Who do You Protect???

The pre-Rule 5 draft 40 man rosters are due to the MLB today and for the Mets their are some interesting names that may need protecting. The most important of the names are CF Kirk Nieuwenheis, SP Jeurys Familia, OF Juan Lagares, 2B Reese Havens, OF Cesar Puello, LHP Robert Carson, RHP Colin McHugh, 3B Jefry Marte, RHP Bradley Holt, SS Wilmer Flores, RHP Mark Cohoon, and others.

The Mets currently have 32 players on the 40 man roster so they are able to protect up to 8 of their eligible prospects minus any selections they may want to make. In my opinion i would think Alderson would like to keep at least 1 or 2 slots open to try to pluck some bullpen help from other teams AAA squads.

With that in mind I'd protect Captain Kirk, Familia, Lagares, Havens, Puello, Carson, and Flores. The reason i protect Puello and Flores is because we have already seen that some teams are willing to dig as deep as into the Single A teams to pluck good potential prospects (Washington Nationals selection of C Jesus Flores being the prime example).

The reason i leave Marte unprotected is because we have Aderlin Rodriguez right behind him and even if Marte has a break-out year he is still blocked by Wright at 3B and Davis at 1B. I also leave McHugh unprotected because he's basically the same pitcher as Schwinden and Gee. They are "dime a dozen" guys that can be found every year.

tpgMets provides a full listing of eligible Rule 5 guys here http://tpgmets.blogspot.com/p/rule-5.html