Rule 5 Goodness
The Rule 5 draft was this morning, and the Nats selected two players.
Jesus Flores (stats) was the Mets #9 prospect, a catcher who had a breakout power season. There's a lot of potential there, but the jump from A-ball to the majors is a huge one. He'll presumably be Brian Schneider's backup, and the only question is what this means for Brandon Harper. Will they carry three catchers?
Levale Speigner (stats) has been the closer for the Rochester Red Wings (MN's AAA team). Just looking at the stats superficially, there's not a lot of potential there, given his age, but he looks like he could hang around as the 5th or 6th man of a bullpen. It's a somewhat curious pick, but it's not like they were choosing from a group of All-Stars.
The Nats did lose recent FA signing, Alejandro Machado. There's no great loss there, as he was mostly minor-league depth.
Recall from the ill-fated Tony Blanco experiment that Rule 5 selections must stay in the majors for the entire year. You can't send them to the minors unless you trade for their rights with the original club.
In the minor league portion, the Nats selected Justin Jones from Minnesota in the minor league portion. And we're losing a few other organizational fillers in the minor leagues -- nobody 'prospecty' though. More later.
Jesus Flores (stats) was the Mets #9 prospect, a catcher who had a breakout power season. There's a lot of potential there, but the jump from A-ball to the majors is a huge one. He'll presumably be Brian Schneider's backup, and the only question is what this means for Brandon Harper. Will they carry three catchers?
Levale Speigner (stats) has been the closer for the Rochester Red Wings (MN's AAA team). Just looking at the stats superficially, there's not a lot of potential there, given his age, but he looks like he could hang around as the 5th or 6th man of a bullpen. It's a somewhat curious pick, but it's not like they were choosing from a group of All-Stars.
The Nats did lose recent FA signing, Alejandro Machado. There's no great loss there, as he was mostly minor-league depth.
Recall from the ill-fated Tony Blanco experiment that Rule 5 selections must stay in the majors for the entire year. You can't send them to the minors unless you trade for their rights with the original club.
In the minor league portion, the Nats selected Justin Jones from Minnesota in the minor league portion. And we're losing a few other organizational fillers in the minor leagues -- nobody 'prospecty' though. More later.
posted by Chris Needham at
9:13 AM
3 Comments:
The Nats probably keep Flores all season as backup and pray Schneider doesn't go down to injury. I say they send Speigner back when they can't work out a deal with the Twins / don't work out a deal for Cordero.
By
Harper, at 12/07/2006 1:08 PM
He may not be a top prospect, but I would call the loss of last year's Futures Game participant, Saloman Manriquez, a pretty major loss in the minor league portion of the draft, especially in an organization where scrubs like Devin Ivany and Erick San Pedro manage to pass as actual catching prospects.
By
Anonymous, at 12/08/2006 10:40 AM
Chris,
Do you know if Justin Jones has to remain on the MLB roster even though he was taken in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft?
Farid
By
Farid Rushdi, at 12/08/2006 5:02 PM
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