Rule 5: Brewers will wait ’til 2nd round (probably)

With the signing and subsequent addition of reliever David Riske as the 40th man to the 40-man, Doug Melvin might get to sleep in tomorrow…at least until after the first-round (starting time, 9 a.m. CT). An update for anyone out there interested (confession: I love Rule 5 but, admittedly, am still developing an understanding of its nuances):

1. 1. The 21 teams with less than 40 players on their 40-man roster get to select from other teams’ AAA rosters (see: Updated draft order of 20 teams from Nationals Farm Authority…MVN’s Baseball Time in Arlington just noted that the Texas Rangers made a late trade of OF Freddie Guzman to Detroit, hence freeing up a spot on their 40-man, to make it 21 teams.
   2. Baseball America’s Chris Klein wrote a ranking in his piece, Early Rule 5 Preview, that indicates more than 800 players meet the criteria of either having been drafted out of high school in 2003 or college in 2004 for the major league portion.

This seems a bit high to me…it would mean 27 players from 30 teams are eligible. It might be 800 overall, with less, say 400, from the major league portion.

Of Klein’s Top 25, there are 17 pitchers, 2 outfielders, 1 apiece at each infield position, and 2 catchers. None of these 25 are Brewers, so some of the promising pitchers in AAA like Mike DiFelice and Steve Bray might be staying put. I believe that a trade could happen, too–in other words, another team could draft a player and then trade with Milwaukee, even though Milwaukee’s 40-man roster is full. Of course, the Brewer traded would have to be from the 40-man, or someone released from the 40-man, for the trade to take place.