RoboScout Rule 5 Draft Targets: Keep An Eye On RHP Justin Slaten

Image credit: (Photo by Bill Mitchell)

With the addition of Dylan White to the team at Baseball America, one of the many benefits is access to the RoboScout tool and Stuff+ scores for minor league prospects. RoboScout does an excellent job of objectively identifying high-performance prospects while balancing age to level performance among each player and their peers. 

When researching Rule 5 picks, models like RoboScout or Stuff+ allow us to cut through the noise and look at players on a somewhat even footing. We used RoboScout and Stuff+ to create charts of the top available players and listed each below. We have included the Top 20 players with the highest Roboscores among position players, the Top 20 players among available pitchers and the Top 20 Stuff+ scores among available pitchers. 

In a moment of unity between the Roboscout and the industry, the robot identified Justin Slaten as the top available player in the Rule 5 draft. He has the second-highest Roboscore, the highest among players who reached the high minors and the third highest Stuff+ score. Over the last week, Slaten’s name has been the buzziest of potential picks. Slaten was also one of five pitchers with intriguing stuff from the Arizona Fall League we identified last month.

You can find our full Rule 5 preview here.