The Rule 5 draft was held on Thursday during baseball's winter meetings, with several players with local ties selected.

The Rule 5 draft is held every December, with teams drafting players on other organizations they feel deserve a chance to play at a higher level than they are playing. They are then placed on the 40-man roster. Roberto Clemente was once a Rule 5 pick and more recently, Jose Bautista, Bobby Bonilla, Josh Hamilton, Johan Santana, Dan Uggla, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth were Rule 5 picks.

This year, 12 players were drafted during the Major League Phase, 23 during the Triple-A Phase, and two during the Double-A Phase. At the major league level, the player needs to be kept on the major league roster for the entire season by the drafting team and if they aren't they have to be offered back to the original team. It also costs some money to make Rule 5 picks. Minor Leaguers have to be kept on the 40-man roster. However, players with limited pro experience are not eligible to be drafted in the Rule 5.

First taken was ex-Miller High and Quake left-hander Robert Fish by the Atlanta Braves. It was the second straight year Fish was taken in the Major League portion of the Rule 5. Last year, he was drafted by the New York Yankees, but didn't make the club in spring training, then went to Kansas City, before being sent back to the Angels. Fish was 1-0 with two saves and a 3.25 ERA for Double-A Arkansas in 2011. Fish pitched for the Quakes in 2009 and 2010.

Another Angel farmhand, infielder Michael Wing, who went to Upland High and played for the 66ers last year, was drafted. Wing's 2011 season was solid, but limited to 73 games because of injury. He batted .317 with 11 home runs and 54 RBIs for the Sixers. Wing was taken in the Triple-A phase by the San Diego Padres.

 Ex-66er left-hander Thomas Melgarejo (Kansas City) and ex-Quakes left-hander Barret Browning (St. Louis), outfielder Gabe Jacobo (Toronto) and third baseman Ricky Alvarez (Chicago Cubs) were taken in the Triple-A phase. Ex-Quake third baseman Matt Sweeney, who went to Tampa Bay in the ill-fated deal that brought Scott Kazmir to the Angels, was selected by Baltimore out of the Tampa Bay organization in the Double-A phase.

I haven't posted here in a while, but here are some notes since the Cal League season ended about a month ago along with my perspective

• Lake Elsinore won the league title with a losing record (69-71), the first team to win the title with a losing record in league history. The previous worst record to win a league title? The 2006 66ers, who were 72-68.
• 66ers outfielder/first baseman Kole Calhoun was named Angels Minor League Player of the Year. He had an outstanding year on a team without a lot of offensive firepower, finishing with a .324 batting average, 22 homers and 99 RBIs. Not bad for a guy who only made the team because there were too many injuries in the Angels system.
• If you didn't see the article in the paper a few weeks ago, Tom Gamboa, who was the 66ers manager for the first two months of 2011, has a cameo role as a scout in the movie "Moneyball." Pretty cool, and there were some pretty cool real-life connections to the Billy Beane story, including Gamboa scouting Beane in real life when Beane was in high school, then later managing him when Beane was in the minors.
• The Angels dismissed Director of Player Development Abe Flores. Mistake, mistake, mistake. While Tony Reagins' mistakes as GM are well-documented, I don't see Flores as the problem. He had the Angels developing players as part of Mike Scioscia's system. Everyone was on the same page. He helped keep impressive consistency among the staffs, and players were ready, whether they were trade bait (in the Dan Haren deal) or whether they were contributing at the big league level (Jordan Walden, Peter Bourjos, Mike Trout). Flores wasn't the one who traded away Mike Napoli.
• Abe Flores will land on his feet, perhaps in scouting, which was his background before serving as assistant director of player development under Reagins. Some organization will get a great baseball man, who has an astute judge of talent and the ability to run an organizaton's player development system. Just my 2 cents. There are some good baseball people in the Angels minor league system. Lets hope the new director of player development doesn't clean house.

Lake Elsinore was 12 outs away from its first Cal League title in 10 years.

So close, but oh, so, so far.

Stockton scored four runs in the sixth and 11 in the seventh to blow out the Storm 15-1 in Game 3 of the Cal League Championship Series on Saturday night.

In the 11 run seventh, the Ports drew four walks and one hit batter. Three of the walks were with the bases loaded and there was a grand slam.

Lake Elsinore still leads the series 2-1. Game 4 is Sunday at 6:05 at Stockton.

Dan Ricabal, who has been a pitching coach in the Angels' minor league system for the last six years, is leaving the organization for a job as pitching coach with Loyola Marymount. We already posted this news in Thursday's paper, but here is some more detail.

Ricabal, who was the 66ers pitching coach this year and the Quakes' pitching coach from 2008-10, is leaving because it's a job with his longtime friend and former Cal State Fullerton teammate Jason Gill. Gill is the head coach at LMU.

"We are lucky to be able to add an experienced pitching coach the caliber of Danny Ricabal to the organization," Gill said in a press release.  "Danny has a proven track record of success as a pitching coach from Division I to professional baseball, and he has worked with some of the best pitchers in the game at all different levels of play.  As a collegiate athlete, Danny pitched in Omaha and knows what it takes to get there.  He has coached at the Division I level and has a clear understanding of how to get his pitchers to reach their full potential.  There are few coaches in the college ranks that have the experience of pitching in Omaha, coaching Division I and coaching in professional baseball.  He is the total package, and the LMU baseball program made big strides in our quest to be champions with the addition of Danny Ricabal."

Ricabal, whose last college coaching job was at UC Santa Barbara from 2002-04 said, "there aren't too many colleges I would consider leaving the Angels for, but having the opportunity to work with Gilly is great."

Ricabal worked with many of the Angels young pitchers including Tyler Chatwood, Trevor Bell, and Jordan Walden. There are also others now with other organizations, such as David Herndon (Phillies), Sean O'Sullivan (Royals) and Alexander Torres (Rays). He also worked with some great young arms with the 2011 Sixers including fireballer Johnny Hellweg and Ariel Pena, who was No. 2 in the league in strikeouts.

Once pitcher he has a special interest in how he does in the future is Eddie McKiernan, the Monrovia High product who pitched for the Quakes in 2009 and 10 and was with Double-A Arkansas this year. Ricabal watched McKiernan as a youth, gave him an endorsement when the Angels asked his opinion before drafting him then worked with him in the minors.

"It's bittersweet. It will be great to coach with Gilly, but the Angels were absolutely tremendous," Ricabal said. "There are a lot of really good baseball people. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was one I had to make in my coaching career. I'm excited."

Since I'm basically 0 for 4 in picking playoff results this year, I will steer clear of picking a winner between Stockton and Lake Elsinore in the Championship Series. It should be a good series since both teams knocked off the top 2 teams in the regular season in the league.

I know one thing, I'm glad San Jose didn't make it. It's more interesting when other teams win the title. Anyway the San Francisco Giants always load up that team, so its good they were unable to secure a league-record third straight title.

The Quakes, after winning both halves in the South Division of the 2011 regular season, began their quest for their first Cal League title in 17 years with a disappointing 8-5 loss in Game 1 of the South Division Finals to Lake Elsinore.

The Quakes squandered a 4-0 lead after three innings en route to dropping the first game of the best-of-five series.

There was plenty of blame to go around: starter Red Patterson and relievers Bret Montgomery and Steve Smith were not at their best and each contributed to the collapse.

Angelo Songco was 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position and the Quakes got no hits from the bottom four hitters in their order.

But Blake Smith twice came up with the Quakes trailing 6-5, and the tying run on third with two outs. First in the fifth, and again in the seventh.

"I thought the turning point was Blake's at-bat  in the seventh," Quakes manager Juan Bustabad said. "It's a 2-0 count, and he grounds out. He needs to take a pitch. Maybe you'll walk and who knows, maybe they'll walk the next guy."

Smith hit a weak grounder to second on a 2-0 count, grounding out with the bases loaded to end the threat in the seventh.

Quakes host Lake Elsinore for Game 2 Sunday at 5:05 p.m.

OK, I was sort of right in my prediction for the first-round series in the California League. I will maintain that. I thought one of the two teams without homefield advantage would win. But I thought it would be the 66ers without home field that would win and Modesto was the one with homefield.

However, it was Lake Elsinore and Stockton with won last night.

So here I am predicting results of the Division Finals. I will take the Quakes and San Jose, each in four games. Both teams have been so consistent this season and they've been able to set up their rotations that I think they will both prevail.

The Sixers got a second straight outstanding starting performance in the playoffs. This time, they didn't get the hitting.

Ariel Pena struck out 13 in 7 1/3 spectacular innings, but Edinson Rincon's bases-loaded single with one out in the ninth scored Nate Freiman with the game-winner as Lake Elsinore was victorious 2-1 over the Sixers in Game 2 of the South Division first round.

The decisive Game 3 is Friday at Lake Elsinore at 7:05 p.m.

The pitching matchup for Friday is the Sixers' right-hander Cody Evans (2-0, 3.18 ERA) against Storm left-hander Jose DePaula (10-5, 5.22). DePaula is the third straight left-handed starter the Sixers will face in the playoffs, following Andrew Werner and Nick Schmidt.

The season stats would indicate an advantage for the Sixers, but head-to-head numbers favor the Storm. DePaula is 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in three appearances (one start) against the Sixers, while Evans is 0-0 with a 10.38 ERA in two appearances (one start) against the Storm.

The 66ers will be looking to defeat the Storm in the playoffs for the first time since the South Finals in 2006. They lost in 2007 and 2008. However, those were Mariners (06) and Dodgers  (07 and 08) affiliates. In 2009 and 2010, the Angels' old affiliate, the Quakes ousted Lake Elsinore in the playoffs.

As the playoffs begin Wednesday, I'll predict the first round results in the two series.

Lake Elsinore and the 66ers are so close, but the Sixers have played well down the stretch. I'll take the Sixers to win the series in three.

In the other series, Modesto has been playing a little better down the stretch and I'll take them to win their series against Stockton in three games as well.

Behind 5 1/3 shutout innings from Johnny Hellweg, the 66ers downed Lake Elsinore 6-3 on Thursday night at the Diamond.

The win moved the Sixers to 67-69 overall, tied with Lake Elsinore for home field in the first round of the playoffs. The teams play each other in the playoffs beginning on Wednesday. Lake Elsinore does hold the tiebreaker, however.

Carlos  Ramirez also had three hits and two RBIs, David Harris had two hits and two RBIs and Hellweg struck out nine batters.

The Sixers return home for a season-ending four-game series against Stockton beginning Friday.