russinfortworth posted:I was talking with my 2022 last night and asked him what it would take for him to "go pro" as he calls it. He said "I don't think that I'd want to, I'd only be 18 and I don't think I'd be ready to be out on my own by myself, plus college baseball looks really fun, and if I'm good the money will be there later". For a 14U, I was actually sort of impressed that he had thought it out that much.
It’s good perspective for a fourteen year old until you hang a couple of million dollars in front of him. The money may not be there three years later. The player could get injured. He could spend three years in a major conference proving he can’t even succeed at that level. There are Gatorade Players of the Year who wash out of college ball or prove they are competent college players and nothing more.
For every action there’s a reaction. A kid my son played travel with stayed back a year entering high school. After his junior year it was decided he was ready for big time college baseball. He was 6’4” 220. He got his GED and headed for a big time program. The coach hailed him as possibly his best recruit ever. He didn’t start in three years by opening of conference play. Had he stayed in high school for his senior year and destroyed the league he probably would have gone in the first three rounds and got his shot. Money was not an issue in this situation.
In turn a kid from our high school was drafted in the 7th round when he said he would pass on a powerhouse, ranked academic. He didn’t sign for anywhere near a million. But he felt he owed his grandmother for raising him. He looked in the mirror and saw a high school stud. After the fact (released after three years of failure in low minors) he told me what he failed to see was he was headed for the minors as a 6’1” 170 physically underdeveloped 17yo to compete with mostly 21 and 22yo men.