Go Pro or Go to College?

Hey, team, Alex Swenson here. Hey, thanks for joining me today. We have a fun and exciting and interesting topic to go over today. A debate that has been going on for a while now, but it's only enhanced. And it usually gets enhanced around this time of the year because we just had the MLB draft and we had the Home Run Derby and we had the All Star Game just the other night and the College World Series was a few weeks ago. So it's an exciting time for baseball. But the question is, and I want you to think about this and I want to hear your opinion and what you would do and if this, if you're lucky enough to have this happen to you, what are you going to do? And we're going to go over the pros and cons of each. But the question is, if you get drafted out of high school, are you going to go pro and play professionally or are you going to college? That is the question and that is the debate. So let's hop into that. But before we do, okay, if you get anything from this video, please select that like that thumbs up button and subscribe if you haven't already. I put out a weekly video on recruiting on just how to better ourselves on and off the field and then before we get into the pros and cons. All right, lastly is let's watch some homers from the Home Run Derby just the other night. All the 500 footers.

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Blasted. Juan Soto hit a 520 foot home run which I believe is the record for a home Run Derby. Now this was done in Colorado and this was somewhat expected to be an experience of home runs as far as distance wise. Because in Colorado, the higher you go up in altitude, the thinner the air and things will move faster through the air. So balls are flying out there and they were flying. It was exciting time. So let's watch some of that here.

I mean the carry on his ball and watch this one go to bat. Upper deck. And right there's another moonshot in Colorado. He's got experience doing this and that's a big fly there from Story, which may get him a bonus. Oh, boy. Every one of these is a no doubter. He's got himself right back in this contest. Right back in it.

All right, team, let's hop right into it. Go pro or go to college. Another way to think about it as well, go pro now or go pro in three years. Okay, why do I say that is because if you decide to go to college or say you just don't even get Drafted out of high school and you go play for a university, you have to stay at that university for three years. You have to complete three years of education of the season to be eligible to be drafted again. Okay? So you have to wait three years. Some sports are one, like basketball, football is also three years. You have to go through your junior year or, or until you are 21. Once you turn 21, you can be draft eligible as well. Some, some stay all the way through their fourth year, complete their degree, and some stay until they're 21 and enter the draft. So you got to think about this in another way to think about it. But let's get into the pros of going pro, the first one. And I want to hear your feedback. Guys. What would be some of these things that you consider or what am I missing or things that I have not put on this list that you also would consider? Would love to hear some feedback and what you guys are thinking as well. But the first one, Money, signing bonus. So this is, this is tricky because it depends on when you get drafted, meaning what round, what pick.

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Because it could be thousands of dollars that a signing bonus, or it can be millions of dollars. The first overall pick in this year's 2021 draft is over the value of the slot, meaning the signing bonus that he can get is over $8 million. That is a lot of money. I mean, frankly, I would advise going, going pro if you're going to get that money. That much money, that's life changing money. And the reality is your success rate of making it to the big leagues is very high. Getting drafted first overall and in the first round in general. But the real question is, where's the money? Where's the line of money where it gets really, really hard, right? So an example could be if a signing bonus is $200,000, they're gonna. Team is gonna give you $200,000. Are you going pro or are you going to college? So $2,000 sounds like a lot of money and it is a lot of money. But if you look at the grand scheme of things and you look farther out, how long is that $200,000 going to last you? Not very long. Okay. Not, not very long. I always advise having a long term view through this lens. Going through. So this is where it gets tricky. Where's the money mark of where you would say, all right, I would go pro or I would not go pro. You got to think about that. Okay? But the next bullpup pro of going pro is playing with the best you're going to be playing with the best in the world. Everybody comes to the United States to play baseball, to play in the best of the best. Okay? You will be playing in the best. But of course, this is the minor leagues. It's not the big leagues. You have to work through the minors. Another reason to go pro is risk of getting injury in college. You do have to think about that. Okay? That is something that obviously comes up and we'll get more into that here in a minute. Risk of not getting drafted again. That is a reality. Although 90% of guys that get drafted in high school do get drafted again. And then the next one, risk of not getting paid as much. So say you get drafted out of high school, you decide to go to college. Are. You're risking that you possibly might not get as much money, but then it could also go the other way. You could go to college, get better, and get paid a lot more money. Okay. And there's definitely examples of that. All right, cons of going pro, not getting education. Some would argue that I'll just go back and get my education. But you would be surprised of how many guys that actually go back and get their education. It's. It's not a lot. It's pretty lonely in the minor leagues. Meaning, hey, you know, there's some guys that take care of you and there's definitely good people. But, man, when you're in the minor leagues, you're on your own. You're competing. You have to compete with all the best in the world. It's kind of that. The camaraderie of team with the teams in the minor leagues is definitely not like college. All right? You're young, you're 17, 18, maybe 19 years old. The travel is pretty rough. I mean, bus rides, 10 hours, 12 hours, depends on what league you're in. And 10% of minor leaguers make it to the big league. So 90%. You can look at it a different way. 90% of minor leaguers do not make it to the big leagues. And life expectancy of a minor leaguer, I believe is two and a half years. Okay. So you got to consider that as well. Pros of going to college and reasons, okay, one, you get getting education. You get your education. Now, of course, whether it's three years or four years, depending on if you get drafted out of your junior year, you're still going to have some credit left over potentially, unless you're on the fast track. So you got to consider that as well. Getting the college experience. This is where I Get biased because I was a college athlete, I was a college baseball coach, and the college experience was amazing for me as an athlete. And I got to see that from the coaching side of what, you know, these guys just experience the team in school, camaraderie, the relationships you build, you will improve in college. Okay? You will improve your skill set. Skill set, which likely will improve your draft pick and you will get more money. Okay? But then you have some, some of the cons, which we'll get here into a minute. So you're just going to naturally get better because you're going to get more physical, you're going to mature more. And the likelihood at the college level, there's so many amazing coaches, you're just going to improve all around. And now there's the nil. Sponsorships are now available. This isn't a big one, a big pro, but I put this in here because this is new and it's going to turn into a big industry. I think it's going to turn into actually a billion dollar industry of where high school or college athletes are getting paid from businesses, organizations. You can start your own business as a college athlete. So this is, this is big from that end and we'll totally break. Not everybody's going to reap the benefits of it, but there's definitely going to be a lot of people that will as well. Let's get into the cons. Cons of going to college and reason. So risk of getting injured. You could get injured, yes. That is definitely a real thing. There is a story of a guy that got drafted. Okay. Got drafted in the first round. I think it was actually the supplemental round. So it's, it's the round in between round one and two. Won't go into detail what that is, but he, he got, he got drafted out of high school, was considered pretty much the first round, that first round, supplemental round, and he got offered. I don't know the exact number, but I think it was close to $2 million. Okay. And he turned it down, went to college. Okay. And the worst thing happened for the worst thing, he got injured. He got Tommy John, okay, this is the con, right? This is where everybody is talked about. And he was still drafted, okay. In the first round a couple days ago and made $1.5 million more. Okay. Than he would have taken. So I think he made around three or his draft slots around $3.5 million, where three years ago, before that he was offered around $2 million. Okay. Now that is one incident that could be considered one of the exceptions and things like that. But there could be, there's probably. There's definitely another stories where a guy got injured, he did not get drafted. There's definitely stories of that. So you have to consider this as well and you have to think about your own story as, as you go in what the likelihood of you actually getting drafted again if you get injured. So and if you do get hurt, the draft stock might, your draft stock might go down, you might lose money. You have to consider all of these things. So guys, what would you do? Would you go pro or would you go to college and tell me why? Please comment down below or email me back. I want to hear what you have and let's get into what I would do. And the question is not going to excite you. But it depends, okay? It depends. For the majority of guys, I would say go to college, you're going to get better as you go through college, the coaches are going to help you, you're going to improve your arm strength, you're going to get stronger at the plate, you're going to see better competition which is going to make you better. And yes, you do have a risk of getting injured, but that risk is pretty low. Okay. And it definitely does happen. I don't want to take anything away from that, but I think it's a good calculated risk. Now the other side, the exception to that is if it is absolutely life changing money and you don't feel like you would be able to really get any more, more money. Okay, going to school, then, then go pro, then go pro. Okay? So that is where I'm at. It depends on what is life changing money for you and do you feel like you would actually get better and improve your draft stock? Okay. For a lot of people when a lot of guys you would improve your draft stock. So a lot of guys might get drafted in the 15th round and there's. There was only 20 rounds this year and I don't know exactly how many rounds it will be next year, but there were only 20 rounds this year. Let's say you get drafted the 15th round, the 16th round, you have a lot of room to improve. Okay? And each as closer you get to that round, one more and more money and more and more opportunities open up. Hey, if you got anything from this video and you like this topic, please let me know. Select that like and subscribe button and I'll see you in the next video. Thanks for watching.