson Rodriguez in a one-for-one trade. Ward, who turns 32 on Dec. 14, has played in 156 and 157 games the last two years. He made 1...

From the Gilman School in Baltimore to pro baseball on the farm for the O’s and Nats and now onto his media business, Ryan Ripken is the latest from a famous baseball family to make his mark. When your grandad is Cal Ripken Sr., your father is Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and your uncle is former Oriole and current MLB Network star Bill Ripken, you may have picked up a few things about the game al...

Hey Birdland, a new video for my Substack readers and subscribers to watch and react to. It’s been a minute since I posted a video or produced a live video, but both are returning in full force this winter and this is the start. Today the topic - Is there pressure on the O’s to make a big signing this winter? The obvious answer is yes. Could they win without one? Yes. They had a $71 million dollar...

Fans around Birdland will finally hear in depth from their new manager, Craig Albernaz, during next Tuesday’s press conference at Oriole Park. We will soon start to get to know him. But Tampa Bay Rays radio broadcaster Neil Solondz has known Albernaz since his Triple-A playing days. Neil was the radio broadcaster for the Durham Bulls and Albernaz was a player there for parts of five seasons, the f...

Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner just completed his fourth year covering the Orioles as the Banner’s lead beat writer. Andy grew up in Rockville and is a 2020 University of Maryland graduate. His introduction to O’s fans was with the Baltimore Sun for the 2022 season. He was hired by the Banner in December of that year and just completed his third season leading the Banner’s coverage. We got in...

I believe I first met Brett Hollander when he was at the Gilman School in Baltimore and at the age of 15 was an intern at WBAL Radio where I was the Sports Director. His memory is better than mine from those days but that means, in a sense, I was there for the start of an outstanding broadcasting career. From Gilman, Brett went on to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania where he broadcast many sports...

For a lot of us, growing up as an O’s fan there were many players to cheer for and admire. There were Hall of Famers like Brooks and Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer. Later there were Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray. We loved them all. Some of us loved Earl Weaver as much as we loved those players. He was a winner and he would fight for his team. He would get us fired up each time he got ejected. All...