UPDATE: No Tigers players were selected in the major league phase of the draft.

At 9 a.m. the 30 teams will come together and try and find the proverbial diamond in the haystack. The Tigers have historically been fairly active on this front, none more so than in 2003 when the Tigers ended up with 3 rule 5’ers on their big league roster. Chris Shelton was also a rule 5 pick. This year the Tigers will just be watching and hoping not to lose any of their players.

The way the rule 5 draft works in the quickest sense is that players who are 3 (sometimes 4) years removed from signing their big league deal and haven’t been protected on a 40 man roster are eligible to selected. The selecting team surrenders $50,000 and then has to keep the selected player on their big league roster all season. If the player is removed from the roster they have to pass through waivers and if they do the team that lost the player can have him back for $25,000.

MLB.com has a preview of the draft, and it will be tracked at their website as well. One thing to watch is Scot Drucker who offered to pay a selecting team the $50K fee if he is taken. I don’t know if this is serious or legal, but it could be fun.

Some minor league news and notes:

40 man roster

We’ve talked here already about the Tigers need to trim the 40 man roster and the need to protect players ahead of the rule 5 draft coming up in December. The 40 man will be set initially tomorrow (things could of course change between now and the actual rule 5 draft due to trades/free agent signings).

With that in mind Tigers 40 man roster candidate Scot Drucker really wants to be on a big league roster next year and is offering to pay the the $50,000 rule 5 draft fee for any team that takes him:

@utbaseball30 Deadline for the 40 man rosters tonight, remember to any team that may want me if Im not protected, Ill cover the 50k in the Rule V draft

Not sure if Drucker would look to recoup the $25K if he were returned to the Tigers.

Ronnie Bourquin

The Tigers 2nd round pick from 2006 is eligible for the rule 5 draft. But his status as a prospect was already in doubt as things haven’t gone the way either he or the Tigers would have liked. He finally started to hit in A ball this year before being pushed to Erie where he struggled. Now he’s been suspended 50 games for testing positive for amphetamines.

AFL Championship Game

The Peoria Javelinas will be playing in the AFL Championship game this Saturday. See AFL strike out leader Robbie Weinhardt and other Tigers on the MLB Network and MLB.tv. The game is at 2:45 ET. By that point OSU should be rolling over Michigan so if you need a diversion, see a couple guys who could be helping the Tigers next year finish up their fall season.

Things started out so promising with the acquisitions of Gerald Laird and Adam Everett. And they end so disappointingly with the loss of James Skelton and Matt Joyce. To be fair the Skelton thing was set in motion weeks ago when the Tigers chose not to protect a young athletic lefty catcher with a 416 career minor league OBP.

Rule 5

It was little surprise that Skelton was selected. It will also be little surprise if it turns out to be a non-event, but it’s the reasoning behind it that is so troubling. The Tigers chose to protect lesser players like Eddie Bonine, Mike Hessman, Macay McBride, and Alfredo Figaro while leaving Skelton vulnerable. The Diamondbacks took advantage of the Tigers mistake. Arizona does have 2 young catchers though so there is a chance Skelton could get returned. The Tigers ‘sphere tends to hate this too.

The Tigers did get a lefty in the form of Kyle Bloom. He had some decent numbers at AA and a fine Hawaiian league season. Don’t know if he’ll stick as a LOOGY but if he is a John Parrish deterrent that’s fine enough by me.

Edwin Jackson

There’s been a lot of talk that Edwin Jackson was a good pick-up. Beyond the ERA and fast fastball I don’t see it (don’t even bother win 14 wins which is completely meaningless). The Spot Starters further illustrate the point by showing just how bad Jackson was – in what was supposed to be his breakout year. There are too many discouraging numbers to copy and paste, so please check out his research.

Earlier today I questioned the Tigers leaving Luis Marte off the 40 man roster and then exposing him to the rule 5 draft. Yeah, it turns out I was wrong.

Jon Paul Morosi noted in his Baseball America chat today ($) that Marte wasn’t eligible. On Beck’s blog he mentioned my article and then later edited his post to indicate that Marte wasn’t eligible.

This confused me because Marte, who was born on 8/28/1986 and signed on November 16th 2005, would have been a 19 year old signee entering his 4th Rule 5 draft (05/06/07/08). Nineteen year olds are normally afforded 3 years of protection and eighteen year olds get 4.

But there’s a catch I wasn’t aware of. From Baseball America

Players who were 18 or younger on June 5 preceding the signing of their first contract must be protected after four minor league seasons. Players 19 and older must be protected after three seasons.

So Marte was only considered an 18 year old, meaning he doesn’t need to be protected until next year.

That’s the story, and I apologize for the confusion.