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Baseball Rules & Policies

Baseball Core Pick & Draft Policies

Team Selection
  • HPBA uses a Core Pick system in conjunction with an open draft to assemble team rosters.
  • Every Head Coach is allowed to select a predetermined number of players to become “Core Picks” for his/her team.
  • A player becomes a possible core pick for a coach by selecting the coach as a preferred coach during player registration. The Coach then receives from the League the list of players that selected him/her as their preferred coach.
  • From this list, the Coach selects a predetermined number of players to be core picks as indicated in the table below.

Baseball Rules

The table below shows how many players on a team can be core picks for the season:
 

Division Roster Spots Core Picks
Rookie 15* 15
Pee Wee 15 7
Bantam 13* 7
Majors (formerly "Midget") 13* 7
Liberty 14 9
Senior 15 9


* Roster size will be determined by enrollment

After registration has ended and each coach has selected their core picks, an open draft will be held towards the end of February or early March.

Any player who was not selected as a core pick will be put into the draft.

 

Core Picks

In an effort to prevent registered head and assistant coaches from recruiting other registered coaches core picks to play for them the following year as well as to prevent parents/players from leaving teams to play for another team when the player was a core pick of that team, the Core Pick and Player Protection clause has been created.  

The Core Pick and Player Protection Rule as Written:

A Coach is defined as "a Registered Head or Registered Assistant Coach from the same team as the previous year and who is now a Registered Head or Registered Assistant Coach for the upcoming season."

Coaches cannot select any player as a Core Pick who was not on their team the previous year. If a Core Pick player no longer wants to play on the team /coach he/she was with from the previous year he/she must enter the Draft Pool for at least one full season.

 

Core Pick Exceptions

The player who was not on the previous year’s roster can be selected as a Core Pick IF:

  1. The player is moving into the division where the coach coached the previous year and the previous years coach is not coaching in the player’s new division.
  2. The coach is moving into the division where the player played the previous year and the previous years coach is not coaching in the coaches’ new division.
  3. The player is a sibling of a player on last year’s roster.
  4. The player was not a core pick on the player's team the previous year and came from the draft pool.
  5. The player is new to the program or a returning player who did not play the previous year.
  6. The previous years coach agrees to release a player to another coach.

 

Core Pick Player Protection does not apply to a previous years Coaches’ core picks when:

The Coach remains in the same division with the same core pick player(s) as the previous year and does not select the player(s) as core picks for the upcoming season. The player(s) in this case become available to become core picks for any coach in that division.

Baseball Bat Rules

Below are the rules for bats that can be used in Hamlin Park Baseball leagues.  Please be sure your player is using a bat that is approved for their league and division.

Division T-Ball Certified USA Baseball Certified USSSA Certified (1.15 BPF) BBCOR Certified (-3) Wood Bats
Rookie No Restrictions No Restrictions 2-1/4 barrel limit N/A No Restrictions
Pee Wee, Bantam & Majors N/A No Restrictions 2-1/4 barrel limit N/A No Restrictions
Liberty N/A No Restrictions Max Drop: 5 No Restrictions No Restrictions
Senior N/A N/A N/A N/A No Restrictions