Cleveland Sports Forum

Have a problem with you thinking you find a player because you post articles about them.

Oh, I don't know. I haven't done all that badly with respect to that category. Actually! I think I've done really well.

I'd be willing to bet some cyber bucks that not very many, if any, posters here, including you, have even heard of the players I post articles on until they become the center of attention in the USA or they start appearing on the MLBTR website.

Just trying to raise public awareness

I know that Rule 5 is generally irrelevant, but we did lose 2 pretty decent pitchers last year, and there's nothing else for me to post here, so here is the famous annual Rule 5 preview Tribe has one roster vacancy. We draft pretty low but could use some cheap bullpen prospect.










5






ORLANDO—The Rule 5 draft is the finale of the Winter Meetings for many team officials. Bags are packed, and often brought to the convention hall where the draft is held. Teams select their players and then quickly hoof it to the airport.

So Thursday morning will be the traditional grab-and-go for many teams. The buzz about which players might be selected in the Rule 5 will intensify tonight, but several names that keep bouncing around the Disney Swan and Dolphin lobbies. Pirates righthanded reliever Zach Thornton’s combination of command and groundball tendency has drawn notice. Similarly, Mariners lefty reliever Brian Moran is frequently mentioned, even though he went unpicked as a Rule 5-eligible player in 2012.

Yet Cubs righthanded reliever Marcos Mateo is emerging as one of the most fascinating names because of what he’s doing in the Dominican League. Mateo, who has ranked among the Cubs’ Top 30 prospects three times, pitched reasonably well in the big leagues with Chicago in 2011 before missing all of 2012 and a significant part of 2013 recovering from an elbow injury.

Mateo, now 29, has been electric in the Dominican Republic, featuring a high-90s fastball and a filthy slider in the upper 80s. His results back up the stuff, as he’s 3-0, 0.98 for Estrellas de Oriente, with 22 strikeouts, seven walks and 11 hits in 19 innings. In his last six appearances, Mateo has struck out 12, walked none, allowed five hits and no runs in six innings over six appearances.

So Mateo’s name will be mentioned frequently as the Rule 5 approaches. After all the buildup, though, anyone witnessing the Rule 5 draft for the first time may be shocked at how quickly selections are made. From beginning to end, the process may take 10 minutes. But teams devote a lot of time and resources into preparing for the draft. The major league portion of the Rule 5 probably will end up with about 15 players taken. Historically, about five of those players may actually stick on their selecting club’s major league roster.

But as team after team has mentioned in discussions about the Rule 5 draft this week, the cost of acquiring a player—$50,000—is so marginal that it is well worth speculating on a player. As a reminder, any player picked in the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft must remain on the club’s big league roster for the entire 2014 season (including 90 days on the active roster in case of injury). He can’t go to the minors until he is offered back to the team he was picked from and clears waivers.

Teams must have an open 40-man roster spot to make a pick in the major league Rule 5 draft, and 11 had full 40-man rosters as of Wednesday morning. Some could make moves before the draft to clear a roster spot, but many will simply sit the draft out. Also, the Cubs have forfeited their first-round pick to the Phillies to settle a grievance over 2011 Rule 5 pick Lendy Castillo, a righthander.

Castillo spent the bare minimum of days on the active roster in 2012, thanks to stints on the disabled list, and the Phillies filed a protest. As compensation, the Phillies receive the Cubs’ No. 4 pick. Philadelphia also holds the No. 7 pick, though to actually select two Rule 5 picks they would need to create another 40-man roster spot.





RULE 5 DRAFT ORDER WITH 40-MAN CAPACITY
Pick Team 40-Man Pick Team 40-Man
1. Astros 37 16. Orioles 38
2. Marlins 40 17. Yankees 40
3. White Sox 38 18. Royals 39
4. *Phillies 39 19. Nationals 39
5. Twins 40 20. Reds 39
6. Mariners 39 21. Rangers 39
7. Phillies 39 22. Rays 39
8. Rockies 38 23. Indians 39
9. Blue Jays 40 24. Dodgers 35
10. Mets 37 25. Tigers 40
11. Brewers 40 26. Pirates 40
12. Padres 40 27. Athletics 40
13. Giants 40 28. Braves 37
14. Angels 38 29. Red Sox 40
15. D-backs 36 30. Cardinals 36
* Pick from Cubs as compensation for 2011 Rule 5 pick Lendy Castillo. The Cubs, who have 37 players on the 40-man roster, could select a player in the second round of major league portion of Rule 5 draft.



The players who will be selected in this year’s Rule 5 draft can be divided into two basic categories. On one hand, you have those who are viewed as potential contributors in 2014. On the other, there are toolsier players who aren’t ready to play in the big leagues, but who can potentially be stashed for a year in hopes that they can be contributors in future years.

Here’s a quick look at more than two dozen Rule 5 eligibles to watch for tomorrow’s draft.



PLAYERS WHO CAN HELP NOW
Pitchers
Marcos Mateo RHP Cubs
Pop-up prospect has big league experience and is pitching well in the Dominican League this winter.
Zach Thornton RHP Pirates
Reliever with a funky delivery gets loads of groundballs and features excellent control.
Brian Moran LHP Mariners
Probably a one-out lefty; great against lefthanded hitters but gets ripped by righties.
Stephen Kohlscheen RHP Mariners
Stuff may be a little light, but hard to argue with excellent results at Double-A.
Marcus Hatley RHP Cubs
6-foot-5 reliever has plus fastball with downhill plane and is pitching well in Mexico.
Tommy Kahnle RHP Yankees
Combines a plus fastball with questionable control.
Freddy Lewis LHP Yankees
Velocity keeps ticking upward, and scouts saw him pitch well in the Arizona Fall League.
Matt Loosen RHP Cubs
A starter in the minors, his stuff may play up with a move to the bullpen.
Kevin Munson RHP Diamondbacks
With a plus fastball and tick above-average slider, he has chance to help a club in relief.
Boone Whiting RHP Cardinals
Back-of-the-rotation starter has fringe stuff but survives with pitchability and competitiveness.
Alex Sogard LHP Astros
Hard-throwing lefty has two plus pitches with fastball and breaking ball, but little control.
Jake Buchanan RHP Astros
Groundball machine throws strikes with an average assortment of pitches.

Hitters
Darrell Ceciliani OF Mets
No carrying tool, but he has three average tools and could help as an extra outfielder.
Mike Freeman 2B/UTIL Diamondbacks
Serious concerns about his bat, but grinder can play many positions reasonably well.
Jae-Hoon Ha OF Cubs
Solid center fielder who draws walks and gets on base and could fit as a backup outfielder.
Brian Fletcher 1B/OF Royals
Defensive concerns both at 1B and LF, but he does have some of best power available.
Carlos Perez C Astros
Hard for a catcher to stick as a Rule 5 pick, but Perez could serve as a legitimate backup.

PLAYERS WHO CAN HELP LATER
Pitchers
Angel Nesbitt RHP Tigers
Think a skinnier Bruce Rondon with similar stuff, but he hasn’t pitched above Class A.
Tyler Ybarra LHP Blue Jays
History of success and 93-95 mph fastball, but has yet to pitch beyond Class A and has iffy control.
Danny Burawa RHP Yankees
Sits at 95 mph most nights, but lacks a second pitch and strike zone jumps around on him.
Brody Colvin RHP Phillies
Prospect who has lost luster; he may be a reclamation project for a team with good old reports.
Matt Lollis RHP Padres
Fastball may grade as an 80, as he runs it up to 98 mph, but he was hit hard as reliever in 2013.
Hector Nelo RHP Dodgers
A minor league Rule 5 pick in 2012, could jump to the major league phase with a near-100 mph fastball.
Omar Luis RHP Yankees
Renegotiated contract makes $2.5 million man eligible for Rule 5, but he hasn’t pitched above short-season.

Hitters
Junior Arias OF Reds
Hit tool may grade at the bottom of the scale, but with 15 HR and 60 SB, he has rare power/speed combo.
Marco Hernandez SS Cubs
Not many better SS prospects have been available in recent years, but he’s not ready for the majors.
Brett Eibner OF Royals
Power-speed center fielder has always had contact problems, but mechanical change got him going in June.

Jose Ramirez underwent left thumb ligament reconstruction on Wednesday and will be sidelined for 8-12 weeks.

Ramirez suffered the injury during winter ball. The 20-year-old will likely be behind at the start of spring training.


Source: Paul Hoynes on Twitter Dec 11 - 5:17 PM

WoW! That's too bad!

Coach's Corner '13:

Double-A Akron hitting coach Jim Rickon

By Tony Lastoria

December 11, 2013

Share This

Today, I continue my offseason Coach's Corner series with an interview with Double-A Akron hitting coach Jim Rickon.

If anyone was paying attention this past season, Akron had some impressive offensive performances and had the best collection of hitting prospects in the system. Rickon had the chance to work with a lot of talent this year and some guys really took off with their performance.

I recently had a chance to sit down with Rickon and we talked about all of the major players that he worked with this season at Akron. We discussed the big step forward that Jesus Aguilar took, the strides that Carlos Moncrief has made to become a star, the impressive hitting skills that Jose Ramirez possesses, and much more on several other players named Urshela, Holt, Rodriguez, Lowery, Naquin, Lindor and so on.

Onto the Q&A…

Q: Infielder Jose Ramirez had another good season and it earned him a callup to Cleveland in September. He is pretty accomplished with the bat, so is there much at all he has to do work on as a hitter?

Jim Rickon (JR): Yeah just once in a while you have to remind him to keep his head on the ball. Simple things. His timing is really good, his swing is really low maintenance, he has a really good eye at the plate and he is one of the best two-strike hitters I have seen in a long time. His at bats were good all the way through. It is not really a mechanical thing with him, it is just sometimes approach and keeping his head on the ball and simple things like that that major leaguers work on every day.

Q: What is most impressive thing to you about Ramirez?

JR: He has a really good feel for the timing of the game as a defender and as a hitter. As a defender he has a knack for making what he has physically work. He knows the timing of the plays in terms of the speed of the runners and where the ball is at. He just has a good internal clock defensively. That translates as a hitter too as he has a good feel for timing with pitchers. It just gives him a really good look at the ball, so he has no fear with two strikes or anything like that because he is seeing the ball so well. But overall, he is just a good baseball player. He is always at the right spot at the right time whether it is hitting or defending.

Q: Everyone wants to know about first baseman Jesus Aguilar. What a year he had with you and the Akron club. He is another guy you had a few years ago at Lake County, so what was different for him this year?

JR: It was consistency from him. I had him in the past and one of the challenges with him was keeping him in a consistent spot with his swing, with his timing and with his approach mentally. Just the consistency that he has had in his daily work and taking that into his daily at bats has been the biggest difference that I have seen from him. He made some adjustments early on this year. He was in spring training and his swing and timing were pretty off, and he felt that, so he was open to making some adjustments to that. The consistent work that he put in has allowed himself to be consistent in games.

Q: What about the 105 RBIs for Aguilar? It is a tough stat to really take much away from, but does the success in clutch situations really show anything?

JR: You talk about RBI, and for me, when I look at it, that is when pitchers really start to pitch to you - especially at this level. When you are at the plate and nobody is on base, sure, you are going to see more fastballs as they are going to attack you more. But you get a guy that has 95-100 RBI walking to the plate and you have guys on base, that’s when pitchers are going to start to pitch. That is when he is at his best, so the fact that he is at his best when guys are on base and guys are really starting to lock in on him, that tells me something. The RBI stat per se is not a real valuable stat, but when you see how he gets RBIs and why and the approach he takes in those types of bats, [you can tell] he values them because they are a run for the team. That’s pretty much how you win games right? It is something that he should be proud of, and it just goes back to his consistency in those types of at bats.

Q: Infielder Roddy Rodriguez had an up and down year. He got on a roll in the middle part of the season but an injury seemed to ruin the momentum. What do you take from his year?

JR: He needs consistency with his work. He is a very young player so to speak in terms of years in professional baseball, so he is just starting to value work and a routine and he did a really nice job of it this year. When he was hot, he was really locked in with everything, and then he had a little setback with his hamstring where he had to sit for a little bit of time. That was discouraging for him and kind of sidetracked what he was doing and set him back a little bit. Then when he got back in he tried to pick up where he left off, but the timing was a little off and being such a young player the emotion of it kind of distracted him a little bit. He did a good job considering his lack of experience.

Q: Learning to handle failure is part of the game of baseball. Do you believe Rodriguez will be better off long term for some of the struggles he went through this past season?

JR: It was probably the first time he has gotten hurt, especially when he was really hot, so going through that kind of emotional struggle will help him in the future. I was telling him, the concentration that he puts into his work before batting practice and in his pregame routine, those were through the roof this year compared to years past. Regardless of what his numbers are, he has really improved considerably in that must have part of your game.

Q: You had both shortstop Francisco Lindor last year at Low-A Lake County and had him for a little over a month this year. What makes him so special?

JR: I had Lindor last year. He is way beyond his years, which everyone says and it is almost cliché now. He is just mentally right there. You can have a good conversation with him, no matter what it is. He is very mature. That translates to paying attention to the game, paying attention to the adjustments he knows he has to make, and being mature enough to actually make those adjustments. He is going to be just fine and have a great career.

Q: What was your impression of outfielder Tyler Naquin who you had for a brief amount of time at the end of the year?

JR: I get pretty much the same thing from Naquin [as I do with Lindor]. He is really eager to learn and he has no ego about what he is doing. He is willing to listen to any adjustments you see he should make and he is willing to make them. He has good bat speed and plays defense in center field as good as anyone at this level, if not better. He is impressive to watch when he goes back on balls, so the defense is there. It is just a matter of experience, putting at bats together, and kind of building a body of work in professional baseball where he can learn some of the things that he has done or some of the things he has to do. Once he starts recognizing those things from experience, he is going to be great. It is not going to be anything we tell him, it is going to be things he experiences. We might kind of hint to him what is going on, but he is going to figure it out either way. One way or the other he will get it.

Q: Outfielder Carlos Moncrief had a breakthrough season as his offense really took off this past season. You had him two years ago at Lake County, so what aligned for him to finally put it all together?

JR: That third full season for guys they start to settle in. Now, he has been in longer than that, but he was a pitcher, so he was a little behind on that and has really caught up in terms of where he should be with his mental approach and things like that. The biggest adjustment for him was getting that sense of timing and consistency at the plate with an approach that works for him and just bringing that to the park everyday consistently.

Q: The tools with Moncrief are certainly exciting though, yes?

JR: He works really hard and he has in the past. The tools were always there, the hard work has always been there, and now it is starting to take shape. He is seeing some results he has not seen in the past and he is excited about it, and it only fuels that work ethic even more. All the tools are there with the strength, the bat speed, foot speed and arm strength. Now he is really starting to figure this game out and put things together for himself and what he brings to the table. The sky is the limit, you never know. Who knows what this guy can do, and if he puts it together he can be pretty good.

Q: You had third baseman Giovanny Urshela at Low-A Lake County in 2011. Has anything noticeable change with his bat from then to now?

JR: He still has some things to work on, but he has definitely gotten better with getting to certain points in his swing where in the past he would really cheat. He saw a lot of fastballs at [Lake County] and [at Akron] they started to pitch to him a little bit more, and as a result he had to make some adjustments to his athleticism in the box and his timing and rhythm and things like that. He is not as far along as a guy like Jose Ramirez is as far as his consistency, but he has made some good adjustments.

Q: Urshela makes consistent contact, so is the primary area of focus about getting him to make more hard contact by being more selective about the pitches he is swinging at?

JR: You kind of led into it right there. He needs to be more consistent with what pitches he is putting swings on. He just needs a little more consistency with staying on the ball with his eyes and recognizing pitches he can and cannot handle. He gets himself in trouble when he swings at pitches out of the zone. He has done a better job of that, but that is one thing he really needs to improve to put himself over the edge.

Q: Catcher Jake Lowery had a very nice season. He really committed to his offseason workouts and came into the season in great shape. Did it really make that much of a difference?

JR: Like you said about being in shape, he asked last year what he can he work on in the offseason and we were pretty upfront with him and told him that he needs to get in shape so that he can play every day and a full season – especially at that position. So he did that. He took ownership of that and he came in in great shape and it helped him out defensively. It has helped him out mentally as well as he is just a happier guy.

Q: Lowery looked more relaxed and confident at the plate this year. What changed?

JR: He has done a good job mentally at letting at bats go in not dwelling on the negative or even the positive hitting a home run. The at bat is over and he has another at bat to concentrate on, so he was kind of letting the past go easier this year. His swing has improved so he is using the other side of the field better, so he is not giving the pitcher the outside half to work with. If they throw it out there he can take that away, and it forces them to come in sometimes which he can really take advantage of. So he has opened up the plate some as a hitter and things are working out.

Q: Outfielder Tyler Holt really seems to be coming into his own as a legit major league outfield option in the near future. The bat is the one thing that has held him back, but he made some strides with his swing and approach over the past year. What have you worked on?

JR: Just thinking back, I never had him in a season until this year, but I have seen him in spring training of course and in Instructional League. When he signed he was lower and did have a lot more uphill action to his swing. It just gave him a limited zone to hit into. So he worked really hard on that. This year it was mainly mental. Similar to Lowery, he is letting at bats go and is kind of accepting how the game works. He is not going to hit 1.000 and they are going to get you out once in a while. So just put yourself in the best position possible to have the best chance. That is all you can really do.

Q: So with Holt it really is less about mechanical adjustments at the plate, but more about mental adjustments?

JR: He has done a really good job of making adjustments mentally and emotionally from at bat to at bat, which in the past – even at the beginning of this year. I was recognizing he was bringing the past into the batter’s box with him and it was just clouding his vision of the ball and he just was not having any fun. Once he had some clarity to how he was just making the game more difficult by doing that, then he started to improve physically and fundamentally in the box. He was more open to adjustments. He doesn’t see them as a distraction versus something that is going to help him, so he can really focus on that. So mental adjustments for him were a big key and he is making some strides.

Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIBI. Also, his new book the 2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider which profiles the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is available for sale.

I hope Ramirez's surgery wasn't a career buster.

Indians did not make a selection in Rule 5 draft.

and we didn't lose anyone either.

The first 2 picks in the Rule 5 draft were Indians

Pirates Josh Rodriguez, SS Indians
Mariners Jose Flores, RHP Indians

Tribe must be loaded.

That's from 2 or 3 years ago. None of our guys were drafted this year.



ORLANDO—In what turned out to be a very routine, very brief Rule 5 draft, the Rangers landed the best player during the minor league phase.

It’s not often that an MVP candidate is available in the Rule 5 draft, and it’s even less likely that he can be acquired for $12,000. Russell Wilson is an elite, top-of-the-charts talent. The only problem is that because he’s busy leading the Seattle Seahawks on a potential Super Bowl run, he might not find much time to work on his offseason fielding and hitting drills.

Wilson, a $400,000 gamble by the Rockies as a fourth-round pick in 2010, spent two years with the club as a second baseman, making it to low Class A Asheville, before giving up baseball to focus on improving his NFL draft stock.

Patrick Schuster
Patrick Schuster (Photo by Bill Mitchell)

Wilson’s selection was one of the highlights of a Rule 5 draft with few standouts and even fewer selections in the major league phase. More than two-thirds of the teams looking at the available players decided that passing was preferable to picking. Just nine players were taken this year, the fewest since nine were taken in 1987.

The Astros, picking No. 1 in this year’s draft, looked at the eligible players list and decided to shop the pick. More than most teams, Houston has made use of the Rule 5 to add depth to its system, taking and keeping righthanders Rhiner Cruz (2011), Josh Fields (2012) and Aneury Rodriguez (2010) and shortstop Marwin Gonzalez (2011).

Faced with unappealing options, the Astros worked out a trade with the Padres, a club that looked more favorably at the Rule 5 pickings. San Diego wanted to add a lefty reliever to help the big league club, and they also needed to clear a 40-man roster spot to be eligible to even make a Rule 5 pick. So on the day before the draft, the Padres traded righthander Anthony Bass to the Astros for a player to be named. That PTBN turned out to be Diamondbacks lefthander Patrick Schuster, whom the Astros drafted with the top pick and immediately dealt to the Padres.

“Historically, we’ve seen the top pick go for cash considerations only,” Astros coordinator of pro scouting Kevin Goldstein said. “To get a player for a Rule 5 pick is very rare, and to get a player who has big league experience (Bass) who will hopefully be part of our bullpen or big league rotation is even rarer.”

The Padres have a pretty good sense of what they are getting. General manager Josh Byrnes and numerous members of the Padres front office knew Schuster from their time in Arizona.

“He’s a low-slot lefty who gives a tough look for lefthanders,” Padres vice president of player development Randy Smith said. “We have a hole at the major league level in terms of lefthanded relief, so Schuster might fit a need for us. He held lefties to a (.187) average this year , with lots of strikeouts (20 in 88 plate appearances).

“The breaking ball is more fringe or average, but it’s the tough look—the low slot—that makes him effective.”

If Schuster sticks, and fewer than one-third of picks do, he will likely be a one-out lefty in the Padres bullpen. As is often the case, the majority of major league Rule 5 picks project to fill similar roles, and seven of the nine players taken project as relievers.

The Blue Jays went in a similar direction, drafting Mariners Triple-A lefty Brian Moran. The brother of Marlins third baseman Colin Moran, Brian survives with a below-average fastball because of a funky delivery. He handcuffs lefties (.591 OPS in 2013 at Triple-A), but struggles to retire righthanders (.894 OPS).

A trio of power righthanders also were selected. The Phillies drafted the Diamondbacks’ Kevin Munson, the Rockies took the Yankees’ Tommy Kahnle and the D-backs selected Marcos Mateo from the Cubs.

Marcos Mateo
Marcos Mateo (Photo by Bill Mitchell)

Though he was taken last, Mateo may end up being the most interesting name of the trio. A former big leaguer with the Cubs, Mateo missed all of 2012 and much of 2013 with an elbow injury. He returned to the mound late this season, pitched well at Triple-A Iowa, then went to the Dominican League, where he has dominated this winter. Mateo was 3-0, 0.93 with nine saves. More importantly, he’s doing it with dominating stuff, featuring a fastball that is 95-97 mph and a hard 86-90 slider. Over his final six appearances prior to the Rule 5, he struck out 12 and allowed no runs or walks in seven innings.

The Mets picked Phillies righthander Seth Rosin, a groundball-oriented starter with fringe-to-average stuff, then shipped him to the Dodgers for cash considerations.

The other major league picks were interesting for a variety of reasons. The White Sox looked at their thin catching corps and decided to draft Nationals catcher Adrian Nieto. He’s the first catcher picked in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft since 2008. As the second player taken, he’s the highest drafted catcher since Kelly Stinnett went second in the 1993 Rule 5.

A high school teammate of Eric Hosmer, Nieto was once a prominent prospect, though a 50-game suspension for performance-enhancing drug use in 2011 has dimmed his stock. Since returning, he played for Spain’s World Baseball Classic team, then performed adequately but unspectacularly in the high Class A Carolina League this year, where scouts generally pegged him as a potential fringe big leaguer in the future. He helped himself with a solid showing at the Arizona Fall League. Now he’ll get a chance to try to jump from Class A to the big leagues, competing with young catchers Tyler Flowers and Josh Phegley with the White Sox.

The Brewers took the biggest flier in the draft, selecting 21-year-old Pirates lefthander Wei-Chung Wang. Most teams had strong reports on Wang’s stuff—he throws 92-94 mph with a potentially plus changeup—and he got results (42-4 SO/BB rate in 2013), but he’ll be trying to make the jump from the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League to the majors. Signed out of Taiwan in October 2011, Wang’s contract was voided and renegotiated because of an injury discovered during his team physical. He eventually had Tommy John surgery.

“(GM) Doug Melvin encourages us to be creative, so while Wang pitched this year in the GCL we feel like he’s very poised,” Brewers director of pro scouting Zack Minasian said. “Now whether that will play on the mound in a big league stadium remains to be seen,”

With 21 teams passing, and the first pick having been traded, it’s hard not to view this as a thin Rule 5 class.

“You look at the list initially and sometimes a name or two stands out, but in the Rule 5 draft, it’s all in the eye of the beholder,” Rangers director of pro scouting Josh Boyd said. “We could have seen 20 players drafted. Teams could have had holes to fill, but I did think it was a light class.”

Minor League Phase

The Rule 5 draft got much busier when it turned to the minor league portion. With a $12,000 drafting fee and no strings attached (players don’t have to stick on any certain roster), clubs selected 34 players in the Triple-A phase and two more in the Double-A phase.

It’s hard to argue with Wilson’s decision to take up football—or the Rangers’ decision to select him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5. In just two seasons, he’s become one of the NFL’s premier quarterbacks. But all that time, he’s been sitting on the Rockies’ restricted list. Now that the Rangers have taken him in the Rule 5 draft, he’ll slide over to the Texas restricted list.

The Rangers knows that Wilson may never take an at-bat for the organization, but they won’t rule out the possibility. Even if he doesn’t, they hope that they can bring him in to talk to the system’s minor leaguers, and the $12,000 could end up as some sort of speaker’s fee.

“Special leaders and competitors, we’re drawn to,” Boyd said. “I think he brings preparation, consistency, dominance. For us, that’s where the upside comes into play.

“Whatever this turns out to be, we added a very special person to the organization. If it’s one day or 10 minutes, he might have a chance to touch the career of a young player. That’s a huge upside. It’s a minimal investment. We definitely don’t view it as a gimmick.”

That's from 2 or 3 years ago. None of our guys were drafted this year.

Thanks Civ

Got to wipe the sleepshit out of my eyes. Didn't see the 2010 date.

While looking for something else I found these months-before-the-2013 draft comments about Clint Frazier:

How realistic are Mike Trout comparisons for Clint Frazier? Do you think he has a legitimate chance of going No. 1 overall in the upcoming draft?

Chris Kurtz
Rocklin, Calif.

An outfielder from Loganville (Ga.) HS, Frazier may have moved ahead of crosstown rival Austin Meadows of Grayson HS as the top high school prospect in this year’s draft. But any Trout comparisons are a bit much and he probably won’t be the top choice in the 2013 draft.

However, neither of those statements should be construed as a knock on Frazier, who delivered two homers when he matched up against Meadows last week. He looks like a future star.

Based on his major and minor league performance to date, Trout could be a once-in-a-generation type of talent. He’s a 6-foot-1, 220-pounder with top-of-the-line speed and hitting skills, not to mention at least above-average power and center-field ability. While Frazier is more highly regarded than Trout was at the same point in his career, Frazier doesn’t have the same tools. He’s a 5-foot-11, 185-pounder who’s more of a plus hitter and projects as a future plus runner who eventually may move to right field. That still makes Frazier a very talented player, even if he pales somewhat in comparison to someone who batted .326/.399/.564 with 49 steals as a 20-year-old rookie last year.

As good as Frazier is, he’d be an atypical No. 1 overall pick. In the 48 previous drafts, only three righthanded-hitting prep outfielders have gone No. 1: Jeff Burroughs (1969, Senators). Shawn Abner (1984, Mets) and Delmon Young (2003, Devil Rays). Abner had a similar profile to Frazier and wound up as one of the biggest No. 1 choice busts in draft history. I believe Frazier is in the Astros’ mix for the top selection in June, but at this point I expect Houston to opt for a college pitcher.

Indians Designate Trey Haley For Assignment

By Steve Adams [December 19 at 2:42pm CST]


The Indians have designated right-hande Trey Haley for assignment in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for new closer John Axford, according to the team's Transactions page.

Haley, 23, was selected in the second round of the 2008 draft. The Texas native posted solid ERA numbers and big strikeout totals in 2011-12 despite a poor walk rate. His command worsened in 2013, however, as he walked 39 batters in 44 frames. Haley still managed to strike out 46 batters in that time and keep his ERA at 4.70, but command looks to be a persistent problem for him. In 323 minor league innings, Haley has a 299-to-241 K/BB ratio to go along with 42 hit batters and 58 wild pitches.

It's good to have a few weak links on the 40-man roster so there are easy dumps when FA signing season comes. Haley briefly looked good when he moved to the bullpen, and I suppose he still has a shot. Can't expect anyone to scoop him up.