Information about the Player Draft

Some cynics believe that the player draft brings out the worst in the adults involved with youth sports. Claims of down grading certain player evaluations so that one coach can stack a team with quality, but unknown, players in the later rounds is a common cry. Passionate claims that player "X" will bolt to a rival program if he is not on a particular team or other intimidating and unscrupulous tactics designed to swing the balance of talent in one's favor can often be part of a traditional draft.

Fortunately the WESAC draft is a bit different. Rather than the result of a round by round selection process, the process is more akin to a smoke filled room with the power brokers dictating the terms (except, of course, that there is no smoking at the Rec Center and the power brokers are the coaches themselves).

Seriously, the draft goes as follows. For T-Ball and Coach Pitch, players are grouped according to the requests on the registration forms. Teams are filled out with the hope of keeping some sort of logical grouping (neighborhood, school, etc.). Care must be taken to be sure that there is some sort of parental involvement on each team so that a coaching staff can be put together (or drafted as the case may be).

PARENTS, PLEASE NOTE: The people present at the draft make all the team selection decisions. Sometimes it is not possible to fill all the registration requests to play with specific friends or coaches. If you want to ensure that your wishes are met, be one of the people in the draft room making the team decisions.

The machine pitch draft is very similar to the T-Ball and Coach Pitch draft with one additional constraint. A team may not be assembled for the sole purpose of being better than the other teams. If a group of neighborhood or school chums who played T-Ball together all happen to have a lot of talent, they need not be broken up, however any new players added to that team should be done with a eye towards evening up the talent.

The selection process for teams that play in the Minneapolis Park & Rec. program (Pee Wee & older) follows more rigorous balancing of team talent constraints. If there are two or more teams in the same division, they must be roughly equal in terms of talent and age. If the coaches can not agree on a fair split, the WESAC Baseball board will make the final roster decisions.

Once the teams have been selected, it is possible to make changes (as long as the above requirements continue to be met). The procedure is as follows. The person requesting the change gets approval from both coaches and the WESAC Baseball Commissioner or President. The teams, post change, must not have more than the maximum number of players nor less than the recommended number of players. If a second player is involved, that player must also approve the trade.