There's plenty of folks out there who will tell you that Spring Training games don't matter. And as far as some things go, they're right. The games don't count in the standings, the hand-wringing over a lost tick or two in velocity is always overblown, and the Quad-A player lighting up the stat sheet didn't just suddenly become your team's new MVP. But for guys like Colin Walsh and Zack Jones, the Brewers' two picks in last year's Rule 5 draft, these "meaningless" games are the most important of their young baseball careers.
Rule 5 draftees, who must be kept on their drafting team's 25-man roster for the entire season or be exposed to waivers for any team to claim before being offered back to their original teams, often find themselves fighting for something that they've never had a shot at before: a spot on a major league roster.