DRAFT '06
Mechanics of the Draft
WHEN
Tuesday-Wednesday, June 6-7
WHAT
Major League Baseball's first-year player draft is held every year in June--generally the first Tuesday of the month--by conference call among the 30 major league clubs. The clubs take turns selecting players in reverse order of their won-loss records at the close of the previous season. Where teams have identical records, priority is given to the team that drafted in the earlier position in 2005.
The draft will conclude at the end of the 50th round--or earlier; each club is entitled to select for 50 rounds, but not required to do so. The Kansas City Royals have the No. 1 selection this year, by virtue of their 56-106 record. The Royals had the second pick last year and selected University of Nebraska third baseman Alex Gordon. The Arizona Diamondbacks picked first and signed shortstop Justin Upton to a $6.1 million bonus, the largest bonus ever paid to a draft pick signing with the club that drafted him.
HOW
The draft is held via conference call, conducted from the commissioner's office in New York. The draft will end after 50 rounds, which generally takes two days.
The first day (June 6) begins at 1 p.m. EDT and will conclude at roughly 6 p.m. Usually, the draft will go through about 20 rounds on the first day. The second day will begin at 12 noon EDT, and will continue until all players are selected, generally about 6 p.m.
Each team has two minutes to select a player. The team continues to remain in the draft until they pass, finish making their picks or the draft ends.
The scout responsible for a player's selection will contact the player by a phone call immediately after the selection.
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 terminates the club's negotiating rights and the player will be declared a free agent and will be eligible to negotiate with any team.
If the player attends a four-year college, the club's negotiating rights are lost as soon as the player physically enters class at the end of the summer. For a player attending junior college, the selecting club retains the negotiating rights for the player until one week before the 2007 draft. This is commonly referred to as the draft-and-follow process.
WHO
Major league Rule IV rules govern which players are eligible for selection in the draft. These rules are detailed, but the basic eligibility criteria can be described as follows:
Generally, a player is eligible for selection if the player is a resident of the United States or Canada and the player has never before signed a major league or minor league contract. Residents of Puerto Rico and other territories of the United States are also eligible for the draft. Also considered are players who enroll in a high school or college in the United States, regardless of where they are from originally.
Eligibility Requirements
Certain groups of players are ineligible for selection, generally because they are still in school. The basic categories of players eligible to be drafted are:
--High School players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college;
--College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old. College players that have dropped out of school can apply for the draft by writing the commissioner's office no later than 120 days prior to the draft;
--Junior College players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed, and
--players who have reached the age of 21 within 45 days of the draft date.
A club generally retains the rights to sign a junior college player until one week prior to the next draft, or until the player enters or returns to a four-year college on a full-time basis. A selected player who enters a junior college cannot be signed until the conclusion of the school's baseball season.
A player who is drafted and does not sign with the club that selected him may be drafted again in a future draft, so long as the player is eligible for that year's draft. A club may not select a player again in a subsequent year, unless the player has consented to the re-selection.
A player who is eligible to be selected and is passed over by every club becomes a free agent and may sign with any club, up until one week before the next draft, or until the player enters or returns to a four-year college full time, or returns to a junior college. In the one-week period before any draft, which is called the "closed period," the general rule is that no club may sign a new player.
A player who is a fifth-year college senior may sign a minor league contract as soon as he finishes his last class in college.
HOW TO FOLLOW THE DRAFT
Major League Baseball Radio, on www.mlb.com