I've posted this before, but I think I will repeat it again. I had the opportunity to have a semi-private discussion with Buddy Bell. Buddy is now in charge of scouting for the White Sox. One of the topics he talked about was specialization in sports. He was very much against is and said that he preferred athletes who played multiple sports. Main reasons were, they have seen way too many overuse injuries, burnout, kids were coached up way too much leaving little potential upside, and he felt multi-sport athletes were more competitive then a single sport athlete. In the end he said when they are making draft decisions it comes down to can the kid play and whats his upside. If they are looking at two equal athletes and one is multi-sport and the other is baseball only they are going to go with the multi-sport athlete. That is not to say they are not going to take a baseball only draftee if they feel he can play and has upside.
As far as my 2017's journey. He has been a 3 sport athlete up until this point. Starter on the football, basketball and baseball teams. One of about 6 kids (about 950 in his class) who have earned their 3 sport award for the last two school years. This year he has dropped both football and basketball. It was a very tough decision for him, but he is starting to see some college action and decided that its time to focus on the one sport for this year. He is still planning (and encouraged by his HS and travel coaches) to take time off after the fall season. He is going to use this time to work on his physicality as that is the area folks feel he is most lacking in. He is 6'4" 180 pounds. He needs to add some muscle mass and its difficult when you are always in season.
Joe as a die hard sox fan... I wouldn't listen to a thing buddy bell says. The white sox draft record is abysmal. Thank God for sales and rodan.