This morning is the annual Rule 5 Draft, which basically wraps up the Winter Meetings. Basically:

Players who signed at age 19 and older in 2006 (i.e., most college 2006 draft picks) or 18 and younger in 2005 (most 2005 high school picks and international signees), had to be protected on 40-man rosters or be subject to the draft. Selected players cost $50,000 and have to stick on a major league 25-man roster (or disabled list) for the entire 2010 season or be offered back to the original organization at half the price.  

You can follow along here.

Last month, the Phillies added three players (OF Quintin Berry, RHP Jesus Sanchez, and LHP Yohan Flande) to the 40-man roster to protect them from being picked today.

We were surprised Sanchez was on the list, less so with Berry and Flande, particularly Berry, who has stolen over 150 bases in the last three years and is very good defensively. No question he would have been able to hang on the back of a big league roster.

Who could be taken?

Tim Kennelly…Useful utility guy can play multiple positions, which is valuable if he’s going to be the 25th man on the roster.

Edgar Garcia…Once-promising right-hander missed some time this year (visa problems) but sometimes an organization just falls in love with a guy and a few years later they have a chance to get him.

Harold Garcia…Mentioned by Baseball America. Still, he’s never been above Low-A, but the BlueClaws starting 2B this year did get positive reviews from several scouts we talked to.

Update: Here’s last year’s Rule 5 post…remember, both Brett Harker and Andy Barb, who combined for 35 saves on the ‘06 BlueClaws were taken in the minor league portion.

Share This Post!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 9:15 am and is filed under Winter Meetings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.