Baseball Australia has revealed its list of Nationally Identified Players, aimed at ensuring competitive balance and promoting playing opportunities for Australians in the Brut Australian Baseball League.
The list of 36 players – which can expand to a maximum of 50 – will along with non-listed Australian players accrue negative points under new ABL roster rules.
Identified players – who were selected on senior performance in the past 24 months - will be worth negative-1 point and non-listed players negative-2.
CLICK HERE FOR THE NATIONALLY IDENTIFIED PLAYERS LIST
Each team will have 150 points to use across the 10-week regular season with unused points from each round rolling over.
Team Australia general manager Glenn Williams said the system encouraged the six foundation ABL teams to play Australian talent, allowing players to push for national team selection.
“There are also players who aren’t listed that are very much in contention for national team selection,” Williams said.
“Players not nominated are still of high value to our national ambitions, but we are encouraging ABL teams to pick them based on the value they offer against the ABL points system.
“2019 will be a huge year for Team Australia and Australian players have a lot to play for this season.”
Team Australia’s first opportunity to qualify for Tokyo2020 will come at the Premier12 tournament in November 2019.
The ABL will release the 30-man rosters for each of the eight teams on Wednesday, including player points values for the 2018/19 ABL season.