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Fungo...
Yep...a simple numbers game that threatens baseball from top to bottom....But no one cares..Have been bringing this up for years on the HSBBW and in other venues...without any response other than a sound and engergetic shoutdown.
I will take your post one step further...
..a great part of the sucess of baseball has been it's absolute and complete dominance of the numbers game at a youth level. For generations at least 80% of the male youth in nearly every community across this country embraced youth baseball as part of their community and their childhood. This insured that virtually every young man in America with athletic ability was introduced first to baseball. The result was that baseball to a great extent had "first pick". Not all athletes stayed but a large majority stayed with baseball offering it the best athletes and tying in the next generation of fans.
As community youth ball fades, there are two results. First,...the broad chain of baseball from son to father (whether they played at a high level or not)from community generation to generation is lost and youth baseball starts to look more like youth tennis...based more on the limited # who can pay and who can travel rather than who has the best atheltic ability.
The second result is s loss of fan base. This was nation that was raised and "built on baseball". It was the fabric of both communities and of families...and it carried on from generation to generation...building not only community support but a bulletproof fan base for MLB, from common folk, not just the families of high end players. No longer.
Now, I have no doubt that some/many players will benefit and develop much better given the new paradigm, but baseball will lose the numbers game which was it's biggest advantage both in terms of talent, and in terms of fan base. IMO, baseball lives large becasue it has such broad based appeal, baseball fans are families whose male memebrs played 4 years of yough ball, not just thsoe who starred in HS, college or beyond. Baseball prospers becasue until now it was the "first choice " of most every kid. No longer.
The argument that if we work the limited #'s harder and train them better ignores the natural bell curve of athletic ability. There are so many Nolan Ryans, and Sandy Kofax's out there, no matter how hard you try to create more. With all due respects Tim Licecum is a genetic anomolie, as much as he was his fathers "product".
IMO...Baseball is winning the battle (my kid) and losing the war (numbers game)...
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