Major League Baseball held its first-ever Competitive Balance Lottery and the Colorado Rockies have picked up one of the 12 extra selections awarded in this event. They will receive the third pick in Round B, which comes immediately after the second round:

Comp Round B order: 1. @Padres; 2. @Indians; 3. @Rockies; 4. @Athletics; 5. @Brewers; 6. @Tigers ... Comp Round A to come ..

— MLB Draft (@MLBDraft) July 18, 2012

MLB.com explains how this Competitive Balance Draft works:

The lottery [...] is a mechanism designed to help teams perceived to need the most assistance by awarding extra Draft picks to some of them. The 10 smallest-market teams and 10 lowest-revenue teams will have the chance to win one of six extra selections in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft.

That actually resulted in 14 teams gaining eligibility for this drawing since the lists overlapped, but the Tampa Bay Rays and the St. Louis Cardinals were the teams that came up short. Here is the order of the first six picks, which will come after the completion of the first round:

Comp Round A order: 1. @Royals 2. @Pirates 3. @Dbacks 4. @Orioles 5. @Reds 6. @Marlins

— MLB Draft (@MLBDraft) July 18, 2012

The interesting thing about these picks is that they can be traded, unlike other draft picks. But there are conditions. The team that trades the pick is the only one allowed to do that. Once the receiving team acquires the selection it cannot be moved any longer. Also, the pick can only be traded while the baseball season is in play. There will be no offseason deals involving CBL picks.