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40-Man Moves: Kimball Claimed, Brown Outrighted

Well, it wouldn’t be any fun if we could predict every move, right?

As the headline says, Cole Kimball was claimed off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays while Corey Brown cleared them and was outrighted to Syracuse. Kimball is an interesting risk for the Blue Jays, given that he’s unlikely to pitch until mid ’12 after undergoing surgery this past July. Brown had the beginning and end of ’11 cut short by injuries, but did get a September call-up.

The moves knock down the Nationals’ 40-man roster to 32 ahead of the Friday deadline for the Rule 5 draft. As mentioned in the comments, it’s fair to speculate that these may not be the only players dropped, given that the most recent waiver period only began a few days ago, and these two move were most likely made on Monday morning (the waiver period is 48 hours).

20 Commments

    1. And you can root for The Chief and Shawn Hill. His injury is similar. And there are the Hassan Pena’s, Josh Smokers (new to relief work), Rafael Martin’s and perennial favorite to get to the majors, local ultra fav Josh Wilkie.

  4. I always figured we might lose a player or two because of the deeper system, but Cole Kimball, and Slaten is still there?
    Not a huge loss, but it does seem totally unnecessary. I didn’t even think that Kimball was Rule 5 eligible.

  5. I’m confused as to why we have to make this move. If we’re already down to 32, why do we need to get rid of Kimball. Are we already close to bringing in 8 free agents?

    We can also blame Boras. He’s the one that’s got Purke, Rendon, and Harper major league deals and 40-man slots so quickly.

    1. Not a great question. I forgot that we have to protect our Rule 5 guys. Zuckerman put out a list of guys that need to be protected. Are there 8 from this list? Or does Rizzo have his eyes on some other guys on waivers?

      Derek Norris
      Tyler Moore
      Josh Smoker
      Brad Meyers
      Jack McGeary
      Erik Komatsu
      Steven Souza
      Patrick McCoy
      Jeff Mandel
      Sandy Leon
      Chris Curran
      Stephen King
      J.R. Higley
      Jose Lozada

      Guys that have to be protected seem to me to be Norris, Komatsu, and Moore. Guys who could be protected are Meyers and Smoker (maybe?).

      What say you on these other 8 slots? I count 3-5 in house adds so far.

      1. You have to add in spots for FA’s, as it is couterproductive to add a guy to protect him, than DFA him. If you add on Norris, Moore, Komatsu, Meyers, and Smoker, that makes room for 3 FA’s. you can do the math on if you remove guys. Say we get rid of Slaten, we bring in a CF, a pitcher, and 2 bench guys and you have 40. Guys like Garcia, Wilkie, Zinicola, Mandel, etc could also get a spot. While I really like Kimball, I can see where this move could be made, and it says something about how far the ORG has come, that we can not worry about losing a guy like Kimball. Zuckerman did a good job explaning the Slaten thing, saying that he will be non-tendered, and thats why hes still on the roster. I would like to end with wishing Kimball the best of luck in his recovery

        1. Thanks for your two cents. There are other expendable guys on the 40-man, though. For example,
          Balester, Severino, and Stammen all have to be borderline really that high of a prospect at this point.. Severino’s left-handed so I guess that gives him more rope.

          Please no Gaudin’s this year, Rizzo. That was a mighty big headscratcher for me.

          Zuckerman nailed this one for sure.

          1. I would keep Severino and Stammen, as they both showedsome potential to be legit major league players, I have yet to see the stuff, and the results from Balester. If I guy like Gaudin makes the roster, someone should drug test Rizzo

          2. Gaudin and Broderick won’t happen again. Both were Riggleman ‘s idea. We’ve left Giggleman’s Isle and we’re now on Davey Johnson’s Pirate ship according to Rizzo.

    2. Not wanting to sound cold-hearted about Kimball, but he may have cost himself a career by trying to pitch through pain this spring. As a result, he shredded his rotator cuff & greatly reduced his chances of making it back. I wish him well.

      1. Just ask Craig Stammen: once they get to the bigs they’ll keep pitching until the arm falls off. It’s such a tough call. They get programmed to pitch through pain and the line between pain and injury is so blurry.

        2. Or Tom Gorzelanny. See rookie Gorzelanny pitching 200+ outstanding innings for the Rocky’s manager who was then manager of the Pirates. He had never pitched 100 even in the minors before that year. Every single savvy Pirate blog predicted his arm would not come back next year. The were right.

          1. I’ve made a few comments here and there around the Natmosphere lately while I continue to wrestle with some stress related health issues. Things are getting better, though, and I look forward to keeping tabs on the Hot Stove League.

  6. Sue- I know we have to protect players from the Major League portion of the Rule V draft and if someone is picked they have to stay on the 25-man roster for the year, but how does the minor league phase go? Who may be in danger of getting snapped up in that phase of the Rule V draft? and what are the rules for players selected during the minor league rounds?

    1. Teams are allowed to protect 38 players from the AAA phase, and 37 from the AA phase and those names aren’t released to the public. From the Sons of Sam Horn Wiki:

      After the Major League phase, the AAA phase takes place, in which other organizations can pluck players on other teams’ AA rosters. During the AA phase, organizations can take Rule 5-eligible players on neither roster. The minor league Rule 5 draft is primarily a roster-filling exercise and players taken rarely reach the major leagues, not to mention establish themselves as big-league players. Unlike the Major League phase, players drafted in the AAA phase are not required to play at AAA, nor are AA draftees required to play in AA. It costs $12,000 to select a player in the AAA phase and $4,000 in the AA phase.

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