Monthly Archives: December 2007

The Rule 5 draft is tomorrow

Rule 5 Draft

If the Phillies select a player, and I’m sure they will, I’ll have the full scoop here. If I here any more info before tomorrow, you’ll see it in this post. Until then, I have some other stuff to attend to, so let’s discuss the Rule 5 draft here, and also continue the discussion about trading prospects for elite talent in the previous thread. Good stuff so far on both sides of the argument.

Update from BA on Lubanski

• Royals outfielder Chris Lubanski to the Marlins with the fourth overall selection. Lubanski, the fifth overall pick in 2003, was touted for his speed and developing power early in his career. He’s still just 22, and a lot of teams have him on their Rule 5 radar for that reason more than anything else, but the fact is that Lubanski isn’t a plus runner anymore as he’s grown into his frame. He’s not even above-average. “This is a fringe-average runner for me,” said one AL scouting director. And Lubanski didn’t do himself any favors in the Arizona Fall League, often making weak contact and wound up hitting .200/.266/.412 in 85 at-bats.

Phillies prospects, trade edition

Other Stuff

As we all know, the winter meetings are in full force, and everyone is talking trade. Today I pose an open-ended question. Based on the lack of strength of our top 4-5 prospects in comparison with other teams, do we have any “untouchable” prospects? Would you be pissed if Carrasco and Cardenas were traded as part of a package for Erik Bedard or Dan Haren? Is the composition of the major league team, in a zone where they are likely going to contend for the next 3-4 years, dictating that we trade prospects now to add that final piece and push us over the top? I have my opinions on this, but I want to see what the general view is.

SPAM bin emptied

Other Stuff

WordPress has a cool little tool built into the site that catches all SPAM posts and filters them into a holding bin of sorts. These would normally be in the form of comments, many of which are 50-75 lines long, containing links to x-rated sites, links to buy erectile dysfunction pills, and other various noise. Normally it’s safe to just empty this out, but every once in a while, a legitimate comment will get stuck in there, because the filter isn’t perfect. Well, I haven’t checked the bin in close to a week, and there are over 400 spam comments in there. I’m just pressing the button and emptying it out. If you posted something recently and it didn’t show up, or it happens in the future, drop me an e-mail and I’ll fix it. In less than 1 year, this site has gotten over 16,000 spam comments. Impressive, eh?

Projected Gulf Coast Phillies rotation

Other Stuff

The last stop, and really, this one is impossible to predict now, as most of the team will be made up of players taken in the June draft, plus a few guys coming back from injury. The one guy I feel confident about predicting is Jiwan James, who really struggled in his short stint last season. I suppose we could also see a few guys from the DSL and VSL teams here. Anyone have any other candidates?