2062.24: Rule 5 Supplements SFB for Fourth Year in a Row

[BaseClogger]

9/25/2062


Since the 2059 season the Bears have received contributions from a rule 5 draftee every year. Lets review those selections.





2059 – P Ben Weaver

Off Topic

12/16/2058 Drafted in the rule 5 draft (Round 1 , Pick 16, 16th overall Pick) by the San Fernando Bears from the Atlantic City Gamblers.

Weaver was 27 years old and never given a chance in the BBA by Atlantic City. I think his abilities were obscured by the pre-v25 ratings system which assessed his base ratings as 7-9-7, which for those of you whipper snappers who weren’t around then don’t realize is 7 stuff was painfully low. Once the new ratings were put in place it updated to 5-7-6 which I think is pretty clearly a useful pitcher to Brewster GMs these days. Statistically speaking he’d always been productive for the ATC farm system until a disastrous 2058 campaign when he surrendered 13 home runs in 81 innings pitched and posted -1.1 WAR. The other thing we saw that ATC did not seem to value was that his six-pitch repertoire and 4 stamina meant he could start games rather than relieve.

Weaver was immediately a useful BOR starter during a lost season in San Fernando in 2059. He made 31 starts, throwing 148 innings, with a 4.80 ERA but 4.11 FIP and 2.5 WAR. The following offseason his stamina lumped to 3 so we had him start games in 2060 but for AAA Brooks where he struggled to a 5.68 ERA (albeit a 4.35 FIP). Last year he was converted to relief but only managed a 4.55 ERA/4.74 FIP in 59.1 AAA innings and a cup of coffee in the majors. Now 31 years old, Weaver is currently posting the finest season of his career in the Bears’ bullpen, tossing 48.2 innings of 2.77 ERA, 3.10 FIP baseball. He’s our primary setup guy as we chase playoff dreams.




2060 – 2B Victor Ramos

Off Topic

12/16/2059 Drafted in the rule 5 draft (Round 1 , Pick 6, 6th overall Pick) by the San Fernando Bears from the Rocky Mountain Oysters.

Hot off our recent success with Ben Weaver and coming off a miserable 67-95 2059 season that gave us an early pick, we were once again looking to fill a hole on the major league roster via the rule 5 draft. With the recent departure of several veteran middle infielders we targeted guys with 9 infield range and turned up Victor Ramos. Ramos differed from Weaver in that he was 23 years old when he was drafted and hadn’t played above AA, where he had just slashed .288/.383/.411 with 2.8 WAR in the Calgary system. We saw a guy who was fully developed and ready to be a strong defender at second base.

Ramos played in 118 games in 2060 posting 0.8 WAR. His .227/.320/.349 batting line doesn’t immediately impress but it’s a 86 wRC+ for a guy who had a +3.9 ZR in 46 starts at second base. Unfortunately, he was pressed into duty at third and short just as often and his bat/glove don’t play as well there.

Ramos was dealt a contact ratings lump over the 2060-2061 offseason and has never recovered. He only mustered a .203/.281/.285 triple slash in 140 PAs last year before we pulled the plug. Still on the 40-man roster for the moment, Ramos is now viewed as organizational depth in AA.




2061 – LF Rafael Marquis

Off Topic

12/16/2060 Drafted in the rule 5 draft (Round 2 , Pick 19, 51st overall Pick) by the San Fernando Bears from the New Orleans Crawdads.

Feeling some rule 5 momentum, we cleared multiple 40-man roster spots in advance of the 2060 rule 5 draft. We knew we needed a lefty in the pen but we treated our second round pick as an opportunity to take the best player available. That ended up being Rafael Marquis, a corner outfielder from the New Orleans organization. The 23 year-old Marquis was originally drafted out of college, spent a summer in rookie ball, and then three consecutive AAA seasons where he posted an OPS of .831, .830 and 1.009 (!) respectively. That final campaign, in conjunction with strong defensive attributes for a corner outfielder, made him an attractive bench player.

But then in 2061 Marquis hit, and hit more to the tune of a .255/.333/.505 line until he accumulated 418 PAs on a playoff team. His WAR of 1.4 suffered because we started him in center field 40 times despite a -8.6 ZR there. OSA’s ratings assessment of Marquis has been as tumultuous as any player in OOTP25 so we lost confidence in him heading into the 2062 season. After starting off quiet, he eventually heated up to a .288/.361/.513 line at AAA Brooks and returned for the majors for good. He’s been our leadoff hitter down the stretch and rewarded SFB with a 146 wRC+ and 1.8 WAR playing everyday in left field.




2062 – 2B Jose Reyes

Off Topic

12/16/2061 Drafted in the rule 5 draft (Round 1 , Pick 27, 27th overall Pick) by the San Fernando Bears from the Calgary Pioneers.

Finally, our crowning achievement. I asked you, dear reader, what I was missing with Reyes when we introduced him in this TN post and the answer seems to be a resounding “nothing”. Reyes was coming off a 1.1 WAR campaign on Calgary’s AA team so it wasn’t his stats that stood out. He was fully developed and his mix of ratings made him look like a productive enough hitter for third base. But what really caught our eye was that his 8 infield range, despite meh error and TDP ratings, would be sufficient to man the keystone.

Reyes has bounced around our infield throughout the 2062 season generally playing adequate defense. Adequate defense, when paired with a .333 BA and 45 XBHs, makes for 3.4 WAR so far. He’s playing second base every day down the stretch despite lumping to 7 infield range. This offseason we’ll have to decide if that’s good enough to still pencil him in at second base next year or whether further roster shuffling is needed. Who knows, maybe the answer to that position will be found in the 2062 rule 5 draft.

[Trebro]

I am strongly of the opinion that R5 can really help your team if you target correctly. Great work. Kurt!