Baseball America’s Rule 5 Preview
DMZ · December 5, 2005 at 8:03 pm · Filed Under General baseball
Good stuff on potential picks and other related stuff.
No Mariners on the potential selectees. With their roster full, it’s unlikely the M’s will be clearing any room to take some gambles.
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13 Responses to “Baseball America’s Rule 5 Preview”
I could see the Marlins picking up Kevin Howard. Dealing off Lowell and Castillo leaves 2 potential spots for him, although I believe the plan is to move Miguel Cabrera to 3rd, I’m not sure how sufficient his glove is there. He’s a good, young, cheap option for a team with much the same surrounding.
If I were a team in need of good cheap bullpen filler, I’d take Jeff Heaverlo.
As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m a fan of one of Baseball America’s spotlighted pitchers, lefty Jeff Ridgway out of Port Angeles High School. Ridgway was drafted in the 14th round of the 1999 draft by Tampa Bay (he’s almost 25 years old), and hasn’t yet climbed above high A ball because of various injury problems. But when he could play, he’s always pitched well, with a two-seamer that gets into the 92-94 range. He’s got good breaking stuff, good K/W and K/9 ratios, and could surprise if his health holds.
He’s probably less of a good Rule 5 pick than a minor-league free agent … somebody you pick up in midseason if your Double-A roster is starting to run thin.
It’s kind of surprising that the Reds would send Howard to the AFL if he weren’t either on the team’s 40 man roster or didn’t have to be protected yet.
Given that each team can only send 5 or 6 players a year to the AFL, I would say that it’s pretty rare that a guy that has a good chance to be picked in the Rule 5 plays down there. Is this the case, Dave or did Howard just play a lot better in the AFL than he had in the minors?
Of Seattle’s 6 players in the AFL this year, Nageotte is on the 40 man, Jeff Clement and Adam Jones don’t have to be protected yet and Chris Buglovsky and Mike Flannery are middle relievers and Gary Harris is a fast OF with no power – they’r organization filler at best and unlikely to be selected in the Rule 5 draft.
I suppose some team might take an unhealthy Uguteo-like fascination with Harris but it’s unlikely (he’s 26 and was caught 15 times last year in 30 steal attempts at Double-A — Ugueto was 23 when he was drafted and I believe he’d stolen 40+ bases the previous season and he was a SS rather than an OF).
I would love to see us tell Willie Ballgame that he’s welcome to seek out a full time job in some other organization and non-tender him, since he’s not going to get one here, and go with Kevin Howard as our IF backup.
I figure SS is adequately covered between YuBet, Lopez, Morse and the minors, and Howard would be more useful as a bench bat and IF backup at 2B/3B. Willie’s dirty uniform and stolen bases aren’t worth the 500K, as we could adequately get that from Jamal Strong as a backup OF.
That being said, I realize the odds of the Local Kid With Hustle being ditched for better, younger and cheaper options are about equal to lottery odds, but hey, I can dream.
#4 unfortunately, Willie’s going to get a bit more than $500K because he’s arbitation eligible.
At least $750K and very possibly a million or more. That hot streak he had while starting at 2B makes it highly unlikely he’ll be non-tendered. He could certainly be traded if someone out there values him as much or more than the M’s do…
500 K is the difference between MLB minimum and whatever Willie gets. 😉
As I’ve said elsewhere, Willie wants to be guaranteed a fair shot at the starting 2B job. Failing that, he’ll ask to be non-tendered or dealt, with an eye on the Diamondbacks (he went to college in Arizona and makes his offseason home there). He’s supposedly told my newspaper he’s expecting a deal of around $1 million.
Speaking of the M’s roster, did anyone notice a transaction to make room for Johjima?
I wonder what Bloomquist would define as a fair shot.
Bavasi breaking the legs of every other SS and 2b in the organization?
Seriously, any GM who would give a banjo-hitting 27 year old a “fair shot” over a 22 year old who’s already a better hitter needs to be fired for incompetence, unless the 22 year old is a terrorist or something. There’s really no way Bloomquist should be a starter on any good MLB team.
#8 It doesn’t matter what Willie “wants”. MLB doesn’t work like that. If the M’s view him as an asset that will be worth what he might get in arbitration, they’re not going to non-tender him just because he wants a “fair shot” at a starting job.
Sure he wants to play for Arizona — aside from living there in the winter and having attended ASU, his favorite former manager manages the team that plays down there… If the D-Backs want Willie they can just offer us a deal where we get Chad Tracy for Bloomquist and a reliever, perhaps Mateo. I think the M’s would do that deal.
And speaking of the Rule 5 draft, it was noted in Wednesday’s P-I that Bavasi said it’s possible the Mariners will move a player off their 40-man roster in preparation for Thursday’s Rule 5 draft — something they must do in order to take a player during the major league phase. At present, the roster is full at 40.