A Crowdsourced Rule 5 Preview

This morning's Mug will still be up later, but I wanted to take a moment (at the last moment) to put up a quick preview for today's Rule 5 Draft. Before I get to the prospects, here are some things to know about the draft:

Eligibility:

According to Wikipedia, players who meet these criteria can be drafted:

Players are eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft who are not on their major league organization's 40-man roster and:

– were signed at age 19 or older and have been in the organization for four years; or

– were signed at age 18 or younger and have been in the organization for five years.

The catch:

Players selected in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft cost $50,000 and must either remain on their new team's 25 man roster or DL for the entire 2011 season or be offered back to their original team for $25,000.

Draft position:

Draft order is determined by reversing 2010's standings. The Pirates have the #1 pick, and (unless I'm mistaken) the Brewers draft tenth.

That does not necessarily mean the Brewers will select the tenth player, however. Players drafted have to be immediately added to their new team's 40 man roster, so teams with full rosters or no desire to select a player may pass. In addition, picks may be traded after they are selected.

Follow the jump for a look at the available players!

The prospects:

I don't know a lot about many/most of the players available in this year's draft, but thankfully some others do and they posted their profiles online. Check the table below to see which players are profiled in which location, then follow these links to read more about them:

Baseball America (subscriber only)
Bucs Dugout (1)
Bucs Dugout (2)
Crawfish Boxes
Minor League Baseball Prospects
Pro Ball NW (1)
Pro Ball NW (2)
Prospect Insider