{"id":7502,"date":"2013-11-20T08:00:10","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com.\/?p=7502"},"modified":"2015-11-19T13:59:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T18:59:27","slug":"early-rule-5-protection-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7502","title":{"rendered":"Nats Rule-5 protection thoughts for 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Walters<\/a>

Walters already got added to the 40-man; who else may join him? Photo unk via wp.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Who might the team protect ahead of the Rule-5 Draft this year? \u00a0The topic came up recently in the comments so I thought i’d publish this post to open up the debate again. \u00a0I’ve got a rule-5 history post as well that i’ll post later this week. \u00a0 And, as it turns out, Nov 20th is the deadline for adding players to the 40-man, so today’s as good a day as any to discuss. \u00a0(Kilgore’s analysis here<\/a>, Baseball’s off-season calendar<\/a> here).<\/p>\n

The Nats off-season rule-5 protection debate really started in late August with an observation made about Zach Walters<\/strong> from\u00a0Adam Kilgore<\/strong> in his pre-Sept 1 callup piece<\/a> on 8\/27\/13. \u00a0It was continued by the announced list of Nats AFL participants<\/a>, which included a couple of significant Rule-5 protection candidates.\u00a0 Walters was subsequently added to the 40-man and called up, ending any Rule-5 speculation.<\/p>\n

As (allegedly) was\u00a0Steve Souza<\/strong>, who hit\u00a0the cover off the ball in AA in 2013, with power to go with his CF defensive capabilities. \u00a0He followed that up by hitting\u00a0.357 in the AFL<\/a>, trailing just mega-prospects\u00a0Kris Bryant<\/strong> and\u00a0C.J. Cron<\/strong> for top hitting honors in Arizona. \u00a0I say Souza was “allegedly added” to the 40-man because, while news of his 11\/1\/13 40-man addition was widely<\/a> published<\/a> at the time, but his name does not appear on MLB.com’s 40-man roster<\/a> for the team nor does there exist an 11\/1\/13 transaction<\/a>\u00a0(Editor’s update<\/strong>: it was posted 10\/31\/13 and the MLB 40-man database was missing him in error; it was eventually fixed). \u00a0\u00a0I don’t know if its just a procedural thing or if all the beat reporters mis-reported the event and it should have been characterized as a “planned future” move. \u00a0But I’ll assume for the rest of this article that Souza is going to be put on the 40-man before the rule-5 draft.<\/p>\n

Two of the most obvious Rule-5 candidates (even if Souza was technically a minor league free-agent to be) are now protected. \u00a0Who else might we see added?<\/p>\n

Using the indispensable sites Draft tracker<\/a>\u00a0and the Big Board<\/a>,\u00a0and then giving some thought to prospect acquisitions made via trade, here’s some thoughts. \u00a0The quick rule-5 rules; any college-aged draftee from 2010 or before who isn’t already on the 40-man roster is Rule-5 eligible this coming off season, and any high-school aged draftee from 2009 or before is newly eligible this year.<\/p>\n

Newly Eligible Players this year worth consideration for protection<\/span>:<\/p>\n