Why Baseball Players Make Millions

The main reason players make the big money is the law of supply and demand.  There are very few people that have the skills necessary to compete at the Major League level.  


I have been in sales for 30 years.  Just about anyone can do it given the proper training and enough time to get the product clear in their mind.  All it takes is repetition and a sales manager with some patience and anyone can be successful.


Professional sports is different.  In basketball and football, size and body type make a big difference but in baseball, the biggest kid on the block is not the best baseball player.  A smaller kid with great hand eye coordination and bat speed can hit the ball a long way.


Pitching is the same way.  Taller bigger pitchers have a slight advantage when it comes to throwing hard but some smaller pitchers can throw as hard.  Yet pitch speed is less important than movement on the ball, especially late movement.  There are not a lot of people that can throw hard enough or have the ability to make the ball move while still throwing for accuracy.


Baseball is made to look easy by skilled players.  The game looks easy on TV or from a distance but when you have a chance to get close to the field for an extended period of time, you can see how difficult the game really is.
I've been able to stand behind the batting cage when Aroldis Chapman throws 100 plus miles an hour.  I've also seen pitchers that make the ball move. 


Next month the major league teams will draft amateur players.  There will be 1,500 players selected.


The odds of just getting drafted are:

We will make some assumptions on the total numbers of players eligible each draft year.

High School Players @ 114,159 seniors
NCAA (4 year schools) @ 12,581 juniors & seniors
NJCAA (2 year schools) @ 11,520
COA (@ year schools) @ 2,175
That gives us 140,435 "draft eligible" players.
140,129/1,500 = 94

1 player in 94 will be selected in the Major League Baseball Draft

Add to these odds the number of players in Latin America, Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia (Korea, Taipei and Japan).  Canadian players are eligible for the draft.  Latin Americans, Australians, Europeans and Asians are not drafted and any team can sign them.

In the 2008 draft just 22 players have played in at least one major league game.

One business man that I worked with during the 1994 strike, said, "The owners take all the risk."

Really, when was the last time an owner lost his lively hood when he blew out a knee or shoulder?

People think baseball players just show up, get dressed, take a little batting practice, play a three hour game and go home.  They would be surprised that the players put in a solid eight or nine hour day.  That's assuming there are no rain delays or extra innings and there is no travel.

They also don't consider the pain that players have to deal with.

In a discussion with Dusty Baker earlier this spring we discussed players leaving the game.

"Sometimes guys just get tired of the pain," Baker said.

Playing the game is still fun for the player but the work and acceptance of pain involved is not something the average person can do.

See the example below of a minor league player, who is rehabbing a sore shoulder with no guarantee he will ever earn more than a $40,000 salary from being chosen in the seventh round.  Being chosen in this round does not qualify the player for a million dollar bonus.  

"I had to leave home in January to begin my rehab in Florida with the team's rehab coordinator. He wrote up a shoulder workout routine that i had to follow on a daily basis. i got to the field everyday at 8am and did a bunch of different workouts involving 3lb weights and elastic bands to strengthen my rotator cuff. then i had to go into the weight room and lift so my daily routine lasted about 3 hours. The pain never really went away so i got a cortisone shot in February to help with the pain. Then once spring training started up i had to get the field at 7 am before everyone got there and go through my workout routine. i still basically go through the same routine everyday. it gets to be a drag going to the field an hour before everybody else but i have to do it to stay on top of things. Even to this day the pain is still there but i have to deal with it and just pitch through it.  i can't complain too much because i know there are a lot of people playing through a lot of aches and pains."


All this while staying a hotel room away from friends and family.


Those that defy the odds to make the major leagues while playing through pain, deserve the money they negotiate.