Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball announced its first voting update for this year's all-star game and the Orioles' Matt Wieters has the second highest number of votes for American League catchers with 713,469. He trails only the Texas Rangers' Mike Napoli, who has 1,224,565 votes. Adam Jones (857,453) is fifth among outfielders and Nick Markakis (384,390) is 12th; J.J. Hardy (489,941) is third among shortstops and Robert Andino (317,434) is fourth among second basemen. Rangers' outfielder Josh Hamilton leads all players in votes with nearly 2.6 million.

Don't penalize honesty Bill Shaikin Los Angeles Times Intent can be notoriously difficult to determine — unless, that is, a pitcher admits his intent, as Phillies left-hander Cole Hamels did. "Come see our headhunting pitchers" is not the best advertisement for baseball, so Hamels, like any other pitcher admitting intent, should have been suspended. The league already suspends pitchers deemed to throw at batters with intent, no matter what the pitcher says.

An old Sun scribe, Ken Rosenthal, says that sources are telling him that Major League Baseball will decide how much MASN owes the Nationals for rights fees. The Orioles, of course, own a majority of the network that televises both team's games. Orioles owner Peter Angelos brokered that deal by arguing that the arrival of the Nationals in D.C. would cut into the Orioles' profits. In the beginning, he owned 90 percent of the network, and his percentage is dropping slowly and will bottom out at 67 percent.

At the recent marathon baseball game against the dreaded Yankees, it seemed cruel to put Orioles fans through the torture of playing all those innings in the freezing cold ("Late-night letdown for O's," April 11). It appeared that most of the fans had not brought enough clothes to weather the extra innings. Why can't Major League Baseball get creative and come up with something that fans could look forward to when games go into extra innings - something that could wrap the game up early enough to accommodate those who must get up the next day to go to work or school?

Major League Baseball has delivered on its pledge to formulate a policy for players' social media use, as Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports points out . I'm not going to delve into all the details of the policy (Calcaterra does a nice job outlining them in his post), but much of what you'd expect to be in it is there. A lot of it as common sense - don't condone steroid use in a tweet, for example - but as we've seen all too many times, common sense takes a back seat when some athletes get their hands on a smartphone.

Major League Baseball has ruled it will not approve the Orioles' contract with 17-year-old South Korean Kim Seong-min, a move that caused much controversy in the pitcher's home country. The action comes five days after the Orioles apologized for an "unintentional breach of protocol" in signing Kim, regarded as the country's top left-handed high school pitcher. MLB did not approve Kim's deal because the Orioles failed to conduct a proper "status check" of his eligibility status, according to an industry source.

As a Baltimore native, Orioles spring training season ticket holder and longtime Jeremy Guthrie fan, I'm saddened that my favorite pitcher was traded to the Rockies ("Orioles' spring version of the show: 'As the Rotation Turns,'" Feb. 8). But the recent acquisition of relief pitcher Pat Neshek - the only known vegan player in the Majors - definitely softens the blow. I'll cheer for a vegan pitcher any day - even if he blows more than eight saves. Anyone who spares animals, helps save the environment and promotes healthy living is a champion in my book.

Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette has released a statement through the team acknowledging the club failed to adhere to protocol in their signing of 17-year-old South Korean pitcher Kim Seong-min: "On behalf of the Orioles organization, I offer a sincere apology to the Korea Baseball Organization and the Korea Baseball Association for the club's unintentional breach of protocol in failing to tender a...

The Orioles' signing of a 17-year-old high school sophomore from South Korea has drawn the ire of the Korean Baseball Organization, which is threatening to petition Major League Baseball for what it deems the fleecing of its young talent. The Orioles announced the signing of Kim Seong-min, South Korea's top left-handed high school pitching prospect, to a minor league contract Monday. While signing players out of South Korea -- including ones in high school -- is customary, Kim is just the second high school sophomore to be signed by a major league club and the first since 1997, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The bidding war for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes is about to begin. The 26-year-old Cuban defector was granted free agency Wednesday by Major League Baseball, meaning teams can begin contract negotiations. This week, Cespedes established Dominican residency, which was the major hurdle for him to become a free agent. The Orioles are one of six teams -- along with the Marlins, Cubs, White Sox, Tigers, and Indians -- that Cespedes recently said have shown the most interest in him. Baltimore is indeed interested.