Note from Steve: Where this Substack goes from here after the 2025 season

Plus a chance for three days to get a discount on a yearly subscription

Back in January my world was rocked a bit when my contract was not renewed to continue writing, among various other jobs I provided, for the Orioles and for MASNSports.com.

I was the first writer hired by the outlet when almost no one knew we even had a website, and had worked there 17 years.

In my mind, yes probably a bit biased mind about my own talents and efforts, I felt I offered a lot to the team, website and organization and had so much more to offer.

But a change was made and in my department!

I eventually turned to this Substack space to provide my coverage on the Orioles and their minor leagues for the 2025 season.

I’ve made it this far!

While I feel quite proud about what has been created and developed here from nothing, I remain determined to keep making this space bigger and better. One big benefit of being your own boss is you can take some chances, do some new things and not worry about getting every click on your story. Although, trust me, clicks are vital for all of us in this business.

Please take a moment to scroll through my archives, to see just how many stories, podcasts, videos and more have been posted here since my start in late February.

I love the variety of this space where I provide some news stories and analysis pieces on the Orioles, many minor league features and a podcast that has now had over 20 episodes and we’re going strong there.

To enhance things for the paying subscribers, I need to continue to work to add more value for that group and will. One possibility coming soon will be videos only for paid subcribers where readers can ask questions and we discuss the team.

This is what I do for my work now and is one big reason I encourage readers to consider a paid subscription! There are free articles here but a few more will be coming under a paywall. I pledge to make it worth the price.

Along those lines, we get the offseason here underway with a sale today. For the next few days you can get 25 percent off a yearly subscription. If you’ve been debating moving from free to paid, or joining up here, this is a great chance to do that and with a nice savings!

Just since August, here are some stories that were only for paid subscribers that would be unlocked today to anyone taking this offer:

In early August, I was in Frederick as that city got it’s O’s affiliate back and wrote about that here.

A few days after that I wrote about minor league right-hander Raimon Gomez, who came to the Orioles from the Mets in the Cedric Mullins deal. He threw a pitch this year 104.5 mph - no one in pro ball threw a faster pitch in 2025 - but he didn’t pitch for the Orioles after the deal due to a back strain. But here is a profile for paid subscribers of Gomez.

Also in August, here was a profile of right-hander Wellington Aracena, from the Dominican Republic. He is another hard-thrower, touching 101.3 mph this year and he pitched to an ERA of 1.95 for Low-A Delmarva and High-A Aberdeen after his trade to the Orioles from the Mets.

When Samuel Basallo got the call to the Orioles in August, I wrote this profile compiled from my many stories and interviews on the young man over the years.

Not long after that story, I wrote this after a long clubhouse interview with Dylan Beavers. He arrived in the majors and got off to a good start with the Orioles. He provided me wonderful insights when I asked him how he gained nearly 200 OPS points from 2024 in Double-A to 2025 in Triple-A. He told me of the two minor league coaches that had a specfic plan for him last winter that led to his great season. One that led him to the Orioles in August.

I could link numerous other stories, but hopefully you get the point.

For this Substack this season, I got in the car often and traveled to Bowie and Aberdeen, Frederick and even Salisbury in search of stories. I spent time in the O’s clubhouse to try and provide interesting stories on the big league club. The Steve on Baseball podcast ties it all together with a heavy focus on player development.

I have almost completely forgotten the chat function here but pledge to reopen that this winter. The videos will return, both live and some embedded with other content.

The podcast will be humming too. Last week I interviewed Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun. This week I will talk with John Miller about his Earl Weaver book.

In just the first week of this offseason, I covered and wrote a few stories on the end-of-season press conferences, wrote about the Orioles’ pitching and team offense in numbers, provided a minor league profile on right-hander Twine Palmer and rolled out a late-year interview with Samuel Basallo.

Basallo told me how proud he was to be an Oriole and a product of the O’s farm.

“I came up from zero with this organization. They are the ones that have given me this opportunity and given me everything. So, I am very proud and thankful for the organization,” he said.

This is the kind of coverage you can count on year-round from this Substack.

Since my world changed in January, I have had several people who reached out to help me, encourage me and provide me tips and incredible support.

But this Substack space is mostly about my own efforts. I have embraced and enjoyed just about everything about providing the content, my own editing, the pics and more. It’s not cluttered with ads and is very clean and easy to read. I like that part too.

Please leave a comment today on this space. What do you like about it or not like? Any suggestions for offseason content/stories?

Please keep subscribing and please tell your O’s fan family and friends too. Thank you Birdland!

By the way, to support this page, I now have a Steve on Baseball Facebook page! You can see that right here. Please like and follow that page and feel free to leave O’s comments there also.