< back

Amateur Draft

About the Draft

Each league has an amateur draft each season consisting of 80 young prospects eager to make it to the Show. In the amateur draft, teams draft players out of high school and college, placing them into the low minors for development into future big leaguers. Draft eligible players are between 17 and 23 years old, and depending on their age and abilities to develop, may need a good number of years to reach their potential.

Draft Order

Each season, when you get your season's schedule, you'll be able to view the Draft Order for that season's amateur draft. For a league's inaugural season, the draft order is based on the total team payroll at the time the season's schedule becomes available. (lowest payroll picks first, highest payroll picks last). For all subsequent seasons, the draft order will be determined as follows:

All non-playoff teams will fill the first 16 slots. The 4 teams that lost in the League Division Series will be picks 17-20. The 2 teams that lost in the League Conference Series will be picks 21-22. The World Series loser will be pick 23. The World Series winner will be pick 24.

Within those slots, order will be determined by the following criteria in order

Regular season wins the previous season, if tied then regular season wins 2 seasons ago, if tied then, division wins the previous season, if tied then, a coin-flip.

Draft Schedule

April 15 – draft list appears; teams can start ordering their draft picks. May 21 – draft starts; first overall pick is selected. May 22 through July 30 – draft continues, with one pick per day. July 31 – last pick of draft; undrafted players become free agents.

Draft Lists and Drafting Players

The list of draft eligible players comes pre-ranked based on the player's initial salary demands, with the highest salaried players ranked highest. Team owners can customize their draft list based on their scouting evaluations, development expectations, and their positional needs. To edit your draft list, click the ''Amateur Draft'' link when viewing your team and simply adjust how the 80 players are ranked.

During each pick in the draft, each team picks the highest-ranked player in their draft list who is available when there draft slot comes up. You will receive alerts as your draft slot comes closer, but play attention to your draft list as you near that time. Each team receives three draft picks a season, whether an owner drafts a player or trades a pick is up to them.

All amateur draft players automatically go to low minors. There is a maximum occupancy of 20 players in low minors, so if you already have 18 or more players in low minors, you will draft less than three players. In fact, if you have 20 players in low minors, you will skip the draft altogether, so again, pay attention to your roster.