Friday Bantering: Rule 5 thoughts and other Blue Jays stuff

Over at MLB.com they have a listing of each team’s most ‘intriguing’ Rule 5 prospect. For the Jays, it isn’t a surprise:

Blue Jays: Jackson McClelland, RHP (NR) - After going unselected in last year’s Rule 5 Draft, the former 15th-round pick (2015) proceeded to climb from Double-A to Triple-A in 2019, posting a 3.77 ERA with a .215 BAA and 56/32 K/BB in 57 1/3 innings (43 appearances). A big, physical right-hander who’s listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, McClelland operates with power stuff in mid- to upper-90s fastball and hard breaking ball, though his strike-throwing leaves something to be desired, and he’s never missed as many bats as the stuff suggests he should.

If you read through the players available from the other teams, there are some good prospects out there, including some other hard throwing pitchers, but most are a long way away from the majors. If I was going to take someone, for the Jays, I might go for Jordan Sheffield from the Dodgers. A right-handed reliever who held batters to a .168 BA and had 74 strikeouts in 55 innings between A ad AA.

This is cool:

That is a very nice honor for Jerry.

I mentioned the Jays bobbleheads yesterday as a Christmas suggestion,

Today’s suggestion, if you have a hockey fan on your list, is Franchise Hockey Manager. It is made by the same people that make OOTP Baseball (which I’m addicted to). It is a similar game, very deep, very complex. I’m not a big enough hockey fan to enjoy it the way I do the OOTP Baseball, but it is interesting. If you want to learn about how NHL contracts work the game does a good job of teaching it. Working inside the cap is tough.

Like OOTP you can play it in any of dozens of leagues. Want to lead a team in the Vysshala Hokkeinaya Liga (St. Petersburg is a very interesting city with a ton of history).

Or you can play a historical game. Maybe you want to take Don Cherry’s job and see if you can do more with a Bruins team that had Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito (and then go on to have a job that pays 7 figures to work for 5 minutes a week).

The actual games play menu allow you to set a bunch of tactics, deciding how aggressive you want to be on offense and defense and if you want to dump and chase or not, plus a dozen or so other things.

Anyway, if you have a hockey fan on your list (and you want to get him addicted to a game) this is a good one.

The White Sox are spending money early in the off-season:

It seems like a lot of money for a guy who will be 33 and, while having a good year, still was just a 2.4 bWAR. But then the White Sox are willing to spend money. It would be nice if the Jays would spend a bit too.

The is another posted pitcher who will be available: Kwang-hyun Kim, from SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization. He’s a lefty pitcher, 31 years old, he’s had pretty good numbers, but I’m not sure how they will translate.

If you do this crap you should never be allowed a Hall of Fame vote again: