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When the latest CBA was signed, it eliminated a lot of the compensation picks that teams had been getting for losing free agents. The idea behind those picks was always to compensate smaller revenue clubs for having to lose their best players in free agency to the larger market clubs. But as teams got wise on how to game the system, the larger revenue clubs starting figuring out ways to get compensation picks as well. Rather than completely getting rid of compensation to smaller revenue and smaller market clubs, MLB put in a new system. Today that new system will begin to see the light of day.
Here's Jonathon Mayo from mlb.com explaining the significance of today:
The lottery, scheduled to take place Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. ET in New York, is a mechanism designed to help teams perceived to need the most assistance by awarding extra Draft picks to some of them. The 10 smallest-market teams and 10 lowest-revenue teams will have the chance to win one of six extra selections in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft.
Those half-dozen picks will be made at the conclusion of the first round, following the compensation selections. Because there is obvious crossover between those two groups, there are 13 teams entered into the first-round lottery: the D-backs, Orioles, Indians, Royals, A's, Pirates, Padres, Rays, Reds, Rockies, Marlins, Brewers and Cardinals. The odds of winning a Draft pick will be based on each team's winning percentage in the previous season.
There will be a second group of six picks, to be made after the conclusion of the second round. The teams from the first group that did not get one of the early picks will be re-entered, along with any other Major League team that receives revenue sharing. This year, only one team -- the Tigers -- will be added to the second lottery.
As a Padres fan, I like rooting for the Padres (duh) so I'm all in when it comes to rooting for the team getting picks. In this system there's no rooting for other teams to sign your players. You just got a get a little excited if your team gets help from the "lottery balls" (I assume they don't actually use balls editor's note: They are actually going to have balls) in some tiny way.