I have a proposal that I believe balances out the concerns of owners worried that one team can stock up on every hot prospect, while allowing the draft to be weighted towards teams that most need help.

I'd suggest dropping the requirement that rookies need the 150 PAs and 50 IP to be eligible, and instead allow any player to be in the draft as soon as they make even a single PA or pitch a third of an inning. The rationale for this is two-fold.

One, it would mean that top quality prospects could be far down the list of available players given they might have a miniscule PB value. It would require a certain amount of risk to select a player who might only have been brought up for a cup of coffee due to an injury or double-header or the like, knowing he might not contribute for a year or more. Those sorts of players I suspect would still be around far into the monthly draft. How many folks would have picked up Randy Wolf or Ruben Mateo after only one game or 10 ABs for instance? Not as many as will want to get them when they become eligible at some point this year.

Two, it would load up the first draft after the September call-ups to the extent that all teams could get a name prospect as any player brought up would be available. In past years this has included many top players, and many guys thought to be top players who never amounted to much. This might make the between season Rookie Draft irrelavent however.

The offshoot of all of this would be that a team would still need to follow the game to not miss out on a player, and savvy owners picking low would be more likely to have a decent player available. And it would also force teams into deciding to go for a lessor prospect that could help now as compared to a bigger prospect who might sit on the roster for a long time before contributing. Much like the dilemma real teams face.

So to conclude, reorder the draft to favor the poor teams, but make all players available so the choices are not as clear each month.