The 2006 Rule 5 draft is over and the Nationals who had two openings on their 40-man roster used both of them to select CA Jesus Flores from the New York Mets and RHP Levale Speigner from the Minnesota Twins. Alejandro Machado, an IF, was lost to the Twins in the major league portion of the draft.
Additionally, the Nationals added the previously highlighted LHP Justin Jones in the AAA portion of the Rule 5 draft.
The Nationals also lost quite a few players in the AAA portion of the draft. Selected elsewhere were:
- James Henderson RHP to the Cubs
- Salomon Manriquez CA to the Rockies
- Trey Webb MI to the Giants
- Josh LaBandeira MI to the Marlins
- Brandon Powell 3B to the Padres
- Ricardo Morales LHP to the Mets
- Jose Contreras MI to the Cardinals
I’ll have reviews of Flores and Speigner up this afternoon. Quick hit? Flores was a great gamble for the Nationals. He’s power hitting catcher who played in A-ball this year for the Mets in 2006. Given that the Nationals do not have many premium catching prospects, Flores is a solid move. Speigner is a RHRP who has some value out of the bullpen and has also started in the past for the Twins. Of the guys lost, most were organizational type guys. This opens up opportunities for some of the younger players at the Hagerstown/Potomac level to step up.
More later.
VladiHondo | 07-Dec-06 at 12:36 pm | Permalink
Toot that horn!!
Nice call on Justin Jones, he seems better than anything we lost in the AAA portion, and better than Speigner.