Justbaseball,
Why would you hope it is true? Exactly what difference would it make that could possibly be considered positive? Less TJ surgeries? Do you really believe that? The amount of pitching abuse at that event is nothing compared to what really happens all over the place.
The Jupiter tournament in late October is the biggest scouting attraction in baseball. MLB organizations spend a small fortune covering it, many send their entire scouting department. Pretty much every high level college program is also there. The number of young players that have benefitted greatly is well documented. And I'm not talking about just the superstars.
Over 11,000 went on o play college baseball. Over 3,700 became draft picks. Many that were FIRST discovered at this event. And if we want to talk about why it is such a scouting attraction, how about this... 510 and still counting have played in the Major Leagues. 340 were selected in the first round. These include Cy Young winners, MVPs, Rookie of the years, and a very large number of All Stars. Yes, the brightest stars in the game. And all those numbers grow much bigger each year. You can watch any MLB game or high level college game and you will see a bunch of players that played in that event when they were in HS. So many made their name, right there on those Jupiter fields in October.
Whether it is college or professional baseball, so many young players, MLB organizations and college programs have benefitted greatly from that single event. And it is all well documented for anyone that cares to do the research.
And you hope it ends? I am totally confused. Maybe it gets back to the injury thing. Knock on wood, has anyone noticed TJ surgeries are down. Anyone with some searching skills can find the list of every draft pick, MLB player, etc., from that event. We know most of the pitchers from that event that later had TJ surgery. Truth is the percentage of TJ surgeries of those that never attended that event are higher. But people keep reading and believing what ever gets printed. Evidently real documentation and the truth doesn't count. But everyone is in such a hurry to have all the answers, they skip over a lot of facts. We could ask everyone who has had TJ surgery if they played in that event. Surely some would say yes! So was it because of that event? What about all the others? It is extremely rare to see a pitcher being over used at that event. And there are many pitchers shut down and don't attend that event. Some are playing football. Some shut down before, some shut down after. Those are all individual choices. Is the right thing to do to take away individual choices? When did anyone make October a bad baseball month.
Could anyone with some common sense, actually believe that no one is ever first discovered at events like this? Maybe they should ask Mike Trout! or Carlos Correa! or Andrew Miller! or Carl Crawford! or Jeff Locke! Or hundreds of others that have moved on to the next level.
Major League Baseball is a powerful organization. They can do what they want. We have built a great relationship with MLB and we are very close to most scouting departments. So far, we haven't heard of anything like what you are hoping for.
Also, we were one of the very first to join the PitchSmart initiative. We have all the guidelines and have been using them. We are working closely with MLB and USAB on this. Actually we have even added a few of our own rules to make it even safer. We are also going to adjust some of the things we have done in the past.
I did hear about someone with one of the big baseball publications at last year's Area Codes trying to talk officials and MLB scouts into boycotting Jupiter. Sounds like he became friendless in a hurry. There are so many agendas and motives out there that are more business related than they are baseball related. Our goal has always been to grow the game! You don't grow the game by taking away, the games best amateur events.
I'm an old American Legion member that was very involved in Legion Baseball. It was absolutely the best thing back then. I know some think we are partially responsible for Legion Baseball losing interest. But some would say we are ruining the game. Our goal is to grow the game! When Legion Baseball was at its peak, that is where most of the talent went. Back then club ball or travel ball didn't amount to much. Legion picked the best players and most everyone else had nowhere to play. Compare that to now... All the best players still get together, but there is opportunity for so many others because of the amount of available teams. I understand the money part, but there are so many teams that don't cost much money. So the real truth is... There a more opportunities to play organized baseball today, than there ever was years ago.
Next step, which we think about all the time. How do we grow the game among those that don't have the necessary resources. And we are making big strides in that area. In fact, some of these things will become clear this year. This new commissioner is going to be really good for growing the game of baseball. And we want to do everything possible to help.