Reality Check: Remember Why We Do What We Do

While we promote competitiveness, getting better and being successful at as a high a level as possible, it is IMPERATIVE we remember why we do this.  Our program, outside of our 10U Baseball guys, is a softball program.

We have previously highlighted here the percentage of high school players who go on to play softball in college.  We have the updated figures here too (courtesy of the NCAA website)

We remind our players and parents that there is no true Major Leagues for softball.  We know there is a professional league and we would love to see our players aspire and be able to play at that level, we also want to remind the parents and players to keep in perspective who we are, why we do this and to remember what their true goals are.

Lets pretend for a moment that softball had a true “Major League”…just like Major League Baseball.  Again, just for fun, let’s assume a full minor league and development infrastructure.  Check out this article today from NJ.com for baseball players…would softball be any different?

Again, we want our kids to want to play and work hard enough so that they can be very good to elite HS players so they can be prepared to play in college.  No reason a bulk of our kids cannot be a part of that 5.5% of HS players who go on to play in college.  We will support and push them to achieve those goals as much as possible.  It is up to all of us to recognize what is highlighted below.

What are the odds of making it to the big leagues?

What are the chances of a high school or college playing baseball player making it to the major leagues? 

• High school senior players who go on to play NCAA men`s baseball: Less than three in 50, or 5.6 percent
• NCAA senior players drafted by a Major League Baseball (MLB) team: Less than eleven in 100, or 10.5 percent.
• High school senior players eventually drafted by an MLB team: About one in 200, or 0.5 percent. Drafted baseball players almost always go to a minor league team. These teams abound; there are over 150 of them, compared to 30 in the majors. The big leagues have 750 players, yet the 2004 draft alone took 1,500. Hence some estimate that only one in 33 minor leaguers ever makes it to the pros. If that’s correct, the chance of a high school player making the big leagues is one in 6,600, or 0.015 percent.