Rule 5 Draft

[Rockies GM (Alex)]

Alright, Royals posted about this earlier and I found it hard to understand. I found a little more clear explanation of what it is and added a few twists to it to possibly make it work. Please vote on the poll. First, read what it's about.

The Rule 5 MLB Draft.

The Rule 5 Draft was created as a way to prevent teams from hoarding minor league talent. Without the Rule 5 draft, teams could hold minor leaguers in their farm system indefinitely, where that player may have a legitimate shot of making the big club with a different organization.

Under the Rule, teams must protect (by adding them to the 40 man roster) minor league players if the players have played a minimun of 35 games on an MLB team throughout the regular season. Players that are on the DL can also be kept if they are hurt and not on a team's 40-man roster. Players that are not on a teams 40-man roster at the start of a season that played more than 35 games the previous year will be put in the Rule 5 draft which will take place sometime in February or March.

There is a catch, however. In order to discourage teams from drafting minor leaguers arbitrarily, the drafting team must keep that player on their major league roster for one complete season. If the drafting team does not meet this requirement, then the player must be offered back to their original team at 400k. Because the minor league players selected in the Rule 5 draft are usually marginal prospects or very raw, relatively few players are selected through the Rule 5 draft each year.

The order for the Rule 5 draft will be determined by the standings of the previous MLB season.


Please vote on this poll, if you have any questions, comment below.

[fogle429]

I love the idea of a Rule 5 draft. I think it keeps people from hoarding young talent

[tmcook14]

I think it is a little confusing but I understand it...my only thought is that if so few players are taken in it why bother with it...it would just be something else to take up board space and monitor that doesn't seem worth the trouble...Having to make sure a guy stays on roster for the full year would be a pain I would think...

[Rockies GM (Alex)]

Still needs more votes. I'm leaning towards White Sox here. A few more and it'll be finished up. Feel free to revote in a comment if needed.

[tigers]

I agree with the White Sox, it would be very difficult to make sure that player is on the roster all year.

[indiansgm]

I was in favor, but i think i will change my vote. we can always see what happens in future years.

[Deleted]

If we use a google docs system that only commissioners have access to, it'll be quite easy to make sure a player is essentially locked on a 40-man roster all year (we can add a new color code to the existing system).

However, I'm still against this because compiling a list of eligible players would be a huge mess. Also, because it's fantasy baseball and not real baseball, it'd be pretty easy to get around this rule because our benches and bullpens are shorter and therefore a team could easily keep a guy on a 40-man roster because we don't have to worry about the bench as much.

However, we do need to do something to keep this prospect hoarding situation from getting out of hand. Having compiled the rosters for about 10 teams on google docs, it's becoming quite clear that there's a group of have and have nots in terms of prospects. I think this is mostly because of the way the FA market is currently working for both released players and spects. Teams that are less active just don't wind up even bidding on players.

[Deleted]

Too confusing to me. The league already has enough going on.

[Deleted]

But I do agree with Reds. Let's see what we can come up with.