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Draft Rules

Draft Related ByLaws

16. DRAFTING OF PLAYERS AND MANAGER LOCKS

The Draft
The intention of the DRAFT process is to provide a system that attempts to

balance teams with players of similar skill levels across the number of teams per division. Only managers and named coaches who either have a player on the roster or do not have a player in the Division will be allowed in the draft room.

With the exception of the T-Ball Division all divisions will conduct an Annual Fall Draft of all players in the division and a Spring Supplemental Draft in the spring season. In the T-Ball division the Player Agent will divide all teams equally and make all team assignments.
Conditions that apply to both the Fall and Spring season Drafts.
1. Managers must be determined before tryouts.
2. Within the Cal Ripken Division, teams will not be allowed to draft more than
eight players of the oldest age in their specific division (Rookie, Minor, Major) unless only players of that age are available within the 13-15 Division, known as Babe Ruth, each team shall include a minimum of three (3) 13-year old players and no more than five (5) 15-year old players unless only players of that age are available.
3. Siblings in the same division will be drafted or selected onto the same team unless their parents have requested that the siblings be drafted on separate teams
.
4. Siblings in the same division will be assigned a relative skill level by unanimous agreement among the division's managers. This will allow siblings with a range of talent to be drafted or selected in a manner that might best balance the draft. If the managers cannot unanimously agree on siblings skill level, the siblings will be drafted or selected in consecutive rounds. In order for siblings to be considered for this skill level agreement, they each MUST participate in tryouts. Consecutive rounds includes the first four locking rounds.
5. Players Eligible to be Drafted

All players properly registered (per the Player Agent) that are not locked are eligible to be drafted. This includes players that did not participate in tryouts with the following exception.

Should the Player Agent and President agree that an advantage to a team would be created by drafting a player not seen at tryouts, the Player Agent and President can agree to place ALL players that did not participate in tryouts into a "hat". If this is the case, all players that participated in tryouts shall be drafted first per draft rules. Once all of these players are drafted, managers must then draft players out of the "hat" via blind pick.

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Players chosen in this manner, out of the "hat" at the draft, are considered draft picks not "hat picks".
6. Adding Players After Draft.
a. Any player that registers after the draft will be placed on a team as a

”hat pick”. In order to conduct a hat pick, there must be either a minimum of one player and two teams in need of a player or a minimum of two players and one team in need of a player. The “hat picks” will be conducted by the Player Agent with the affected managers present to pick from the hat. Managers may give the

Player Agent or another party authority to pick from the hat if they cannot attend. The order of picking from the hat will be done as a continuation of that season’s draft order. On occasion, in the best interest of a player or the League, the Player Agent, in agreement with the Division Representative, may “hat pick” a player out to a team without the minimums as described above.
b. Managers may refuse to add a player once 
1⁄2 of that manager’s games have been played that season. Should a manager refuse to add a player, that manager may not add a player at a later date without approval by the Board. The Board reserves the right to add a player(s) to a team should the number of players drop to the point where games have been, or are in jeopardy of being forfeited due to the inability of a team to field nine players.

Locking (Freezes) of Players.
1. The intention of LOCK process is to allow players to remain together as friends on teams and offer Managers/Players from other leagues an opportunity to play Babe Ruth Baseball and still have some of their friends/players remain with them on the same team when they join our league.
2. Up to 4 players can be locked by a Manager for his team. A manager must lock his own child. If a second child plays in the same division, then the manager must lock at least one of his children. If a manager has an unlocked child, then a consensus should be attempted to be reached in the draft room to determine an appropriate round for that player. If the managers cannot unanimously agree to the sibling’s skill level, the siblings will be drafted or selected in consecutive rounds.
3. Locks must be done prior to tryout, unless a new team (Fall or Spring) is added after the tryout. "Prior to tryout" shall be a published deadline determined by the Player Agent. The Player agent shall provide this date to managers with a minimum of 7 days notification. This deadline must be no later than the night before the initial published tryout day. A "new team" is defined as a team that is created due to more players registering than planned. The Player Agent, League President, and Division Rep will decide, by simple majority, when the cutoff date would be for a team to be considered "new" in this respect. A new team may choose locks, with parent/guardian agreement, from players seen at tryouts.
4. If a team has fewer than 4 locks reported prior to tryout, they may add locks between tryout day and draft time if there are still openings for players in that division. These locks cannot be from the pool of players registered by tryout day unless this is a "new team".

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5. A player is considered locked only with prior agreement with the parent or guardian. Any trades of locked players must come with the player’s parent or guardian agreement. 6. Locks carry over from the Fall Season to the Spring Season. The only way a player can be unlocked is to leave the team. Each player drafted or locked by a manager to a team has the option of not returning to the team in the spring. The player must then tryout and be available for drafting in the Spring Supplemental draft. An unlocked or drafted player who leaves a team cannot be drafted or locked back on the same team. Should the fall team a player was locked on cease to exist in the spring season, that locked player is free to be locked by a different team in the spring or reenter the draft.
7. Should a player locked on a fall team move up to a different division in the spring, he must enter the draft. He may NOT be locked on a different spring team regardless of the fact that they are in different divisions. The exception is when his parent is approved to manage in a different division.
8. If a team has fewer than four (4) locks on their roster at the time of the spring draft, they shall fill that open lock round with a draft pick following the spring draft order. This player is then considered a lock. There is no provision for carrying an open lock spot beyond the spring draft.
9. If a Manager loses a player that has been locked, he may replace the player with a player that is or is not on a division’s waiting list should one exist. Replacing a lock is subject to the rules described above.
10. If a locked player is traded, he keeps his locked status. The player that he is traded for now becomes locked even in the event he was not previously locked. A team cannot have more than 4 locked players after any trade, or that trade cannot be made.

The FALL Draft

1. Each fall all non-locked players within each division will be redrafted
2. The managers drawing out of a hat will determine the sequence of the draft for the fall. 3. The drafting order will be reversed in every round in which players are selected, beginning left to right.
4. The player Agent (or representative), at a meeting with all Managers in the division to be drafted, will identify all registered players and locked players. Locked players will be placed in a grid (by team) determining any vacancies in the first four rounds based on the order outlined in #3.
5. At this time all Managers who have less than four locks will pick from the pool of players that registered 
and participated in try outs until the grid is even at 4 across.
a. The order of picks will begin with the Manager who has the fewest locks following the process outlined in 2, 3 and 4 above, until all Managers have 4 players.
b. PLAYERS CHOSEN IN THIS MANNER WILL BE CONSIDERED LOCKS AS FOLLOWS AND SUBJECT TO ALL RULES RE: LOCKS.
1 PLAYER = NOT A LOCK
2 PLAYERS = ONE LOCK (first chosen is treated as lock)
3 PLAYERS = TWO LOCKS (first two chosen are treated as locks)
4 PLAYERS = THREE LOCKS (first three chosen are treated as locks) Longwood Babe Ruth Baseball League of Seminole, Inc. Bylaws

6. After all teams have 4 players, locked or chosen/locked the first full round of drafting will begin, choosing in order of draw, moving left to right and reversing after each round, until the pool of players have all been drafted.

The SPRING Draft

1. The fall regular season standings will be used to determine the drafting order even if an end of the season tournament is played. The team finishing first will draft last, and the last place team will draft first. A new team will have the second pick in the draft. The drafting order does not reverse by round. The Player Agent will identify all vacancies on the team rosters using the grid developed as the result of the fall draft.

2. Any players that were added to rosters in a fall hat pick (after the normal draft) will be required to tryout and reenter the spring draft process, and may be selected by any team or locked by any team.
3. The first round in the spring will be after all new locks have been declared and be in the reverse order of fall finish. This round enables all teams to have a pick (per order in #1) before team numbers are equalized.

4. The number of rounds that will be required in the spring supplemental draft will be determined by the team that has the most roster openings.
5. In the spring, any team who has not locked 4 players in the fall (or any new team) may lock up to 4 players. A team will not have more than 4 locked players on it including fall and spring.
6. After all locks have been declared the draft will proceed until the player pool has been depleted.

Other Draft related items

Once player’s tryout, they cannot return to their team and must be selected through the draft process. A player’s parent or guardian may not be considered for a vacant or new manager’s or coaches position until after the player is drafted on a team, unless authorized by a majority vote of the board of directors with the authorization duly noted in the minutes.

Special application to Babe Ruth/Senior Division:

It is recognized that High School Baseball Play affects both the draft/lock player process and team strength from Fall to Spring and during the Spring season. The Babe Ruth National Rules address certain situations that affect all stars and players returning to teams. Players who are on a fall team and elect to return to their same team after the end of High School play shall have that option providing they have met all registration requirements and:
1) The team has notified the Division at the beginning of the Spring Season which players may be involved.
2) The team manager agrees to accept the returning players based on his/her assessment of team conditions.
3) The player agent examines the impact on the team and the league overall, considering player welfare, affect on team standings and potential impact on All Star selection. The player agent then must make his recommendation to the board for approval. If approved,

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all teams in the division will be notified of the return of these players. This process does not replace the normal Locked player rules.

19. Trading Players
Trading of players may be done during the fall and spring draft, with the

agreement of both managers, the player agent, and the division rep. Trades must occur before leaving the draft room. After the draft is completed, trading is prohibited. Players who are returning to a team in the spring cannot be traded without the written consent of the player and his or her parents or guardians. Trades shall be on a 'one-for-one' basis and may include players or draft slots. If a locked player is traded, the player received in the trade shall be considered a lock.