Rule 5 Treasures

The Nats snagged up two players in this year's Rule 5 draft. For anyone unfamiliar with the Rule 5 draft, basically anyone acquired through it has to stay on their new team's major league roster for the whole season, or be offered back to their original team. These guys tend to be very hit or miss, mostly miss. Last year's Rule 5 picks were a perfect example. Jesus Flores flourished in the majors, while Levale Speigner got eaten alive, and given back to Minnesota. Though we did then purchase him for cash considerations, and he's still in our minor league system.

This year, the Nats selected Matt Whitney with their first pick. Whitney, a right handed 3b/1b hit .299/.364/.909 between Cleveland's A and high A teams, with 32 HR and 113 RBI. Pretty ridiculous numbers, but it was also A ball. If he can provide some right handed pop off the bench, that'll be just fine, but I can't see him getting any real playing time if he can't play in the middle infield spots. Zimm played at 3b for 161 games last year, it would shock me if he needed to be spelled too much this year either. There may be some room at first if Nick Johnson stays injured, but if not, Dmitri/Nick should squeeze this youngster out of too much time in the field.


With their second pick, the Nats picked up Garrett Guzman, pictured, who they feel might be closer to MLB ready. Guzman, a left handed OF, hit .312/.359/.812 with 14 HR and 88 RBI for Minnesota's AA affiliate last year. Bodes has said that he'll compete with Ryan Langerhans for the fifth outfielder spot, and it's really hard to suck worse than Ryan Langerhans, so that's probably an upside for Guzman. Sure, we already have four outfielders, but at least Guzman is a lefty.