It is important to distinguish between the quality of players available in three types of leagues

20 Team Trad Leagues
24 Team Trad Leagues
24 Team Real Time Leagues

I do not have the experience necessary to comment on Real Time Spring Free Agent Drafts; however, I can comment on Trad Leagues.

I believe that many of the leagues Kurt is referring to are 20 team leagues.

While you will still find the occasional first round gem in a 24 team league, by and large 20 team leagues have much more depth. The reason is obvious if you think about it. 20% more teams, therefore the spring FA draft involves 20% more players therefore among the class of "fringe prospects" or "struggling veterans" more are picked up in the late rounds in a 24 team league (as teams try to look into the crystal ball) than are picked up in the 20 team league.

For an example: Right now before considering any drops one of my 20 team leagues has the following players in the FA pool (just a sampling): Terrence Long, Jay Payton, Jeff D'Amico, Mac Suzuki, Gabe White, Jeff Tam, Mark Redman, Frank Castillo, Matt Morris.

Most of these guys are not available in my 24 team leagues (aside from an occasional sighting of Castillo, D'Amico, or Tam) because people took shots on them last spring in the draft.

So keep the type of league in mind when evaluating the value of picks. It is my perception (although I have very limited RT experience) that REAL TIME is the league where picks have the least value of all because you can get players (including many of the impact rookies) in the monthly FA drafts. The top rounds still have a fraction of the value of what they have in Trad Leagues but the late rounds aren't worth much.