AFFILIATE PLAYERS

AFFILIATE PLAYER REGULATIONS FOR THE BASEBALL ALBERTA PROVINCIAL LEAGUE

1. Only players registered under Baseball Alberta (confirmed member in Spordle under their Home Association) are eligible for teams to use as affiliate players.

2. No affiliate players will be permitted for play at the Provincial Championships. However, if a team’s roster falls to 10 players or lower for the Provincial Championships, the team may apply to Baseball Alberta to pick up 1 player from an Association at Baseball Alberta’s discretion. Teams must provide doctor’s notes or other supporting information for the lack of players to activate this process.

3. The affiliate program is in place to provide coaches with an option to pick up players from a lower category/division in the event of unforeseen circumstances where their roster would drop below the original size. Coaches have the option to bring their roster size up to its original size utilizing affiliates. For example, if a team’s original roster size is 16 players and 3 players are injured and unable to play, the coach can potentially affiliate 1–3 players. This is not in place to add depth to the team’s current roster but as an emergency backup plan. Coaches or OFM's will still be required to provide information and reasoning for why the player is being replaced. 

4. *NEW FOR 2024* 'AA’ and ‘AAA’ teams may affiliate up to 10 players from a lower category/division of play.

5.  No affiliates will be allowed for the ‘A’ division.

6. *NEW FOR 2024* All affiliate players must be approved by Baseball Alberta prior to them being eligible to play. Each ‘AAA’ team may draw affiliates from their own Association’s ‘A’/’AA’ base of the same age category or from their own Association’s ‘AAA’ base of a lower age category or from ‘A’/’AA’ and/or lower age categories within a 75 km radius. 

7. *NEW FOR 2024* Teams are permitted to submit a list of up to 10, Association approved, players from teams in a lower category/division of play in their own Association in which they will use as their affiliates for the upcoming season. Only affiliates on this submitted list at the start of the season when initial rosters are submitted are eligible to play without prior approval from Baseball Alberta and must be tracked using the Affiliate Player Tracking Sheet for each game. Affiliate players who are from teams not in the same Association as the team seeking an affiliate player or were not added at the start of the season at the initial roster submission, are required to follow the regular affiliate player registration process up to a team maximum of 10 (Added to a Spordle ID team roster under "Affiliate Players"). 

8. Each ‘AA’ team may draw affiliates from their own Association Community/’A’ league or from any Association within 75 km who does not have a ‘AA’ team at that age category. In the event that there are teams that do not have any Associations within the 75 km radius, then that team may apply to Baseball Alberta for affiliate approval from outside of the 75 km radius.

9. In order to affiliate a player, the coach must contact the player’s team coach for contact information and then discuss the option with the player’s parent(s) unless the player is 18 years of age.

10. Each team must submit the Affiliate Player Tracking Form along with a $25 processing fee to Baseball Alberta at least 3 working days prior to the first game to be played. This form must be submitted on a per game basis. You will only have to send one single payment of $25 per player used, NOT per game. The player will be considered approved by Baseball Alberta if the following form has been submitted, and we have recieved the single fee for the player. 

11. In order to utilize an affiliate, the coach/team manager must contact the affiliate player’s team coach to determine availability and to also discuss how the player will be utilized (coaches should come to an agreement on innings/pitch counts, as those innings may affect the affiliate player’s team). If the affiliate’s team has a league (Provincial League or Community League) game, that player will not be available. If that team has a tournament, the player will only be available if approved by both the coach and parent/player. If that team has a practice or exhibition game scheduled, the player will be deemed available. Any coach abusing this process may be disciplined by Baseball Alberta. If deemed available after due process, the coach must then contact the player’s parent(s) unless the player is 18 years of age.

12. A team list of Affiliate players must be provided to the Official Scorekeeper along with the lineup card. The official lineup card must identify the player with “AFF” beside the player’s name. The Official Scorekeeper will identify Affiliate Players on the Game Summary Sheet.

13. Affiliate players may only sign with one team and may only play up to 5 games throughout the entire schedule. Once a player’s five (5) games are complete, that player’s eligibility for Affiliation will be denied for the remainder of the season. (The Registrar may only extend affiliate player’s maximum number of games in the event that a team loses a player(s) to Team Alberta/Team Canada opportunities and has used up all available affiliate player games).