The BBA's version of a swap meet usually sees no winner
It's that time of year again folks. Let's raid another teams pantry for garbage players and grab as many as we can thinking that we found something that 31 other astute GM's missed. A.K.A the Rule 5 draft. This year we saw 7 players leave and 3 players join the Twin Cities pool of players who may or may not make the team.
Lost Ted Benson-A former #3 overall pick who just hasn't panned out. A career .210/.245/.382 hitter in 419 at bats. Benson is slow, bad at defense, strikes out a lot and is dumb as an ox. We knew we were going to lose him and in the right situation(HR friendly park) he may be a useful player. Our only regret is that we probably should have traded him somewhere along the way.
John Bartlett- A soon to be 34 year old journeyman who had a little success in the mid 40's. Being a very popular fan favorite with borderline BBA skills, you could make a case for him on the Twin Cities 2054 roster. So, he is not a bad pick by Edmonton who is in the same boat. But at the end of the day, we didn't consider him for the squad and viewed him as AAA depth.
Rich Chandler- He was our top "catching" prospect. Like with Benson, sometimes you need to let go of something and force yourself to do better. Chandler is not a catcher and not a good enough hitter to be a DH.
Han-i Kim - Kim, we hardly knew ya. Signed to a minor league contract with a ML option just 7 days before the draft, he was part of a power in numbers process of bringing in a bunch of low cost relievers to see what sticks. It's not known if he would have made the roster. So maybe we lose him in a couple of months anyway. In hindsight, we probably should have rostered him because he did have 3 options and his $1.4 mil contract wouldn't have been a hinderance on the low budget Twin Cities roster.
Lao Kum Out of all the players we lost, I thought the most about rostering Kum. If for no other reason, think about the excitement it would bring to my lackluster teams news by adding a little Kum at the end. Like imagine if he and International find Siam Suker ended up making an opening day roster someday. Just the sight of them standing side by side would write it's own story. I'd just be afraid to look up a gif to go with that article.
Seriously though, he could be a good short side platoon LF'er and emergency CF'er. We may end up regretting this a little.
Alfonso Rúbio-Picked up by Boise for the second year in a row, I have a feeling he'll be back. Maybe we can work out a trade for a small denomination of unmarked bills or a high OBP player who does nothing else well.
Wally Geoghegan-umm, not much to say here. He has been on the release bubble for a while now.
Gained
Kelsey Perry-Part of building a team is trying to study league trends. The Twin Cities analytic team noticed a significant uptick in the importance of range the past year or two. Finding a defensive shortstop was imperative. Noticing Perry in the rule 5 pool was a good chance to go all-in, so we jumped at it.
We already know he will be one of the worst hitters in the league. Our comp here is Sammy McNeill. He and Perry are similar defensively. McNeill had a bad year offensively last season(.254/.310/.370). I don't even think Perry will sniff those numbers. Yet McNeill posted a 2.8 WAR season. So napkin math suggests that maybe Perry can produce 1.5-2 WAR?
Anurodha Nayar- The loss of Vega and Guzman left a giant hole in the River Monsters lineup. If we stand any chance at finishing .500, we need more umpfh in the middle of the order. Nayar should provide that. 7/8/10/9/6 VS RHP should slot him along with Ramos (8/9/8/11/8) and Simpson(9/9/10/9/8) as an uber dynamic trio that will destroy right handed pitching. Of course the downside is defense. His 4/6/7 outfield defense combined with Simpson(5/6/9) would leave Twin Cities vulnerable at the corners. So, I guess we will see what is needed more on this team that is expected to have quite a few flaws.
Steve Fuller - Fuller, along with Nayer, bumped upon arrival. There are a few ways to go about the rule 5 draft. You can draft a veteran plug and play player to fill a need. You can grab an under developed player to hide for a season, send back to the minors and hope the lost year doesn't F' up their development. Or in the case of all three of these players, grab them at the correct developmental arch where they can jump right into the BBA at the appropriate time. We view Fuller as a replacement for Carlos Rocha. A second or third lefty in the pen who can give you a positive contribution at cost effective rate for 5-6 years. While he obviously can't be optioned to the minors this season, he does hold a full 3 options and a clean service time clock. The same with Nayar and Perry.
So while we lost 7 players and only gained 3, I feel confident that we got better quality over quantity. I fully expect all 3 new players to stay with us the entire season while I feel half of the players we lost may end up back.
