I am in 5 of the traditional leagues that draft this week. Four of them are rebuilding teams (three of them I have taken control of within the past 4 months). Two of them are in 20 team leagues, three are in 24 team leagues.

The 20 team leagues do tend to have some talent... at least a handful of players with good futures, in some cases maybe 2 handfuls.

However, from preparing my free agent lists I have come to the conclusion that in 24 team leagues there just isn't much there for rebuilding teams... so it wouldn't matter if you had a lottery weighted in favor of worse teams. Once you get past about the first 3 picks there really isn't anything great of FUTURE value there. In fact in one or two of my leagues I find myself forced to take a pitcher with significant 1999 value (but not a good player for future) and hope that I can trade that player to a contender for something of value. When you are in a league where you pick 3rd and you are stuck putting Mike Magnante 3rd on your list you should realize that as a rebuilder you aren't gonna get much in the draft that fits your plan.

Face it, the free agent draft primarily serves the purpose of letting contenders get that 4th outfielder, reserve infielder, and extra innings. Maybe in the endgame people will take the longshot prospects.. the guys like Chad Meyers and Mike Colangelo... but 3 out of 4 of those longshot youngsters will get cut next year so what is the real gain?

I say all this to emphasize my point which is: In 24 team traditional leagues there is so little talent in the free agent draft that has FUTURE value that it really doesn't matter. In an average league only 3 teams will get a good player anyway. And the people who aren't one of the three will still complain.