Dan Connolly

Davey Johnson , the Orioles' former All-Star second baseman who was the last manager to lead the club to a winning season, has taken a job with the Washington Nationals. Johnson, 66, will be a senior advisor to general manager Mike Rizzo . In that capacity, he'll be a full-time member of the Nationals, working on special assignments for Rizzo. Johnson had worked for the Nationals in 2006, but in a less formal consultant position. Johnson spent 13 seasons as a major leaguer, including his first eight with the Orioles, in which he won two World Series titles.

Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette was on Jim Bowden's satellite radio show today and seemed to steer the conversation away from free agent first baseman Prince Fielder, but he said in a brief telephone interview this afternoon that he has “not ruled out any free agents.” Of course, that doesn't mean he's ruling in Fielder, who is clearly too expensive at this point in the process. The Orioles did make a seven-year, $140 million bid for Mark Teixeira a few years ago, but that was for a player who grew up in the Baltimore area and had no physical question marks.

In today's Orioles draft target profile , Dan Connolly lays the strongest odds on the team using the No. 4 overall pick Monday night on University of San Francisco right-hander Kyle Zimmer. The consensus among the national pundits is that the Orioles will take another college righty, LSU's Kevin Gausman , with their only selection in the first night of baseball's amateur draft. As with any draft, the decision on that pick could depend heavily upon what the top three teams - Houston, Minnesota and Seattle - do with their choices.

Orioles fans looking to check out the club's new spring training digs in Sarasota, Fla., can buy individual game tickets starting at 10 a.m. Saturday on the team's Web site, among other places. The Orioles will be playing at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota on the west coast of Florida after 14 seasons in Fort Lauderdale. The club is taking over the facility that previously housed the Cincinnati Reds' spring operations, and the Orioles said the switch is being embraced. "The business community and citizens of Sarasota have already demonstrated that they are anxiously awaiting the start of Orioles spring training," said Greg Bader, the club's director of communications.

You and I are about as close as anyone to becoming the new Orioles general manager on November 3, the day free agency begins in Major League Baseball. Since Jerry Dipoto and Tony LaCava resisted the advances of Peter Angelos, Andy MacPhail's dusty, old desk at the Warehouse remains empty for now. Well, unless the Orioles really have installed a cardboard cutout of Pat Gillick as interim GM . Since we can't speculate on what the team's new top baseball executive will do in free agency because the Orioles have been taking their sweet, old time with this search, let's talk about who you would sign if Angelos called you out of the blue and asked if you were interested in the job (hey, it could happen)

I've been a little quiet the past week or so - pretty rare for me, I know - while I take some time off before I head to Sarasota in March. But I am breaking the silence on Monday evening. I'll be giving a baseball talk at Zion Lutheran Church in York, Pa., tonight at 7 p.m. We did it last year and it was a lot of fun (despite an impending blizzard), and I got to meet some of you after the talk. Plus, it's for a good cause; there's no admission fee but a freewill offering will be taken for the church's youth ministry.

Bart Aldridge scored three goals and had an assist en route to capturing Most Valuable Player honors as Lax World defeated Westchester/Beck & Wheatley, 16-14, for the Central Atlantic Lacrosse League title last night at Norris Field.Westchester, the defending CALL champion, jumped to a 3-1 lead when Michael Hoynes fed fellow West Point graduate Rob Betchley with 5:53 left in the first quarter.But Lax World's Tom Gravante, a former Hobart star who coaches Mount St. Mary's, scored the last goal of the first quarter and the first of the second as Lax World ran off five straight goals to build a 6-3 lead with 2:13 left in the first half.

Can't beat Cards' duo Dan Connolly Baltimore Sun This is a no-brainer: The Phillies with Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Oh, wait, the Phillies wanted to rebuild their farm system and dealt away Lee. How is that move working out? The real winner of this contest is the Cardinals, who finished second and third in the NL Cy Young voting last year with studs Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. Both are having great seasons again, with sub-3.00 ERAs, big strikeout numbers and impressive records.

They'll lack 1-2 punch Stephanie Sigafoos Allentown Morning Call Acquiring Roy Halladay was certainly a bold move. There's no doubt he can help the Phillies, but what will hurt the team in the long run is the absence of a true one-two pitching punch. I still don't like giving up Cliff Lee when the Phillies could've had him at least one more year. Cole Hamels, J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton are a formidable force but won't exactly strike fear in the hearts of major league batters.

Your new Orioles beat writer has been connected to this franchise a long time -- almost since birth. Had the Yankees not beaten the Orioles for the AL East title in 1976, I would have been named after Orioles rookie outfielder Andres Mora. Instead, I was named after right-hander Ed Figueroa, who won 19 games that year for New York. The bet that my parents made literally made me who I am. So baseball's always been in my blood. So here I am 35 years later, Eduardo Andres Encina, your new Baltimore Orioles beat writer.