Rule 5 Protection -- Gindl, Manzanillo, Wheeler, and Kjeldgaard get added to the 40-man roster

[trwi7]

Clearly the Cardinals are cheating. They took Komatsu just so he could tell them all the Brewers' secrets.

[TooLiveBrew]

I'm surprised the Cards think Komatsu is close to being ready for even backup MLB duty. Just one of many examples of how they appear to be far more comfortable with young players than the Brewers.

[djoctagone]

glad that we took a shortstop at the triple-a phase.

[Mass Haas]

Here's the Cardinals' SS the Brewers selected in the minor league phase of Rule 5 -- a 22-year-old Venezuelan native, RH bat coming off a pretty nice year in the Florida State League / Texas League -- some pop as well:

 

SS Domnit Bolivar (another great name for the system)

 

The Brewers now own him, no restrictions.

 

Hit for the cycle last season

 

In this system, he would immediately jump Josh Prince, for instance.

[TooLiveBrew]

Wow, he hit pretty well in the FSL (.273/.341/.424/.766, 304 AB) & then even better (.780 OPS, 47 AB) after being promoted to AA Springfield. Given his build, I'd have to guess he handles SS at least reasonably well. This could be a nice little steal for the Brewers.

EDIT: A couple images of Bolivar -

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2011/07/11/36E67n3E.jpg

Link, from a game last season

One more from, a photographer's site

[BrandonBurns]

Briefly- I understand the rule 5 draft but how does the minor league phase differ?

[patrickgpe]

i believe its players that are one level below and the rules of returning players do not exist.

[Mass Haas]

Briefly- I understand the rule 5 draft but how does the minor league phase differ?

From Baseball America:

The minor league draft consists of two phases, and teams can continue selecting players until their minor league rosters are at capacity. Any player eligible for the draft is not, by definition, held in high regard by his organization. Each club can shield 78 players from the draft altogether—40 on the big league roster and 38 at Triple-A. An additional 37 can be placed on the Double-A roster and be protected from the big league and Triple-A phases of the draft.

 

A drafting team pays $12,000 for a Triple-A pick and $4,000 for a Double-A one, but players are not bound to those classifications.

 

***

 

In other words, it's a place (normally) to simply raid an organization, no strings attached, to fill a need among the soldiers in your own organization. As for the kid the Crew took today, scroll down to his year-to-year stats -- something sure clicked in 2011, maybe they get an eventual utility guy out of this.

 

[ramssuperbowl99]

Do we actually know anything about this guy? I can't find anything so far.

[thumperden]

I see MiLB lists him as a 2B. His OBP until this year was nothing to speak of. Perhaps he's turned the corner. Looks like he started driving the ball some in 2011. Doesn't steal bases though. He appears to be a nice pick up for the Crew. They pick up what could be a decent prospect at a much needed position. Age 22 and some exposure at AA level with small sample-size success. Has a body like Ozzie Smith...that's as far as the comparison goes though.

[Mass Haas]

I see MiLB lists him as a 2B.

Games fielded by position here.

 

[dadofandrew]

Any kid capable of playing 2B/SS that can get on 35% of the time is worth taking a flyer on, I know very few minor league Rule 5's ever make it (I only know of a couple in the last 20 years), but for $4K, teams should take any player with a single plus skill.

[thumperden]

You said it DOA! I couldn't agree more. It's a value pick with upside. I hope the Brewers find more depth/prospects this offseason. I'm glad the front office did their homework on this guy. He's probably 2 years from the bigs at least even if he continues to progress like last year. The starting shortstop of your 2013 Milwaukee Brewers will not be this guy and it likely won't be Gonzalez either. I wonder whom it will be.

[gregmag]

Tom Haudricourt's account of the Bolivar pickup:

 

"In the Triple-A phase of that draft, the Brewers selected shortstop

Domnit Bolivar from St. Louis. Bolivar batted .276 with nine home runs

and 50 RBI at the Class A and AA levels in 2011."

 

http://www.jsonline.com/s...s-o73c9s2-135299393.html

 

I don't expect more than a line about such a minor transaction, but triple crown stats? In 2011? For a non-slugger? Really? I know unemployed people with great work ethics, and I gotta say, continual exposure to Haudricourt's utter laziness really annoys me.

[CheezWizHed]

I don't expect more than a line about such a minor transaction, but triple crown stats?

 

Explain please. I'm missing where TH said anything about triple crown...

[brwrsfan]

As in, he only gave us the triple crown information - batting average, HR, and RBI. While those numbers are nice to know, the kid isn't a power hitter. I think he's saying we'd rather see things like OBP, errors made or steals or something to show casual readers why they should even care about us picking this guy.

[JohnBriggs12]

He appears to have improved somewhat in the field the last couple seasons, but his overall fielding numbers are scary: 113 errors in 276 games at SS.

[dadofandrew]

Pretty much all minor league infielders have numbers like that in rookie and A ball...the fields suck, and the scoring is worse.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, MiLB error totals are a terrible way to try to understand how good a fielder someone is. Back when this topic was first posted, I tried searching for a scouting report on Bolivar, & came up empty.