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Tampa Bay Rays news and links: Winter meetings end without a deal

Related Topics: Winter Meetings, Burch Smith

Baseball America analyzed every pick in the Rule 5 draft and gave Burch Smith, formerly of the Rays, a 90% chance to stick in Kansas City.

“When we saw Burch in September, he was a major league pitcher. Obviously everybody saw him in the fall league and saw what he can do. It’s an upper 90s fastball and it's a plus changeup he’ll use in any count with a solid breaking ball," Royals pro scouting director Gene Watson said.

I’m not going to criticize the Rays too much for doing what they think is right regarding a player’s development and then deciding, with all the information they have, that they don’t want to protect him, but I do wonder if maybe, just maybe, sending guys you might want to sneak through the Rule 5 draft to the AFL is a bad idea.