The Draft
Twenty rounds in July, with a bonus pool that makes the whole thing a budgeting exercise as much as a scouting one.
What it actually is. Clubs select amateur players from high schools, colleges and junior colleges in a draft held in July, currently twenty rounds. Draft order is set by record with a lottery at the top. Each club has a bonus pool based on the value of its picks, and exceeding it brings penalties, so a club that pays over slot for one player has to save on another.
What somebody who knows the game gets out of it. The bonus pool turned the draft from a talent contest into a portfolio problem. A club with a high pick can take an easier signing there and spend the savings on a high school player in the fifth round who would otherwise go to college, and that maneuver is now a standard part of every draft room. It is also why draft coverage that talks only about who was best misses most of what is happening.
The numbers worth knowing. Twenty rounds, roughly 600 players. High school players who do not sign go to college; college juniors and seniors have far less leverage. Fewer than one in five drafted players ever reaches the majors.
What people get wrong about it. Draft position and eventual value diverge fast. First round picks reach the majors at a much higher rate than later ones, but the majority of major leaguers were not first round picks, because there are many more of everybody else. A tenth round pick is a long shot and there are a lot of long shots.
At Little League and travel ball. The path from travel ball to the draft runs through high school and almost always through college, and it is not the straight line families are sold. The Pipeline feature under College Baseball on this site lays out the real route and the real numbers at each stage.
Batter's Eye: look up anything in baseball