Kevin,

You stated that a the 16th player taken in the first round would be a "bench" player. I hardly think so. Most contraction teams will contribute at least 5 high quality players to the draft, and most will have at least 10 players that every team would keep over their 26th or 27th man on the roster (meaning that most everyone, even stacked teams, will probably keep at least 2 players from this draft).

As an example, here are some of the players that will be available in one of my leagues that is being contracted(99T2):

Team 1
------------
Eric Chavez
Lance Berkman
Mark Mulder
Freddy Garcia
Shannon Stewart
Torri Hunter
Bobby Kielty
Todd Hundley
David Ortiz
Barry Larkin
Danny Graves
Mike Lamb

Team 2
---------
Greg Maddux
Edgardo Alfonzo
Jarrod Washburn
Mike Lowell
Jon Garland
Omar Daal
Cory Lidle
Scott Sauerbeck
Gabe White
Todd Zeile
Moises Alou
Todd Hollandsworth

Team 3
-------------
Tim Salmon
Jeff Bagwell
Chris Reitsma
Eric Milton
Jimmy Haynes
Alex Cora
Corey Patterson
Josh Beckett
Erubiel Durazo
Ellis Burks
Keith Foulke
Pokey Reese
Bill Mueller
Matt Stairs

Team 4
------------
C.C. Sabathia
Robert Fick
Joe Crede
Daryle Ward
Mike Cuddyer
Kenny Rogers
Glendon Rush
Eddie Guardado

That's 46 players, or just over 2 rounds worth of players that are all good. None that would be considered "bench" type of players. Sure, there are maybe only 5-10 that are absolutely studs, but there's probably at least 30 of them that would be on your active roster each week.

Jon, STL Trash