The Rule 5 Draft takes place today, and the Chicago Cubs are expected to consider drafting a player or two. You would have to believe if a solid-looking outfielder were available, for example, the Cubs would take a chance.
“My gut feeling is we have a few people we would consider,” GM Jim Hendry said. “We won’t draft somebody just to draft somebody. If we feel there’s somebody with a realistic chance, we’d consider it.”
The Cubs were able to protect five players on their 40-man roster, but among the names who could be selected are catchers Steve Clevenger and Chris Robinson, infielder Matt Camp, and pitcher Thomas Diamond. Muskat Ramblings.
Add reliever Alex Maestri to the list of players who might be plucked from the Cubs’ system. Recall, Maestri burst onto the scene after a dominating performance in the World Baseball Classic. The native Italian has pitched well for the Cubs – he was at AA last year – and could be stashed in a small market team’s bullpen for the 2010 season. Think Donald Veal. In fact, when this happens to the Cubs, we’re going to say that the Cubs just got “Veal’d.”
For the Cubs part, if they’re going to take someone, let us hope that it’s not another David Patton – a guy that simply doesn’t have the abilities yet to contribute meaningfully to the big club, but whom the team hopes to stash. Patton struggled, understandably given that he hadn’t pitched above A-ball before last year, but the Cubs were determined to keep him. He thus created a black hole on the 25-man roster until he had been on the roster the bare minimum of days, when he conveniently developed some kind of injury, and was sent to AA to rehab for the rest of the year.