Friday, December 14, 2018

Rule 5- Giants take two

Photo Courtesy:C's Plus Baseball
The Rule 5 draft rarely yields huge impact players, but being that I see so many minor league games, I've seen so many players in the draft actually play, I've always enjoyed covering it.

The Indians and Pirates passed on making any selections in the major league portion, but the San Francisco Giants under new organization head Farhan Zaidi were the only team to make two selections.

In the first round, the Giants selected left-handed reliever Travis Bergen from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Bergen was a seventh-round draft pick from Kennesaw State (Georgia) in 2015
The 25-year-old Bergen was moved to the bullpen full time by the Blue Jays in 2018 and Bergen posted tremendous stats at High A Dunedin (1.71 ERA, 31 strikeouts in 21 innings) before exceeding those following a promotion to AA New Hampshire (0.50 ERA and 43 whiffs in 35 innings).
Bergen throws in the low to middle nineties and I saw him pitch to one batter as a Fisher Cat, so I've seen him but one batter was pretty limited viewing.
Bergen is also reported to have a plus curveball and the Giants might have a space to place him in if a trade comes through for either of their bullpen southpaws Will Smith or Tony Watson, both who have been mentioned in trade talks.
Should Zaidi move one of the two veterans, I think Bergen would have a decent chance of sticking with the Giants, who would be forced to offer Bergen back to Toronto for 50,000 dollars, which is half of the cost the Giants paid to select Bergen.
C's Plus baseball, a blog that covers the Northwest League's Vancouver Canadians, where Bergen started his career has an interview with Bergen here.

The Giants selected outfielder Drew Ferguson from the Houston system with their second-round pick.
Ferguson was Houston's selection in the 19th round in 2015 after playing his college baseball at Belmont University in Tennessee and has been plagued by injuries, having played a high of 113 games in a season and just 71 last season.
Ferguson hit .305 with four homers in 65 games last season at AAA Fresno, has consistently hit for a good average and can play all three outfield positions. but has only hit double-digit homers once (14 at High A Lancaster in the best power park in the minors).
Ferguson seems like a longshot to make the Giants roster, but when you have the dollars, why not take a look.

Only one of the three teams lost a player in the Major portion as the Indians lost pitcher Kyle Dowdy to the Mets.
The Indians obtained Dowdy along with Leonys Martin in the deadline deal last year with the Tigers
Dowdy's arm that has touched 99 is apparently why he has had three teams interested in him and want to try to develop him because when you look at the numbers that Dowdy has posted, you wonder how he could be considered more than an organizational soldier.
If the Mets do not keep Dowdy on the main roster for the season, they will have to offer him back to Cleveland for $50,000, which the Indians would likely pay as it seemed from their words yesterday that they were disappointed to lose him.

In the AAA portion of the draft. where you can select players for $12,000 and keep their rights without having to offer them back to their former team.
The Indians, Giants, and Pirates each selected two players and each lost players.
Cleveland drafted lefty reliever Yapson Gomez from the Cubs, who split last year between Low A South Bend and High A Myrtle Beach and first baseman Wilson Garcia from the Orioles, who played last year for High A Frederick.
Gomez will likely slot into the bullpen at High A Lynchburg.while Garcia pounded 23 homers for the Keys, but at 24 was old for the league.
We'll see how highly the Indians think of Garcia if they give him a chance to start at AA Akron or use him as a veteran power bat at High A Lynchburg.

San Francisco added second baseman Peter Maris from the Rays and relief pitcher Sam Moll from the Blue Jays.
The 25-year-old Maris split 71 games between High A Charlotte and AA Montgomery and hit eleven homers.
The soon to be 27 year old Moll was once a highly touted prospect but has never been able to flourish above AA, although he did pitch in eleven games for Oakland in 2017.

Pittsburgh drafted another former Frederick Key in outfielder Randolph Gassaway and pitcher Winston Nicacio from the Cardinals.
Gassaway hit .272 with six homers in 103 games for the Keys in his second stint in Frederick and seems to be a curious choice for Pittsburgh, although most of the players taken in this phase tend to be used as depth in the organization more than true prospects.
Nicasio is 21 (22 next week), which is a little young to be in this draft and looked very impressive at short-season State College (42 strikeouts in 41 innings and batters hit just .206 against him), so he might be a little more of a prospect than a usual selection.

The Indians lost three players- pitchers Matt Esparza and Hector Figueroa along with first baseman Anthony Miller.
Esparza missed most of last season with injuries, while Figueroa is interesting to be selected as he is 24, never pitched above the Arizona rookie league and only 22 innings there.
Miller hit .264 and eight homers in his second season at High A Lynchburg.

The Giants lost two pitchers in Dusten Knight and Ian Gardeck along with outfielder Jeffrey Baez.
Knight pitched very well from the bullpen for AA Richmond ( .205 batting average and 2.27 ERA), but at 28 has pitched just six innings above AA.
Gardeck was a one time prospect before missing the entire 2016 and 17 seasons and pitched only 13 innings in 2018.
Baez spent the last two seasons with the Cubs AA affiliate in Tennessee and signed with the Giants last month as a minor league free agent.

The Pirates lost first baseman Jordan George and catcher Raeflin Lorenzo.
George hit. 263 with five homers in his second season with AA Altoona.
The 21-year-old Lorenzo hit .307 with three homers in 88 at-bats at Low A West Virginia after the Pirates drafted him from Tampa in the 2017 Rule 5 draft, so there's potential there, but in five seasons as a pro-Lorenzo has played in just 200 games.

After the draft, the Pirates traded with the Padres for their draft pick, 21-year-old pitcher Cristofer Melendez, who has never pitched above the Dominican league in the White Sox system.
Melendez was acquired for cash considerations.

One former Hagerstown Suns player was selected as catcher Alex Flores from last years Hagerstown team was selected by the Houston Astros.
Flores batted .216 with six homers in 66 games in the SAL.


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