The North American “Rule 4” player draft starts tonight – June 12th. There’s a lot of kids looking forward to this day, though many have no idea just how much their lives are about to change.
Something in the neighborhood of one thousand two hundred and twenty baseball players will be drafted in the next 3 days. Another 940+ will be signed by teams via the International market. The Atlanta Braves, for example, drafted 40 and signed 33 internationals by themselves in 2016, ultimately acquiring roughly 65 of them.
That’s a lot of baseball talent for a single year, particularly when a major league roster only consists of 25 players at any one time.
That’s only a single year: 1900 (+/-) players are acquired and signed across major league baseball. All of them with dreams of getting to the majors.
Only 25 at a time are on each major league roster. Do the math.
June 12th is a starting date. What happens from there depends on a lot of things other than just talent.
So here is some unsolicited advice for them.