As some of you may know, Major League Baseball has a system where teams can earn draft picks from other teams as compensation for lost free agents. Typically, teams trade impending free agents mid-season in order to get something in exchange for them rather to let them walk. Often however this results in a worse return than simply losing the player at the end of the season. In 2002 for example, the Chicago White Sox dealt Ray Durham to the Oakland A's in exchange for Jon Adkins. The same month, The Montreal Expos dealt Cliff Floyd to the Red Sox for Sun-Woo Kim and Seung Song. All concerned made the Majors but never distinguished themselves.

Now let's take a look at the draft compensation for 2005, and see what kind of return that process brings. I am expressing the results as if they were straight trades. I selected 2005 because I have the BA Almanac for that draft and it makes things much easier.

Arizona: Matt Torra and Micah Owings for Richie Sexson

Atlanta: Beau Jones and Jeff Lyman for Jaret Wright

Boston: Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie for Orlando Cabrera, Craig Hansen and Michael Bowden for Derek Lowe, Clay Buchholz and Jon Egan for Pedro Martinez

Chi Cubs: Mike Billek for Matt Clement

Cleveland: John Drennan and Jensen Lewis for Omar Vizquel

Colorado: Chaz Roe and Daniel Carte for Vinny Castilla

Florida: Aaron Thompson and Ryan Tucker for Armando Benitez, Jacob Marceaux and Sean West for Carl Pavano, Brett Hayes for Mike Redmond

Houston: Eli Iorg and Tommy Manzella for Carlos Beltran

LA Angels: Trevor Bell and Ryan Mount for Troy Percival

LA Dodgers: Luke Hochevar and Ivan DeJesus for Adrian Beltre (Hochevar did not sign)

Minnesota: Henry Sanchez and Paul Kelly for Corey Koskie, Brian Duensing for Christian Guzman, Drew Thompson for Henry Blanco

NY Yankees: J. Brent Cox for Orlando Hernandez, CJ Henry for Jon Lieber

Oakland: Travis Buck and Craig Italiano for Damian Miller

St. Louis: Colby Rasmus and Mark McCormick for Edgar Renteria, Tyler Herron and Josh Wilson for Mike Matheny

San Diego: Cesar Ramos and Nick Hundley for David Wells

Arizona, Atlanta, Boston came out ahead. Billek looks like a washout but Clement bombed too. Jury's out on Cleveland. Colorado came out well ahead, and Florida got three of their top ten prospects from that group. Houston got little. LA Angels came up ahead, at least until Percival unretires. Dodgers came out behind except on salaries. Jury is out on the Twins. I think Cox is a better bet than El Duque, but CJ Henry is awful. Travis Buck is a stud for Oakland. Colby Rasmus is a good prospect.

Overall, teams generally get fair value in return for their free agents. Keeping players around until they reach free agency is a reasonable move, provided you follow the terms required to get compensation back.