MJBSA Player Draft Policy & Procedures

Objective

As a recreational baseball and softball association, a primary objective of MJBSA is to ensure all players, parents, and coaches have an enjoyable experience and wish to return to play again in the following year. We firmly believe that maintaining competitive parity among all teams in each division is essential to this objective. Within each age group there is a wide range in skills, talents, and emotional maturity. If left to chance, this could result in large differences in talent pool among individual teams. The following paragraphs describe MJBSA’s Player Draft Policy & Procedures that are used to ensure that (to the best of our ability) available talent is equitably distributed among teams in each division.

Player Evaluation

The first step in equitable distribution of talent is to estimate the relative skill level of each available player. For this purpose, each division (except Tee-ball) will hold a player evaluation where each player will go through a series of basic drills (running, throwing, fielding grounders, fly-balls, hitting, etc.). All coaches of the respective division will independently assess player skills to be used to prioritize their draft order.

Barring the exceptions below, all players entering a new league/division are highly encouraged to attend the Player Evaluations in mid March.

Who does NOT need to attend evaluations?

• No evaluation is held for Tee-ball and all players are assigned by random blind draft with parent grouping requests honored to the extent possible.

• Players returning to the same team in the same division (age group) as the previous year do not need to attend the evaluation.

• Siblings of returning players will be placed on the same team as though they are also returning players.

• Each team will be assigned 2 coaches ONLY (1 head and 1 assistant). Their children are automatically assigned to the same team.

What happens if my draft eligible player is not able to attend evaluations?

• Draft eligible players that do not attend evaluations will go into a “blind draft”. Players in the blind draft are  allocated to teams as though drawing names from a hat with player identity unknown to the coach.

Clarifications:

• Assistant coaches not assigned to a specific team.

• It is typical that MJBSA will often have more coaches than available positions. Children of coaching applicants that were not assigned to a specific team should attend evaluations. These assistant coaches will be allocated to teams based on the draft of their children and then may be allowed to assist as requested at the discretion of the head coach of the respective drafting team.

Players returning to same league but wishing to be drafted to different team:

• Players returning to the same league are NOT required to return to the same team. At parent request, players may re-enter the draft to be assigned to another team. It is particularly important for these players to attempt to attend the evaluation if at all possible. Coaches will typically respect parent wishes and will not intentionally redraft these players. However, random chance in a blind draft could place the player back on the same team.
• Parents should be advised that switching teams based on “last year’s” win/loss record, hoping to jump to a “winning team,” often does not accomplish the desired outcome. History suggests that a young team that returns the second year, comes back with considerable experience and does quite well.

Following your coach into the next division:

• This is a very common request as players and coaches “move up” to the next division. However, if allowed, such a provision could easily be abused and manipulated to negatively influence competitive parity within the league. MJBSA will not honor such a request under any circumstances. Players desiring a specific coach should definitely try to attend the evaluations which will give the respective coach an opportunity to draft the player by name (as opposed to blind draft). However, MJBSA makes no guarantees regarding the draft outcome and no registration fee will be returned simply because the player was not drafted to a specific team/coach.

Siblings:

• Parents typically request that siblings playing in the same division be assigned to the same team to minimize travel issues. In this case, it is standard MJBSA protocol for these registrations forms to be clipped together and siblings will be drafted together. If one sibling is already assigned as a returning player to a particular team, the other sibling will automatically be placed on the same team as though a returning player. However, siblings can be treated as individuals and drafted independently if this is the parent’s preference.

Travel request and the “buddy system”:

• Travel requests and buddies are another provision that has a history of abuse that negatively influences competitive parity within a league. Travel requests and (or) buddies are allowed as long as they both go through the draft procedure for allocation to a team. Travel or buddy requests tied to a returning player already assigned as a returning player to a specific team cannot be granted under any circumstances. Travel request for any mailing address within one mile of Marysville City limits will not likely be granted without compelling justification presented in writing to the MJBSA Board.

Sponsor request:

• To the extent possible, the MJBSA Board will “attempt” to honor sponsor request to match a sponsorship with a specific individual (1 only) coach or player provided that individual is directly associated with the sponsor as an employee, a family member or an immediate family member of a direct employee. In the case of a coach, this request cannot be used to exceed the 2 coach maximum per team prior to drafting. The specific request must be written on the sponsorship application form. Any allocation of players based on sponsor request must be approved by the MJBSA Board. The MJBSA Board reserves the right to deny any request that is believed to unfairly influence competitive parity within the league, in which case the sponsor may request return of their donation. Any allocation of players based on sponsor request will be made known prior to the draft and these players will not be required to attend Player Evaluations.

The Player Draft Process:

• The League Commissioner will provide head coaches with folders containing the names of all returning player assigned to the team approximately one week prior to the Player Evaluations.
• At Player Evaluations, coaches will be provided a list/scoring sheet of all draft eligible players. Siblings and granted travel provisions that will be drafted as a “pair” will be identified. Players currently playing on a travel team will be made know for reference purposes only. Coaches will assess player skills and rank them as they see fit.
• The Player Draft will be administered by the League Commissioner. Registration forms for players that did not attend evaluations will be placed face down in groups based on player age. Registration forms for player that attended the evaluation will be in alphabetical order for easy access when drafted.
• With each selection, coaches are free to pick players by name from the pool of players that attended the evaluation or select a player at random from the blind draft. This selection is totally at the coach’s discretion and may be based on any of the following: 1) the player skills/talents 2) to fulfill a parent request for travel assignment with another player that is already assigned to the team 3) to fulfill a parent request to stay with a particular coach when moving from one division to the next 4) any other reason.
• On the day of the Player Draft, head coaches will draw numbers from a hat to establish the draft order. However, teams will enter the draft based the number of returning players. Teams with the fewest returning players enter the draft before teams with more returning players. The draft order in each respective round is based on: 1) the number of players presently on the team 2) eligibility during the prior round and then 3) the random number selected to establish the draft order.

A mock draft is detailed below for reference:

Round 1

Only teams B and E will are eligible to draft in round was as each of these teams has only 2 returning players while all others have 4 or more. Team B drew the lowest random number and thus picks before Team E.

Let’s say Team B picks a single player and Team E picks a pair of siblings or paired travel request.

Round 2

Only team B is allowed to draft in Round 2 as team B has only 3 players while all others have 4 or more. Team B, selects an individual player.

Round 3

In round 3, all teams except team A will draft, however since team B was allowed to draft in the prior round, the new teams entering the draft will be given priority based on the random draft order. The draft order is thus Team C, Team E, Team D and finally Team B.

All teams select a single player.

Round 4

In round 4, all teams begin with 5 players and thus all will be eligible to draft, however Team A gets priority because they did not select in the prior round. Thus the draft order is: Team A, Team C, Team B, Team E and then Team D.

Teams A, B and E select individual players and teams C and D each select a sibling or travel pair.

Round 5

Only teams A, B and E are eligible in round 5 and as each selected in the prior round the order is B, E, A and all teams select an individual player.

Each team selects a single player.

Round 6

All teams are eligible in round six with each having 7 players, however, because they did not select in the prior round, teams C and D receive priority. Draft order in round 6 is: C, D, B, E, A.

This procedure continues until all players have been allocated to teams. Subsequent to the draft, late sign-ups will be assigned to teams in the sequence established during the draft and using the same principles and logic.