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Draft  | Story | 5/12/2010

DRAFT MECHANICS—When, What, How, Who

DRAFT '10
DRAFT MECHANICS—When, What, How, Who

WHEN
Monday-Wednesday, June 7-8-9
WHAT
Major League Baseball's first-year player draft was initiated in 1965, making it the last of the four major professional sports to adopt a draft as the primary means to equitably distribute the bulk of amateur talent entering the game.

The draft has always been held in June. Historically, it was conducted on the first Tuesday of the month, but it has been held on a more random basis in recent years. This year, it will begin on a Monday and will run three days.

It will be conducted by conference call among the 30 major league clubs. The clubs take turns selecting players in reverse order of their 2009 won-loss records, regardless of league, with adjustments in the first three rounds (as noted on the accompanying draft order of rotation).

The draft consists of 50 rounds—as opposed to two rounds in the NBA draft, seven in the NFL draft and 12 in the NHL draft. Each club is entitled to select for 50 rounds, but is not required to do so. Last year represented the first year in draft history that all big-league clubs drafted the maximum allotted players.

The Washington Nationals have the No. 1 selection, marking the second year in a row they have had the dubious distinction. It marks only the second time that one team has picked first in consecutive drafts. The Tampa Bay Rays drafted first overall in both 2007 and 2008, selecting Vanderbilt lefthander David Price and Georgia high-school shortstop Tim Beckham, respectively.

HOW
For years, the draft originated from the commissioner's office in New York, but for the fourth year in a row the early portion of the draft will be held at a remote location.
In 2007 and 2008, the first five rounds originated from Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, Fla., with the first round televised by ESPN and its family of networks. Last year, the draft originated from the new MLB Network studios in Secaucus, N.J., and was spread over three days – not two as was customary for years.

The first round and supplemental first round (50 picks in all) are scheduled for June 7 in prime time, and will be televised by the MLB Network. Numerous club officials and projected first-round picks are scheduled to be in attendance.

Day Two and Three of the proceedings will be conducted in normal fashion from the commissioner’s office. The draft will resume with Round 2 on June 8, and continue through approximately 30 rounds. The balance of the draft will be conducted on June 9.

Each team will be allowed up to five minutes to select a player in Round 1, with one minute permitted in the compensation round. Teams will continue to draft players until they pass or reach the 50th round, whichever comes first.

The club that drafts a player will generally contact the player immediately after the selection. No team may draft a player unless it has registered the player's name with the commissioner's office, or his name has been submitted by the Major League Scouting Bureau.

The team that selects a player has the sole negotiating rights to the player and must submit a written minor-league contract within 15 days of selection. Failure to do so, however, no longer allows players to become free agents – as was the case in 1996, when four first-rounders took advantage of a loophole in the draft rules to push for and become free agents. All four players subsequently signed lucrative deals with the expansion Arizona Diamondbacks or Tampa Bay Devil Rays – notably Pennsylvania high-school righthander Matt White, who received a record $10.2 million bonus from the Rays. White never played in the big leagues.

Some significant rules changes were enacted with the 2007 draft. They were adopted as part of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association in October 2006.

Previously, a club's negotiating rights to a player attending a four-year college were lost as soon as the player physically entered his first class at the beginning of the fall semester. For a player attending junior college, the selecting club retained the negotiating rights to the player until one week before the following year’s draft. This was commonly referred to as the draft-and-follow process.

But the new rules established a firm universal signing deadline of Aug. 16 – for all players (excluding college seniors whose eligibility has been exhausted). If a team does not sign a player by that date, it is forbidden from signing that player, regardless if he attends a four-year school or two-year school or simply chooses not to attend or return to college. Effectively, the draft-and-follow rule, which had been in place for 20 years, was abolished with the 2007 draft.

A player who is drafted and does not sign with the club that selected him may be drafted again in a future draft, as soon as he meets the eligibility requirements again. Correspondingly, any player who is eligible to be selected but is passed over altogether automatically becomes a free agent, free to sign with any club.
Additional provisions of the 2006 CBA agreement awarded clubs supplementary picks for the loss of ranked free agents or their failure to sign picks selected in the second and third rounds of the previous year’s draft.

Teams that have lost a Type ‘B’ free agent during the off-season are now awarded a supplemental first-round pick, but only after compensation is awarded to teams losing Type ‘A’ free agents. There are eight Type ‘A’ free agents in this year’s draft and 10 Type ‘B’ free agents.

Prior to the start of the second round, there also will be two compensation selections awarded to clubs that did not sign first-round draft picks in 2009. The Texas Rangers pick 15th pick for failing to sign Texas high-school lefthander Matthew Purke, while Tampa Bay earns the 31st pick for not signing Florida high-school outfielder LeVon Washington. With 20 extra selections, that means the second round will start effective with the 51st pick.


Draft | Story | 12/18/2025

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John McAdams
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Troy Sutherland
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