Handy-Dandy Rule 5 Cheat Sheet

14 Commments

1. Fuentes and Sanchez are also Rule 5 eligible, right?

   1. Yeah, but I didn’t have time this a.m. to put in the IFAs. Both of those players have been available since 2018 or earlier.

      1. OK.

2. In looking up the great Danny Rosenbaum, I came across a link to this blast from the past, a Nat prospect list from seven years ago. (Hint: the top two are now Angels, and Goodwin was ranked ahead of TTB.)

   https://blogs.fangraphs.com/washington-nationals-top-15-prospects-2012-13/

3. I’d forgotten about Michael Martinez. Without ever showing an ability to hit he was still able to stick in the majors for parts of 7 years. Good for him.

4. I have no recollection of Michael Martinez as a member of the Nats organization. I checked his background on BR:

   Phillies selected him in the Rule V draft in December 2010. He played the entire 2011 season in Philly: 209 ABs .196/.258/.282/.540. He even appeared in a post-season game for Philly that year as a pinch runner. In his 6 subsequent MLB seasons he never had more than 115 ABs. He did appear in the WS for the Indians in 2016.

   Given their open roster spots, could see the Nats taking someone in the Rule V, even though the Nats pick late.

   1. His career OPS was .505.

5. OK, I bow in apology to those who were insisting we would lose Sterling Sharp. He actually has a chance to stick, and start, with the Marlins. Good luck to him. I would have been more distressed if we lost Fuentes or Sanchez, though.

6. Good luck to Sterling Sharp in Miami.

   Not too good of luck. But good luck. Sorry it didn’t work out here, for whatever reason.

7. A big part of the reason I’m not upset about losing Sharp — if he sticks — is that this is how the system is supposed to work. Yeah, theoretically, it would have been good to be able to trade him and get something for him, but unless he was combined with two or three other players, it wouldn’t have been much.

   But let’s be honest, Sharp wasn’t going to start with the big club here in the foreseeable future. They have possibly the best top four in baseball, three guys (so far) in line to fight for the next slot, McGowin already with a little decent MLB work, Braymer destined for the MLB camp, and Crowe and Sanchez likely joining him. At the AA level, Fuentes was better than Sharp in basically every statistical category. So Sharp would have been around the #13 starter in the Nat pecking order.

   So good luck to him. This is a heck of an opportunity for a 22d-round pick from a college I’ve never heard of.

   1. That’s a great point. Especially considering how much roster headroom we have, I would have rather we protected him and traded him, so we could at least get a little value for him. But this is, indeed, how the system is supposed to work.

8. The very minor trade of Buddy Reed by the Pads to the A’s caught my eye because Reed was in the same Team USA OF with Nick Banks and Corey Ray in the summer of 2015. Banks hit .386, Ray .355, and Reed .326. Ray maintained his status through his junior year and was the 1/5 pick by the Brewers. He managed to slash only .188/.261/.329 in the PCL pinball league in ’19. Reed dropped a little and went 2/48 in the draft. He struggled along at .228/.310/.388 in ’19 and just got traded. Banks, of course, fell all the way to 4/124. But right now, it’s fair to say that he’s in the best career shape of all of them after making it to AA and producing a reasonable .288/.358/.410.

   There are no sure things, even among the best college players.

   1. Reed’s 2019 numbers are from AA.

9. Sharp was a given, just very happy that Fuentes or anyone else were not.
   Sharps best chance is with a team that doesn’t really care about winning in 2020. Like Sao and KW, good luck to him.

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