(Ed. note: The following is a reprint of an article that ran one year ago, on the day of the 2001 draft.] Right now, 30 major-league organizations are making decisions that will impact the success of their franchise over the next few years, and in some cases, for a decade or more. Unlike the football and basketball versions, though, the annual draft of young talent doesn't receive national television coverage or make men with good hair and strong opinions famous and wealthy.

Today's Expos trade of Bartolo Colon and Quadruple-A infielder Jorge Nunez for Orlando Hernandez, Jeff Liefer, Rocky Biddle and an undisclosed amount of cash in a three-way deal with the White Sox and Yankees caps a two-month circus that's left fans of the Expos and plenty of other teams nauseous. The Yankees dealt Hernandez and $2 million cash to get righty set-up man Antonio Osuna and Triple-A pitcher Delvis Lantigua.

Of the many, many dumb things in the United States tax code, there's a provision that allows teams to write off the salaries of players when they acquire the team on a limited schedule as depreciation. It's an easy, fun way for them to show massive losses while they make tons and tons of delicious cash money. The write-off lasts five years, and then you sell the team for its increased value and find something else to do, like buy an arena football team, or make a nuisance of yourself in another sport.

When we got our new collective bargaining agreement this season, I figured the results would be predictable: dumb teams would remain dumb and squander their new money, smart teams without money would do better, smart teams with lots of money would do a bit worse. I figured the Yankees might do one of two things. They could tone things down a little. With the free agent winter, they could easily spend much less on the supporting cast and save a lot by not exceeding the salary cap as greatly. It looked like they were headed this way, throwing little fits over hours of elevator operations, making big deals out of little cuts.

Among the numerous feats Bill James accomplished as an analyst in the 1980s, his greatest achievement was the way in which he legitimized the importance of minor-league batting statistics. Where once the remark "Yeah, but just because he hits in the minors doesn't mean that he'll hit in the majors" was an accepted, unchallenged claim, James' work on the subject proved decidedly otherwise--eventually spawning an industry of minor-league analysis that still flourishes to this day.

The price of loyalty is $22 million and an extra year. The two contracts Jim Thome agonized over between turkey and potatoes were Cleveland's five-year, $60 million deal, plus a vesting option year, and the contract he took, which started with six years for $82 million plus a vesting option year.

Soon after yesterday's installment of "Aim For The Head" appeared on the web site, my e-mail starting getting reader comments.

The 17th installment of Joe Sheehan's excellent newsletter appeared in my inbox last night, and it featured analysis of the big, weird Rockies-Marlins-Braves deal that was hinted at last week and finally agreed upon--pending approval from the commissioner's office--this weekend. In analyzing the deal, Joe puts the Rockies in the winner's column and gives the Marlins a goose egg.

Let's say you're a pitcher of some repute, and you're making mad cash at the front end of a long-term contract. You signed with a mediocre team that plays in a hostile environment as part of Revision 12 of that team's ongoing quest to solve the riddle of their home field.

Like me, you may find yourself adrift after the World Series. In my case, I fell asleep on my kayak in McCovey Cove at some point during game 5 and are now stranded on a small island in the Pacific, filing stories on the last of your laptop power and sending them into the home office via coconut satellite. For most fans, though, the feeling comes from this boring period before spring training, when we're supposed to speculate endlessly on whether or not Tony Clark will get a minor-league invite or not, and twiddle our thumbs waiting for Baseball Prospectus 2003 to come out.

Mark Teixeira's for real. OK, you probably didn't me to tell you that. The Rangers' superstar third base prospect has terrorized pitchers every step of his amateur and pro careers. But did you know Adam Morrissey has one of the quickest swings you'll ever see? That Kevin Cash's defense may be even better than you've heard? That Luke Hudson could help push the Reds to the top of the NL Central in 2003? You would if you headed out to Phoenix for the Arizona Fall League season.

When I was little, I thought sportswriters had the coolest job in the world. I couldn't wait to grow up to become a baseball beat writer, or the next great writer for Sports Illustrated, or an author who could talk about cool stuff like the 1927 Yankees. I wanted to be them. I hate myself now for thinking that way.