My understanding is that the primary purposes of the Contraction Drafts are (1) to reduce the number of unmanaged teams, (2) make the remaining unmanaged teams more desirable, (3) improve the overall competitive balance in leagues that lack balance.

With these goals in mind I believe that the most logical draft order for a contraction draft is to use the "rookie draft" model. That is to say that the draft order is the same in every round (NOT serpantine) and that the draft order is based on the standings from the previous year with the top 8 picks determined by a lottery system.

If you assume that each team contracted will have 30-35 draftable players then the pool of players is about 120-140 per league. I think a 5 or 6 round draft is probably appropriate. A significant proporation of the 5th and 6th round picks in the contraction draft will get cut but having more rounds gives the weaker teams more options to choose from when selecting their 27 players on cut day.

Additional Comments:

- I think the contraction draft should include all players from the rosters of the teams contracted, including those that did not play in 2002. That way a team that wants to take a shot on a prospect like Rick Ankiel in the contraction draft has that option.

- I think that the contraction draft should take place in early January, about 6 weeks before the rookie draft. This will stimulate trading in a time period that is usually kind of dead.