Major League

For two years, scouts, writers and front-office types have gushed about Orioles catching prospect Matt Wieters, who will make his major league debut Friday against Dontrelle Willis and the Detroit Tigers. The fifth overall pick in the 2007 draft is big and strong, can hit for average and power, has advanced defensive skills and the demeanor to handle a pitching staff. Wieters is batting .305 with 5 home runs and 30 RBIs at Triple-A Norfolk. He's heated up lately, with 18 hits, including four homers and 18 RBIs, in his past 46...

CLEVELAND — There wasn't enough time for the Yankees to tour the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or do much else on their short layover before going home. So during a quick stop in Cleveland, they went to Progressive Field and split a doubleheader that wasn't on the schedule when the season started. Vidal Nuno pitched five innings of three-hit ball to win his first major league start and Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay drove in two runs apiece as the Yankees beat the Indians 7-0 in...

Harry Wendelstedt, a retired 33-year major league umpire who also nurtured a new generation of the game's arbiters for more than 30 years, died March 9 at a hospital in Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 73 and had brain cancer. Mr. Wendelstedt, who officiated more than 4,500 games, worked five World Series — two as crew chief — as well as seven National League Championship Series and four all-star games. Former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda is among those leading the campaign for Mr. Wendel­stedt's election into...

Note to readers: Every few years, Couch Slouch has fun at Major League Soccer 's expense. So if you are a MLS devotee, we invite you — in fact, we implore you — to leave the room now. I poke at MLS because, well, I can, and because it's really, really relaxing. Major League Soccer is in the midst of its regular season — actually, MLS is always in the midst of its regular season; it's the longest season in U.S. professional sports — and as the soccer wonks celebrate their unnatural blight on the American...

CHICAGO — Nolan Reimold admitted his uneasiness in stepping into the leadoff spot in the Baltimore Orioles batting order — unsure how he'd be able to adapt in an unfamiliar role — but over the past few games, he certainly seems more than comfortable there. Over his past four games, the 28-year-old Reimold has sparked the Orioles offense — hitting home runs in each of those games — his latest a two-run shot that broke a scoreless tie in the sixth Tuesday and helped the Orioles to a 3-2 win ...

CINCINNATI — Chris Marrero settled into his position at first base Saturday night, the moment for which he had waited five years. Marrero envisioned a rapid path to the major leagues when the Washington Nationals drafted him as a 17-year-old with the 15th overall pick in 2006. That was before he switched positions twice, before he broke his leg and before played at every level minor league level. "Not everybody takes as long as they imagine," he said. When...

NEW YORK — When Brad Peacock began this season at Class AA, he assumed he would not pitch in the majors this year, an attitude conditioned by his unconventional career path. Peacock played third base growing up and pitched only eight innings in high school. The Washington Nationals selected him in the 41st round of the 2006 draft. Expectation was a foreign thing. The latest evidence of Peacock's altered, elevated status arrived Wednesday night at Citi Field, when he made the...

Something was amiss with Eric Kressin's swing. The baseball was squirting off the bat, not flying off of it. Watching, Steve Lombardozzi Jr. stood behind the black netting of the batting cage, arms at his side. Kressin, a junior, took hacks in the auxiliary gym at Good Counsel High during an open gym session last week with fellow prospective baseball players. Steve Lombardozzi Sr., the school's new baseball coach , sauntered over and...

In the fall of 2009, the Harper family of Las Vegas took a step that within less than a year proved of immense potential importance for the future of Major League Baseball in the nation's capital. The Harpers decided that their 16-year-old son, Bryce, a baseball player with astonishing gifts who recently had been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as "Baseball's Chosen One" — a prodigy to rank with basketball's LeBron James — would bypass his last two years of...

12 Players affiliated with major league teams, including unsigned free agent Sidney Ponson 1 Player currently on a major league roster $400K Total earned playing baseball by the Dutch roster last season 1-6 Dutch record at Beijing Olympics, tying China for last place .151 Team batting average 2.50 Team ERA

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Right-handed starting pitcher Chris Young opted out of his minor league contract after throwing four strong innings Monday night, making it likely he will depart the Nationals for a major league deal and rob them of their best insurance policy behind their starting five. The Nationals needed to place Young on their 25-man roster by Monday in order to prevent Young from using the opt-out clause. Young has thrown nine consecutive innings without allowing an earned run, which he said has attracted enough "interest"...

Correction: In a previous version, this article incorrectly reported that Zach Duke was the only left-handed pitcher on Nationals' roster. He is the only left-handed relief pitcher on the roster. This version has been corrected. VIERA, Fla. — A year ago this month, Zach Duke had reached the lowest depths of his career. The Houston Astros, a team that would go on to lose a major league-worst 107 games last season, cut him the last week of spring...

HOUSTON — It happened again, just like so many other D.C. United visits to this unforgiving destination – a swirl of misfortune in a disorderly moment followed by bewildering reaction. In a place where nothing has gone right for United , defender James Riley headed a Houston corner kick into his own net in the 80th minute Saturday night, leading to a season-opening 2-0 loss to the Dynamo before 20,019 at BBVA Compass Stadium. Ricardo Clark secured the outcome in...

Major League Soccer will enter its 18th season Saturday, a passage into adulthood after growing pains and a moody adolescence. As part of the evolution, the children of the league have also matured, forming a second generation of players and coaches. Three sons have followed in their fathers' footsteps by playing in MLS: Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury , Columbus Crew midfielder Konrad Warzycha and Portland Timbers forward Jose Valencia. Since the league's launch in 1996, several familiar names...

SARASOTA, Fla. — Jason Pridie will be the first to admit his mistake. The 29-year-old outfielder has spent most of the past six years on the cusp of finding a home in the big leagues — his life-long dream just within reach. But around this time last season, Pridie's very public miscue had him worried that he might have handed himself a career-crippling sentence into baseball purgatory. Last March, Pridie was fighting for a roster spot in the Oakland Athletics' spring training camp when he received a...

VIERA, FLA. — The work is what Micah Owings missed most. Being a pitcher meant a structured, protective routine, a limit to how much baseball he could play. Being a hitter means all the batting practice he wants, extra groundballs after workouts, staying late to catch more flyballs. "That's what I'm looking forward to," Owings said. "Getting after it and working. " The Washington Nationals are short on underdogs and experiments this spring, but Owings counts as both. A...

Bryce Harper stood in the Washington Nationals ' dugout as Nationals Park roared for him, with the unfamiliar and splendid feeling of being unsure of what he should do. Teammate Jayson Werth, 14 years his senior, slapped him on the back and let him know it was okay. Werth told Harper, "Get up there, kid. " Harper bounded up the steps and pointed to the 19,434 fans. He was still breathing hard from his rapid trip around the bases and the scale of the moment. Harper had...

For local baseball fans, this may be the best summer ever. D.C. has fallen in love with the Nationals, as Bryce Harper and all-star Stephen Strasburg have lived up to their monumental hype and led the team into first place. Up Interstate 95, the Orioles are making Baltimore believe again — a tough task considering the club is in the throes of a miserable streak of 14 consecutive losing seasons. Thanks to a hot start, the Orioles remain in the thick of the playoff hunt. Where have...

SARASOTA, Fla. — Around this time last year, Manny Machado was spending his spring on a nomadic journey shuffling between Baltimore's minor league and major league camps. He wore No. 95. When he made appearances in the major league camp, he dressed in an auxiliary clubhouse isolated from the big league players. But after an early-August call-up from Class AA Bowie — a move that helped propel the Orioles to the playoffs — the 20-year-old Machado is entrenched in the clubhouse this spring.

Something was amiss with Eric Kressin's swing. The baseball was squirting off the bat, not flying off of it. Watching, Steve Lombardozzi Jr. stood behind the black netting of the batting cage, arms at his side. Kressin, a junior, took hacks in the auxiliary gym at Good Counsel High during an open gym session last week with fellow prospective baseball players. Steve Lombardozzi Sr., the school's new baseball...