Skip to main content

Reply to "MLB vs College - Crunching the Numbers"

Back in the day, I looked at this whole thing as a HS math problem from my youth.

 

How much money do you make to play baseball versus how much money you would make going to college. It actually becomes a very complicated math problem, because if you take the baseball money, what are the chances you make it versus what are the chances you come back to get your degree? How much money is made initially, yet forfeited along the way. If you promise mom you'll come back and get that degree, but get married and have kids in MiLB, can you really commit to giving up four years of income when the whole thing is over?

 

I created a spread sheet for my son out of HS. He's currently in college pursuing an engineering degree. Basically, I calculated the lifetime cost of delaying entry into the work force as an engineer by five years and being behind as a professional. I then figured in taxes that reduce the bonus, even calculated the effect of spreading the bonus over multiple years.

 

Some scout said, what will it take? I said (the exact number is lost to posterity) but it was something like $784,519.13. He asked how did you come up with that? I told him.

 

That was the day I realized scouts can't do math.

 

My son is in college, which I truly believe is the best path for most players. If somebody wants to give you $1m, take it, but be smart enough to know that about $7-10m is required to retire comfortably if you are currently in your late teens - early 20's and plan to live into your late 80's after retiring in your early 60's. Figure out how much you need to retire and find the highest probability way to get it.


It starts out as a HS word problem, but it is realy way more complicated.

 

Last edited by JMoff
×
×
×
×