Rule 5 Update

Less than 2 hours left before the Rule 5 and here is what I see:

1) The Guardians will have 3 players drafted today:

a) Peyton Battenfield - If he is around when Tampa Bay picks I see him going to TB today. TB just cleared another roster spot this morning and I see them taking 2 players in the ML portion of the Rule 5.  In a funny twist if he makes it by TB I see him being drafted by the Yankees.  The Yanks would not take him to be spiteful but as I could see him filling a need in the Yankees bullpen or rotation I see them picking him with glee to feel better about losing Trevor Stephan.

b) Jonathon Rodriguez - I see him going to Oakland and, if not them, he may last until the second round and then could go to whoever drafted a player in the first round.  Again, this is one of those situations like Hector Rondon was a few years ago where potential based on his performance this year + a good winter in the Puerto Rico league vaults a guy who was a question mark into a guy who the team thinks could go all Akil Badoo.   Don't be surprised if Pittsburgh or Washington picks him, however.  

c) Trey Benton - The buzz on him is hard to deny and I see some team active in the Rule 5 taking him in the second round or maybe even in the 3rd round if they are in a deep rebuild like the A's are.    More likely, though, I see him going to a team like the Pirates who might see him as a real lottery ticket who could blossom by next year into a ML closer as compared to some teams who would look at him as a complimentary piece down the road with a chance at more after that.

That's it.   Those are the Guardians players I predict who will be selected in the major league portion of the Rule 5.   

Of less interest but still interesting is who the Guardians will leave exposed to the AAA phase.  Remember, we have so many decent prospects that guys we don't even have in the top 50 of our prospects might fit into the end of the top 30 in other organizations.   As we can only protect so many (I think 30) on our AAA reserve list, there will likely be some spillover of decent prospects into the group eligible for the AAA portion.  There may be some surpising names who may be selected there, as well.  Here are a list of guys I think the Guardians might lose in the AAA portion:

Robert Broom 

Elvis Jerez

Sergio Morillo

Aaron Bracho

Rey Delgado

Marcos Gonzalez

Kyle Marman

Brauny Munoz

Adam Scott

Victor Planchart

Eric Rodriguez

This is just a partial list but you can see what I mean.  There are guys on this list who don't fall into the first or second tier level of our unrostered, Rule 5-eligible prospects who might have a chance to make it to the majors.

Well, time is almost here.  Keep your fingers crossed that our losses are zero.