Odds of Getting In

Odds of Getting In

Congratulations! Today you finally signed with a Major League Baseball franchise. In related news: early this morning, pigs all over the world sprouted wings and began to fly.

Basically we're saying the odds aren't good.

There are more than 15,000 high school baseball teams nationwide, and each of those teams has a star player—no errors, voted MVP, yada yada—that the whole town is dead-sure is going to the majors. Some of them might get as far as college ball. Most of them won't even make it past the city limits.

You've done your reading and you know that the MLB draft lasts forty rounds, by far the largest draft of any professional sports league in the U.S. (source). But even when everything goes your way and you're drafted to the majors, even then you might not go to the majors. Even the first-round picks—the kids who all the teams want above everyone else—often spend most of their careers in the minors.

So yeah, you might have a shot at getting in. We suggest getting that college degree in a field you can fall back on. You know—just in case.