All 36 Twins players exposed to the 2018 Rule 5 draft, and the six most likely to be selected

The 2018 Rule 5 draft is next week at the final day of the Winter Meetings.   Here is all the Twins players exposed to it:

P Austin Adams
P Yancarlos Baez
P Jose Bermudez
P Adam Bray
P Sam Clay
P Andro Cutura
P Miguel De Jesus
P Ryan Eades
P Moises Gomez
P Preston Guilmet
P Ryne Harper
P Tyler Jay
P Randy LeBlanc
P Hector Lujan
P Jose Martinez
P Anthony Marzi
P Johan Quezada
P Williams Ramirez
P Jake Reed
P Alex Robinson
P Cody Stashak
P Zack Weiss
P Lachlan Wells
C Brian Navarreto
C Yeison Perez
C Wynston Sawyer
INF Randy Cesar
INF Lewin Diaz
INF Chris Paul
INF Alex Perez
INF Brian Schales
INF Zander Wiel
OF Jean Carlos Arias
OF Jaylin Davis
OF Tanner English
OF Jon Kemmer

As far as position players go, soon to be 26 year old Zander Wiel who can play 1B or a corner OF position and had a break through season in Chatanooga is likely the biggest liability here. 22 year old 1B/DH Lewin Diaz is the best prospect, but still is fairly raw.  24 year old OF Jaylin Davis is a possibility but is not MLB-ready yet and his ceiling is not that high.

Former high 1st round draft pick, 24 year old lefty Tyler Jay, even though has not impressed, will likely be selected by a team who remember him as a top College closer.  26 year old righty, Jake Reed has had substantial success in the minors, even though battled through injuries.  He is caught in the numbers game in the Twins organization, but someone might give him a shot.  26 year old Dominican Williams Ramirez who made the transition from a starter to a reliever might interest a team because of this potential.  He took a step back in AA last season, but he has been untouchable in 12 games (0 ER, 3 H , 6 BB, 17 K) in the Dominican Winter League this off-season.

Schizophrenia or hypocrisy? The MLB needs consistency regarding the rules of the game.

For the last several years, there have been many voices from MLB officials, pundits, and fans, regarding the "pace of the game", which, among other things,  resulted in a set of new rules on play and threads about addition of even more rules and even more discussion regarding shortening games.  The motivation has to do with data indicating that the average game these days is about 3 hours and 8 minutes, up a full 23 minutes (or 14%) than it was in 2005.

Baseball games, unlike basketball, football, and soccer, do not have timed play.  The play lasts for 9 innings, each inning being 3 outs for each team, unless there is a tie.  In that situation, teams play extra full innings, until the tie is ended.

The last few seasons, with the increased data obtained about tenancies of  hitters and probability of paths of a batted ball, a new phenomenon has appeared, that of defensive shifts.  It is actually not new; even in little league and softball, the outfield has traditionally been shifted towards the "pull" side of the hitter (that is the opposite side, right field for lefties and left field for righties), just because of the same increased probability of the ball landing there.  What has happened recently is infield shifts where teams move 3 players on one side of the infield, instead of the customary 2.

Defensive shifts have been under a lot of scrutiny by pundits, fans, players, managers, etc. because it is hard to hit against them and they result in outs.  Apparently now "support is building within the game" to eliminate shifts or change the rules around shifts to make them less ineffective.  Because the make outs.

Defensive shifts make outs.  Outs shorten games.  If indeed MLB's concern was the length of the games, shifts should be a godsend present towards that goal.   By trying to eliminate something that shortens games, the MLB is giving at least inconsistent messages. 

Are shorter games good or bad for the MLB? That is a question that the MLB needs to answer and be consistent with it, otherwise it will appear that what is "good" for the MLB is what they deem to be "good", regardless consistency. 

Maybe what they really do not like is that shifting a middle infielder who is payed $500K makes their $25 million a year superstar slugger look bad...

At some point, schizophrenia becomes hypocrisy and people in power should be held accountable.