Who will be the first player selected when the PBA conducts its 2015 PBA League Draft on Friday, Oct. 31, during the PBA World Series of Bowling VI?
Reigning Player of the Year Jason Belmonte?
Hall of Famer Pete Weber?
A left-hander?
Right-hander?
Budding future star?
A live international audience watching the 3rd annual PBA League draft on PBA’s online bowling channel, Xtra Frame, will be the first to know as eight team managers select all-new team rosters in preparation for the PBA Tour’s first-ever visit to the state of Maine.
Competition will be taped on Saturday and Sunday, March 28-29, at Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, for delayed telecast on ESPN.
The PBA League in 2015 will feature the same eight teams it fielded during its first two seasons. However, the only things about the teams that will remain the same are their names and team managers.
After a random draw to determine the draft order, managers will fill their rosters with five players, who will compete in Maine in two days of Baker-format elimination rounds leading to the Elias Cup Finals. The Elias Cup will be decided by points earned in singles, doubles, trios and Baker team matches.
Highlights of the 2015 program include:
Team managers will be Mark Baker (defending Elias Cup champion Silver Lake Atom Splitters), Carolyn Dorin-Ballard (GEICO New York City WTT KingPins), Johnny Petraglia (Brooklyn STyLES), Norm Duke (Dallas Strikers), Tim Mack (Pittsburgh Jack Rabbits), Jason Couch (Philadelphia Hitmen), Andrew Cain (L.A. X) and Del Ballard Jr. (Barbasol Motown Muscle).
Players eligible for the draft are the top 50 in PBA Tour competition points between the 2013 World Series of Bowling V and the 2014 Oklahoma Grand Casino and Resort Summer Swing, plus any player who was on a PBA League roster for 2014, but didn’t qualify based on points.
For the draft, eligible players will be ranked based upon their position on the points list. The first player elected by each team must be taken from the group of players ranking 1-10 on the points list. The second player drafted will come from the group ranked 11-20 in points, plus any undrafted players from group one. The third player drafted will come from those ranked 21-30 in points. The fourth player will come from those ranked 31-40 in points, and the fifth player will come from the players ranked 41-50 and previous team members not among the points leaders.
Players undrafted in each round will be eligible in the following round, expanding the pool of players as each round continues. The draft exception will be Dallas player-manager Norm Duke, who finished 39th on the points list and will draft himself in the fourth round.
The only draft-eligible woman on the list is Colombia native Clara Guerrero, who last year became the third woman in history to bowl in a nationally-televised PBA final round when she qualified for the Cheetah Championship stepladder in WSOB V, eventually finishing fourth.
Draft-eligible players must declare their desire to participate in the PBA League. Players may begin declaring for the draft on October 1. The deadline to declare is October 15.
A random draw will determine the team draft order. The draft will then be conducted in a “serpentine” format whereby Team No. 1 will pick first in the first round and last in the second round, and Team No. 8 will pick last in the first round and first in the second round, etc.
In the 2015 PBA League playoffs, players will compete for a projected $250,000 in prize money.
The three-day visit to Portland will include a day of practice and pro-am activity in which Maine adult, youth and senior league bowlers will have a chance to bowl with the stars of the PBA, followed by two days of Baker-format team competition. The quarterfinal round will include four best-of-two-game Baker team matches, with all five players bowling two frames per game. The four winning teams will advance to the two-game, Baker format semifinal round, which will produce two winners to bowl for the Elias Cup.
The Elias Cup will be decided based upon total pinfall for a singles match (with 10 bonus pins to the winner), alternate-shot doubles match (15 bonus pins), trios match (20 bonus pins) and five-player Baker team match (50 bonus pins).
ESPN will televise the PBA League quarterfinal, semifinal and Elias Cup Finals on four consecutive Sundays — March 29, and April 5, 12 and 19.
2015 PBA LEAGUE DRAFT-ELIGIBLE LIST
PBAL Group One
1, Jason Belmonte, 138,842
2, Dom Barrett, 101,973
3, E.J. Tackett, 71,757
4, Sean Rash, 69,465
5, Wes Malott, 67,665
6, Tom Smallwood, 64,909
7, Pete Weber, 62,824
8, Bill O'Neill, 61,324
9, Chris Barnes, 60,008
10, Ryan Ciminelli, 55,551
PBAL Group Two
11, Tommy Jones, 49,557
12, Mike Fagan, 47,609
13, Ronnie Russell, 40,795
14, Dick Allen, 38,557
15, Mika Koivuniemi, 38,312
16, Chris Loschetter, 37,853
17, Dan MacLelland, 33,955
18, Stuart Williams, 33,396
19, Tom Daugherty, 29,836
20, Josh Blanchard, 28,529
PBAL Group Three
21, Dave Wodka, 27,129
22, Martin Larsen, 26,777
23, Michael Haugen, 26,634
24, Thomas Larsen, 25,653
25, Parker Bohn, 25,579
26, D.J. Archer 25,070
27, Brian Valenta, 24,034
28, Brian Kretzer, 22,806
29, Shawn Maldonado, 22,190
30, Nathan Bohr, 22,054
PBAL Group Four
31, Jake Peters, 21,780
32, Jason Sterner, 21,759
33, Tom Baker, 21,546
34, Ryan Shafer, 21,386
35, Walter Ray Williams Jr., 21,186
36, Lee Vanderhoef, 21,054
37, Scott Norton, 20,717
38. Patrick Allen. 20.600
39, Norm Duke, 20,543
40, John Szczerbinski, 19,444
PBAL Group Five
41, Eugene McCune, 19,387
42, Craig Nidiffer, 18,826
43, Bryon Smith, 18,218
44, Osku Palermaa, 17,076
45, Rhino Page, 16,860
46, Dino Castillo, 16,684
47, Clara Guerrero, 16,262
48, Anthony Lavery-Spahr, 15,726
49, Jesse Buss, 15,168
50, Andres Gomez, 15,067
Draft Eligible (2014 PBAL team member)
53, Michael Machuga, 14,279
57, Mike DeVaney, 13,035
63, Amleto Monacelli, 11,337
77, Mike Scroggins, 9,262
