of pitchers and a first baseman."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections NewsAnalysis & EditorialsCleveland Indians prospects & minor leaguesGame RecapsTransactionsCleveland Indians prospects & minor leaguesCleveland Indians Rule 5 Draft 2018: Kyle Dowdy among four prospects lost New Dave Henderson Jersey ,21commentsIndians add a pitcher and 1B/catcher in AAA phase but lose a pair of pitchers and a first baseman.ByBrian Hemminger@BrianHemmingerDec 13, 2018,5:43pm ESTShareTweetShareShareCleveland Indians Rule 5 Draft 2018: Kyle Dowdy among four prospects lost Kim Klement-USA TODAY SportsThe Cleveland Indians’ Major League departure from this year’s Rule 5 draft was right-handed pitcher Kyle Dowdy, who was chosen by the New York Mets with the 8th overall pick of the Major League Phase. The Mets will now be on the hook to keep Dowdy on their 25-man roster for the entire season and pay the Indians $100,000. If they do not, they will have to return Dowdy to the Tribe and receive only half of their payment back in return.Dowdy, 25, spent parts of last year in Double-A and Triple-A with both the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. He was the second player in the Leonys Martin trade for Willi Castro. Overall in 30 games played and 20 starts combined across three teams and two levels, Dowdy held a 5.15 ERA through 124 innings pitched while striking out 120 and walking 50.Of note, Dowdy’s velocity spiked after he was acquired by the Tribe, topping out around 99 mph in his starts for Akron at the end of the season when he helped lead the team to the Eastern League playoffs, notably striking out nine in 6.0 shutout innings in his final start of the regular season.While Dowdy can still be returned if he fails to stay on the Mets’ 25-man roster all of next year, every other player selected either by the Indians or other teams are gone for good.That means #TeamEsparza is over after the Indians failed to keep RHP Matt Esparza on their Triple-A roster for the Rule 5 draft. The Los Angeles Angels selected Esparza in the minor league portion of the draft. Esparza Dennis Eckersley Jersey , 24, was a 14th round draft pick out of UC Irvine in 2015. He notably led all Cleveland Indians minor league pitchers in strikeouts in 2016 with 141 whiffs in 139 innings pitched. He had a strong 2017 as well, but he was injured for nearly the entire 2018 season, never evolving past a few rehab outings in Arizona and High-A Lynchburg. Anthony Miller, 24, was an 18th round draft pick by the Indians in 2015. He repeated 2018 at High-A Lynchburg and saw his hitting numbers improve with a slash of .264/.363/.432 but he wasn’t seen as much more than an afterthought in the organization. Maybe his outlook will improve with the A’s.Hector Figueroa, 24, an international signing out of the Dominican Republic, missed the entire 2016 season and didn’t make his way to the United States until last year, where he 2.78 ERA in 14 relief appearances where he struck out 22 batters and walked 10 over 22 innings pitched. Now onto the Indians draftees.Yapson Gomez, 25, was an international signing out of Venezuela. It took him a while to get going as he spent his first three professional seasons pitching in either the Venezuelan League of the Dominican Summer League. Gomez made it to High-A last season, holding a 2.45 ERA in 10 appearances out of the bullpen. Perhaps the Indians saw something they liked in the left-hander.Wilson Garcia Santiago Casilla Jersey , 24, is a first base/catching prospect who also hails out of Venezuela. The Orioles acquired Garcia in 2018 from the Philadelphia Phillies for cash and he proceeded to have one of his best offensive seasons, slashing .293/.323/.510 with a huge power surge to 23 home runs (doubling his career total of 22 up to that point) while only striking out about 10 percent of the time. It will be interesting to see if the Indians give him more time at catcher, a position he’s played less in recent years, although he holds a career 40 percent rate for throwing out would-be basestealers. The commissioner said he’d had enough."WhiteFanposts Fanshots Sections Chicago Cubs recapsChicago Cubs minor leaguesChicago Cubs essaysChicago Cubs game threadsWrigley Field renovationsFull archiveLibrary Bleed Cubbie Blue Community GuidelinesCurrent time in ChicagoBCB Specials & Site InfoWinter 2019 music threadsCubs StoriesScheduleRosterStatsYahoo Cubs newsYahoo Cubs team pageYahoo Cubs reportYahoo Cubs depth chartYahoo Cubs transactionsYahoo Cubs photosOdds Shop About Masthead Community Guidelines StubHub 鉁昅eta BCBMLB announces priority rule intended legally for optimal or lively gamesNew,18commentsThe commissioner said he’d had enough.CDTShareTweetShareShareMLB announces priority rule intended legally for optimal or lively gamesAl YellonOne of the things Commissioner Rob Manfred has made a priority of, when considering MLB rule changes, is the pace of play. Several different things have been discussed regarding this, including pitch clocks, which were used for the first couple of weeks of spring training, then abandoned when MLB and the MLB Players Association agreed to not use them until at least 2022.But after Manfred saw Saturday night’s Cubs/Rangers game, which lasted three hours and 47 minutes and featured 19 walks, 19 strikeouts and three home runs and hardly any baseballs in play Mark McGwire Jersey , and their Sunday game where all those runs scored and there were nine more walks and four home runs and that made the game last three hours and 46 minutes, he said that was the last straw.So MLB has announced this morning, effective immediately, that all games will be cut off at the three-hour mark, with whoever is leading at the time declared the winner. Here’s what will happen with games that are tied after three hours. Teams will have two options:Finish the game with a home run derby, similar to the NHL shootout. Each team will choose its top three players, and one of its own pitchers to throw, and each player will have one pitch to hit a home run. It will continue, as does the shootout, until one team has more home runs, orTeams can choose to continue playing, but must remove one fielder for each inning of play.Manfred said, “We’re tired of these extra-long games and this will allow virtually all games to fit in a neat little time slot for TV. There should be more action http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-khris-davis-jersey , too, as players realize they’re getting close to the three-hour mark.”Large clocks will be installed in all ballparks to count down three hours from the first pitch.Cubs fans, be happy! Saturday night’s game hit the three-hour mark in the top of the seventh, and the Cubs were leading 6-3, so they would have won! And Sunday’s game was tied at that point, so we could have seen a Home Run Derby!Cubs Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins, who was in Arlington Sunday to help take down one of the “remaining games” numbers at Globe Life Park, scoffed at the new rule: “Why, I threw a 10-inning complete game on Opening Day 1971 in just one hour and 58 minutes! These whippersnappers don’t know what they’re missing!”And if you think all this sounds very strange, pause for a moment and remember what today is.