The Cuban pitcher was brought up because he was here pitching in LATE OCTOBER. I mentioned understanding Risk and reward... His risk was obvious... His reward was over $30 million. So his risk had the potential for a much larger reward than say the kids of the women you met.
Most kids that sign out of high school and young Latin players start in Rookie Ball. Low A is typically the third level or the first full season level. Some young Dominicans start in the Dominican League. Surely you know this.
I agree completely and have said that repeatably, I like to see kids play multiple sports. Especially at the younger ages. However this should only happen if they enjoy and want to play other sports. Not because it will develop them into better baseball players or athletes.
Once again, there are many Major League players that only played one sport (baseball) in high school. This year's draft will once again have several first round picks that played baseball only in high school. And yes, there are many that played more than one sport in high school. The NBA is full of one sport specialist.
Most every baseball trainer will put together programs that will equalize muscle in both sides of the body. If we look at what people would say is the position that requires the most talent it would be shortstop. What percentage of Major League shortstops played other sports in high school? Of course that might be misleading because of the number of ML shortstops from Latin America. Would they have been better yet had they participated in multi sports. Or is it because they played baseball year around and are thousands of ground balls ahead of the stateside players.
Bottom line, I am for kids doing whatever sports they enjoy. When it is done for any other reason it is the wrong reason.
Regarding TJ surgery, we know what the problems are. Still we see TJ surgery performed on pitchers like Lucas Giolito who if anything never pitched a lot. Took every precaution, more than plenty of time off and rest. We also know many pitchers who throw hard, throw many pitches for a long period of time, even played year around when younger, and even played other positions, like Zack Greinke. What I want to see is a study on why those (they are the majority) healthy pitchers seem to stay healthy when so many others have TJ surgery. I think it is very important that we study both sides, those that require surgery and those that don't. We might actually learn something that can help.
BTW, does anyone have the statistics regarding the number of kids younger than 16 that have had TJ surgery? I honestly have never heard of any and we are in the baseball business. However I'm sure there have been some. Does anyone here know of any?
I do think I have now got off the topic, but there is a relationship.