[OnTheWarpath15]

Originally Posted by eazyb81

St. Louis and Miami definitely don't belong, and Colorado and Arizona probably don't either.

Are these extra picks early in the draft? How do they decide who gets the picks and how many they get?

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The odds of winning a Draft pick in this lottery will be based on each team's winning percentage in the previous season. The half-dozen picks will be made at the conclusion of the first round, but after the compensation picks for free agents.

There will be a second group of six picks, coming 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 any revenue sharing.

There's another wrinkle to this. These lottery picks can be traded. That's right, for the first time in Major League history, Draft picks can be dealt. But there are a series of conditions and limitations regarding such transactions.

Only a team that wins a pick in the lottery can trade it, meaning that selection can be traded just once. It can't be sold for cash, and it may only be dealt during the season. Trading can commence the day after the lottery is held and is allowed until the end of that regular season. So seeing a lottery pick or two involved in some July 31 Trade Deadline deals is a distinct possibility. They cannot be included in any Winter Meetings deals, however, with trading of picks again permitted at the beginning of the following regular season.