Rule 5 Draft

I saw a diary on Minor League Ball.com about the Rule 5 draft. According to the diary, which is from Wikipedia,

Exemptions to Selection Eligibility

Players signed at age 19 or older are exempt from the Rule 5 draft for four years after being drafted (in the amateur draft) or signed by their current organization; players drafted or signed at age 18 or younger are exempt for five years. For example, players drafted in 2004 (or later) at age 19 (or older) will be exempt from the 2007 Rule 5 draft, as will players drafted in 2003 (or later) at age 18 (or younger).

The exemption periods were extended by one year in October 2006 as part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The change took effect immediately, exempting many players from the 2006 Rule 5 draft even though they had been signed in some cases more than four years before the new agreement came into effect. Prior to the rule change, players were exempt for three or four years after the year they were signed (regardless of the year they were drafted), rather than four or five years.

The diary was largely concerned about the Yankees and the prospects they could lose through the Rule 5 draft. The exemption period doesn’t affect many Yankee prospects, and anyone not exempt and not on the 40-man roster is free for the vultures. The Yankees have many good prospects off the 40-man roster (Jeff Marquez, Ferdin Tejeda, Ross Ohlendorf, Frankie Cervelli, Steven White) and some organization players on it (TJ Beam, Brian Bruney, Matt DeSalvo, Chase Wright, Jose Veras, Jeff Karstens, Andy Phillips, Chris Basak, Kevin Reese, Kevin Thompson). However, some busts that still have time to pan out–Eric Duncan and Tim Battle–might not be spared. It is possible that Brian Cashman will re-align his 40-man roster to protect his players of the future and get rid of the AAAA players, but it isn’t certain. There are others, like Reggie Corona, and Brett Smith, that are good but not elite prospects, and their success may not translate to MLB success. However, there are others, like Steven Jackson, that are simply so ineffective that it really doesn’t matter whether anyone takes them or not. However, one thing to consider is that not all of these prospects are major league ready, and the key to the Rule V draft is that the players taken must stay on the MLB roster the whole year, whether on the DL or active, or they must be returned to their original club. The only prospects that aren’t MLB-ready in the least, though are Cervelli and Tejeda. The others–Ohlendorf, Marquez, and White–have reached at least AA or AAA and could conceivably be used some how in an MLB pitching staff.

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