Why Can't Teams Trade Draft Picks?

[TheOtherRipken]

obviously the sandwich picks would be an exception, but why not allow trades to happen in the first 10 rounds or so?

Is it a contract thing or does it have something to do with the fact that players rarely go straight to the majors?

[Can_of_corn]

It has more to do with the monetary issues. The fear is that teams like the Yankees will trade up and take the hard to sign players that the lower income teams would not be able to afford. For instance, there is no way Matt falls to the O's a couple years ago if draft picks could be traded, he was seen as one of the top two talents in the draft and only fell to the O's because of signability issues.