Rule 5 and other happenings
Now at the turn of the year we are through the Rule 5 draft and as has been their want the Chilis were deeply involved. Over the years we have taken many players in the draft and while we haven’t always had the best of success with them, they have at least filled gaps for a few years. Last year’s pick Kade Lebowski looks to have grabbed the starting RF role in 2046.
We lost two players in this year’s draft, 31-yr-old reliever Luis Gomez who had been on waivers for Chilis and 20-yr-old Paul Burton who has had such an unfortunate career with us. Luis had appeared in 113 games out of the bullpen for the franchise and was in the final year of a three-year deal, his drafting at least saved us his $4.2 million contract which will pay the bulk of the first year of the Tony Alomar deal. At the other end of his career Paul Burton never really had a chance in his short ELP career. Drafted in the fourth round of the 2044 draft he had a brief stint in Springfield before heading to Palm Bay of the Florida Prospect League. He got lost on his return and somehow got picked up by the Santiago Tabaqueros on a minor league deal. The BBA laid down the law and returned him to Wichita only for Louisville to attempt to draft him in the fifth round of the 2044 draft, a mere seven months after being drafted in the 2044 amateur draft by Wichita. The BBA commissioner once more prevailed and Paul got to spend 2045 in Columbus until mid-May he blew out his elbow and headed for the IL, expected to remain there until early 2046 at the earliest. This year he was drafted once more, in the second round of the Rule 5 draft by Montreal this time. Despite appeals to the BBA commissioner that he is a mere two years away from the draft by the franchise, it was dismissed without thought by the BBA commissioner as “he has had too many clubs” and so we lose an important draftee.
We were however able to pick up three players in the Rule 5 draft to fill a few perceived gaps. In the first round we were able to pick up 24-yr-old Arturo Ahumade from Long Beach, last year he spent the year in Triple-A. He is not the greatest by any means with his bat, but he is more than capable of being a defensive replacement in most of the positions in the field. In the second round we picked up 34-yr-old Kenyan pitcher Gurmu Icharia from Charlotte, he made 29 starts in Triple-A last year and will get the chance in spring training to earn a spot in the backend of the rotation. I have been approached by several members of the team already to tell be that they are appreciative of his leadership skills. The third round brought 26-yr-old pitcher Bill Gaston from Rockville, he had made 29 starts in Double-A last year after three years in Triple-A. An intelligent hard-working man, he too will be looking for a back end of the rotation spot when we get round to spring. These two pitchers struckout 353 batters between them in 2045, if they can get near that level in the BBA, they could at least earn a spot in the bullpen as impact relievers.
We also lost a former Rule 5 pick, 26-year old Hedde Albers, claimed off waivers by Montreal; he had been selected by Wichita in the first round of the 2041 Rule 5 draft. He had been a good utility defensive replacement and had made 200 BBA appearances for us. The lack of a competent bat though saw him drift down the pecking order and in the last two years he had seen service in Topeka, Columbus and Albuquerque. Hopefully he can revive his career in Montreal.
