Dear Parents,

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of Morrisville Little League or a recent addition to our family, we thought that it would be a good idea to review the draft process and explain how teams are created.  It’s an important process so we hope you take the time to read this note. 

Teams that are established via a draft

Teams in the following divisions are usually established via a draft:

Baseball

Senior Division - Players ages 15 & 16

Junior Division - Players ages 13 & 14

Intermediate Division – Players ages 12 & 13

Major Division - All players ages 11 & 12 and some 10 year olds, depending upon the number of open roster spots

Minor Division - All players ages 9 & 10 (plus some 11 year olds by request) and some 8 year olds, depending upon the number of open roster spots

Transition Division - All players ages 7 & 8 and some 6 year olds, depending upon the number of years that they played Intro to Tee Ball and Tee Ball, the number of open roster spots and their ability 

Softball

Senior Division - All players ages 15 & 16

Junior Division - All players ages 13 & 14

Major Division - All players ages 11 & 12

Minor A Division - Players ages 9 & 10 

Minor B Division - Players ages 8 & 9

Please note that due to the inherent unpredictable nature of a draft, neither the board nor any one else can honor any requests for placement on a specific team other than a team in our Transition Softball, Tee Ball and Intro to Tee Ball divisions.  The Transition Softball, Tee Ball and Intro to Tee Ball divisions do not use a draft to assign players to teams.  Players are assigned to these teams first based on a parent’s willingness to manage a team, second taking into consideration any players who need to be on the same team, and finally balancing the number of boys and girls on each team (Intro to Tee Ball and Tee Ball divisions).

The Process

The process begins with team manager selection.  In mid February, the board will select a team manager for each team within each of the above divisions.   Because the draft results in one division impacts the number of eligible players in the other divisions.  Let’s first walk through the process of establishing the teams in the Major Baseball Division and then focus on the Minor Baseball and Transition Divisions. 

In the Major Baseball Division, once a player is on a particular team he/she remains with that team until they turn age 13.  After our final registration, we will know the number of players returning to each Major Baseball team.  Each team must carry at least 12 players.  

Let’s look at an example.  Let’s say there are 4 Major Baseball teams in our league, each team carries 12 players and each team has 8 returning players, hence each team needs to draft 4 players.  That means there will be 16 open roster spots in the Major Baseball Division (4 teams times 4 players needed per team).  Let’s also say we have two 12 year olds and four 11 year olds who have registered but did not play on one of the Major Baseball teams last year.  In addition, let’s assume we have fourteen 10 year olds who have registered to play baseball. 

Based upon this scenario, the two 12 year olds and the four 11 year olds will be drafted onto a Major Baseball team leaving ten open roster spots for the 10 year olds.   The four remaining 10 year olds will be drafted onto a Minor Baseball team.  This process continues through the Minor Baseball Division into the Transition Division with the exception that teams in these leagues do not have returning players hence, the entire team rosters need to be established via a draft.

For the actual draft sequence, in the Major Baseball Division, teams draft in the reverse order in which they finished last year.  Basically, the team that finished last will draft first and the team that finished first will draft last.  In Minor Baseball and Transition, draft order is mutually determined by Managers, Division Coordinator and Player Agent to help balance the teams. All teams draft until their rosters are full.  

The Intermediate Division relatively new.  Little League International has provided additional latitude to help local leagues get it started. 12 & 13 year old registered Intermediate players could also roster as a major or a junior player. We can simply state here that Intermediate 12 year olds can also play in the majors and 13 year old intermediate players can also play as Juniors. This benefit is unique to the Intermediate division. The draft process follows the general practice of the Junior Division.

All Junior registered players aged 13 & 14 will be drafted onto a Junior Division team.  Also, every age 15 and 16 player will be drafted onto a Senior Division team.  The number of teams in these leagues can vary dramatically from year to year so, from time to time, the league has had to move some players from one team to another team prior to the start of the draft in order to provide some balance to the teams. 

There are other variations to the draft rules that must be considered, such as, siblings playing on the same team (yes, they do if they are drafted into the same division) and the drafting of the team manager’s child (must abide by MLL Division & Little League rules).   The variations can get a bit involved so we won’t go into them here.  Suffice it to say that these variations will be clearly explained to the team managers prior to the draft.

We know that this is quite a bit of information but we thought it would be a good idea for everyone to have a basic understanding of how this process works so you can better explain the draft results to your son or daughter.  If you have any questions on this process, feel free to contact me or any board member.