By Tim Dierkes | at
This year's Rule 5 draft kicks off in about an hour. Here are a couple of free preview-type links from MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo and Baseball America's John Manuel. We'll cover the Major League phase here at MLBTR. Draft order is determined based on the reverse order of 2010 records.
By Mike Axisa | at
Baseball's annual Rule 5 Draft is an often forgotten source of talent. It's designed to help players that are stuck in the minor leagues, perhaps blocked by a superstar like Albert Pujols or Evan Longoria, reach the big leagues with a different organization. Make sure you check out our Rule 5 Draft primer if you're unsure of how it works or what makes a player eligible.
For the most part, teams look to acquire role players in the Rule 5 Draft (a bench piece, long reliever, etc.) rather than hit a home run and find a star. The Dan Ugglas and Joakim Sorias are few and far between. The Orioles did select a future All Star in the 2003 Rule 5 Draft, but unfortunately Jose Bautista's breakout didn't occur until six years later with the Blue Jays. Jay Gibbons hit .260/.314/.455 with 126 homers in parts of seven seasons with the O's after they grabbed him from Toronto in the 2000 Rule 5 Draft.
The Orioles have selected a player in major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft every year since 2005, most notably landing Alfredo Simon back in 2006. Steve Melewski of MASN Sports recently spoke to one of Baltimore's higher-ups about how they prepare for the event…
"Now you simply go through all your reports and most people don't realize that there are more than 10,000 reports on this year's (available) players in virtually every club's system," said John Stockstill, the Orioles director of player development. "In our case, (assistant director of player development) Tripp Norton we be involved, I'll be involved and Lee MacPhail (director, pro scouting) will head that with all our scouts … Lee will use all of our reports available and we'll eventually target several players that we'd like to acquire."
Baltimore is a team with a lot of young talent on their roster and the financial means to make a splash in free agency, but they're still looking to fill some holes by being creative. Stockstill said they rank the Rule 5 Draft eligible players on their radar in several different ways, including by position and by team need. This year they could be searching for a shortstop or backup catcher, and of course pitching.
It's not often that the Rule 5 Draft bears fruit, but considering the cost (just $50K to select a player), it's a great way for a rebuilding team to add some young pieces to the roster and see what sticks.
By Mike Axisa | at
On this date back in 1974, Catfish Hunter met with Oakland A's owner Charles Finley and Peter Seitz of the American Arbitration Association in New York after the team failed to make a $50,000 payment into a long-term annuity fund. The right-hander claimed that his contract had been violated, and Seitz eventually ruled in his favor. Hunter became the first big name free agent in baseball history, later signing a five-year, $3.5MM contract with the Yankees that made him the highest-paid player in baseball history.
Here's a helping of links that go well with Thanksgiving leftovers…
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.
By Mike Axisa | at
On this date 41 years ago, Major League owners unanimously elected Bowie Kuhn to a seven-year term as commissioner. It was under Kuhn that the reserve clause was eliminated, paving the way for free agency as we know it.
We've got a lot of links to get to, so let's dive right in…
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here.
By Cork Gaines | at
On this date two years ago, the Tigers acquired Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis for six players including Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller. Only one of the other four players, Burke Badenhop has yet to see significant playing time at the big league level. With this year's winter meetings set to begin next week more big players could be on the move. Let's take a look at what is being written in the Blogosphere…
Cork Gaines writes for RaysIndex.com. If you have a suggestion for this feature, Cork can be reached here, and followed on Twitter here.
By Steve Adams | at
Dejan Kovacevic has a new column up focusing on a number of Pirates topics:
By Tim Dierkes | at
2:32pm: Patton, a righty reliever, was traded from the Reds to the Cubs in a prearranged deal. And the Royals immediately send Lugo to the Mariners. Head on over to Baseball America for analysis of the draft.
12:28pm: Baseball America has all the picks.
10:54am: The latest on the Rule 5 draft, to be updated…
By Tim Dierkes | at
Stray links I’ve collected over the past few days…
By Tim Dierkes | at
Several readers have emailed asking for information about the Rule 5 draft, which takes place on December 7th at the winter meetings. First you should start with Kary Booher’s article at Baseball America explaining how everything works.
Booher also looks at notable additions to the 40-man roster for all 30 teams. Between Booher’s article, Peter Gammons’ latest blog post, and an article from Nick James at Camden Depot, here are some available players (several are injured):
Juan Abreu
Jordan Brown
Bobby Brownlie
Matt Fox
Alan Horne
Kei Igawa
Chuck Lofgren
Daniel Mayora
Eduardo Morlan
Chris Nicoll
Jay Rainville
James Skelton
Tim Stauffer
Wade Townsend
Philippe Valiquette
Donald Veal
Ryan Wagner
Kyle Waldrop
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
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