Nations Baseball has come up with some of the most advanced technology to try to ensure teams are playing at the appropriate level. Along with technology and rules comes complexity and with complexity comes confusion, so here is a detailed series of the rules and examples to help everybody understand. We understand that some players may have been trying this level and found themselves outclassed, but, by the parent and manager/coach trying the child at this level, they are saying that this player should be no less than one grade behind. All players are allowed to play down one grade from what their LY grade is, but there can be no more than 4 players playing down on any one team. For the purposes of this page, the Metro Class is excluded until post season play, which is play that occurs outside of your local league (These would be Zone, State, or National Events). We encourage leagues to make decisions at the local level to make the league work for their situation. If a local Metro league needs to combine ages or allow Premier or out of class players Nations Baseball will support the decision of the local league, but regular class play rules are in effect for any Zone, Regional, State, or National events at the Metro Class.
1. What Are Grades?
Nations Baseball’s principal driving factor is the use of what we call a grade. A grade is similar to what you find in school and the objective of the average ball player is to advance one grade a year. A grade is determined by adding the team’s age plus class, where Metro is 1, Select is 2, Elite is 3, Premier is 4. So, if a player plays in 11U Elite, that player would be playing at a grade 14 (11 + 3). Please keep in mind that grade takes into account that a team consists of players and that cumulatively they reach an outcome as a group, so the individual is graded on the group performance. We make an assumption that when a manager/coach and a parent agree for a player to play on a team in a game, of which we only can assume if they are on the roster, that the child would at a minimum not hurt the teams performance.
Age
Grade |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
22 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
21 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
20 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
19 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
M |
18 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
M |
|
17 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
M |
|
|
16 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
M |
|
|
|
15 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
M |
|
|
|
|
14 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
13 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
E |
S |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
12 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
S |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
P |
S |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 |
P |
P |
P |
P |
S |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 |
P |
P |
P |
S |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
P |
P |
P |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 |
P |
P |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 |
P |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 |
M |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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|
|
P Premier E Elite S Select M Metro
Equivalent Classes
2. What is Last Year (LY)?
3. What Is This Year (TY)?
4. What are Qualifiers & NCI Tournaments?
5. Why is this so difficult?
6. What about pick up players?