My oldest was at a travel tournament in Canton last weekend, and Saturday we were done early, so we went to the AA Akron Rubber Ducks game. Between that and seeing how deep the college talent pool is in baseball now, you can see the other side of the early sports specialization. It sucks for the kids who sacrificed so much to peak at being a fringe HS varsity player in their sport of choice, and probably didn't have as much fun along the way, and didn't get to play a whole bunch of different things.
But just how good you have to be to even reach those lower levels is insane. The Rubber Ducks are a Cleveland affiliate. Their #1 prospect is there, but hurt. Then their like #8ish prospect is, but is a starting pitcher and didn't pitch. Nobody else in Akron is even considered a "prospect". They had a 26 year old reliever who was throwing 95 consistently. Imagine being a career minor leaguer who can hit 97, and sit at 95. Their RF hit an absolute bomb of a HR, plus a triple, and should have had a double, if not for the CF making a hell of a play. He also threw a guy out trying to go first to third on base hit down the first base line. Then watching this tournament, the level of college talent, even among non-prospects, is absolutely absurd, even compared to just 10 years ago.
