The feeling of hearing your name being called on the tv as you prepare a new life as a sports player is something many people wish they could revisit. For the three sports NHL, NFL, NBA this is the highest chance in their life as it means they start right away and they are expected to join the major league team immediately. Baseball is a different story, power and play isn’t always the key decision in deciding where the draftees start, it’s the luck of the ball that can dictate their fate. 

Baseball is in a league of its own, just because you were drafted doesn’t mean you are automatically going to be playing in the majors, not at all. It’s a process that really takes a tear at your mental health and resilience, having to live in hotels for most of the minor league season and having to try to stick out against the many other minor leaguers is a challenge among itself. Its a challenge that goes beyond playing well, it’s making yourself heard and noticed to the professional teams. Unlike the 3 other sports, baseball counts on their prospects to continue to grow and excel at each level until their time has come. With basketball and football especially the players they draft are expected to play the very next season and be a contributor. But won’t that over add the amount of pro players in the league if so many more come each year? These sports really try and establish youth as the main character in the game and with having all the draftees come up early it lowers the mean age of the NBA and NFL to fresh out of college for most because of their expectancy they will be able to efficiently use college players in the majors. 

This is due to their games not really changing or being different, whereas college baseball is amateur compared to the physical grind and power of the professional game. The ball is thrown harder, faster, players are more aggressive, the spotlight is all in their eyes and are not allowed to slow down. Always be at 100% and never doubt yourself for less than your abilities can say. This process to turn yourself from an amateur ball player or college player to a professional takes years at a time, so it isn’t immediate that you will see your favorite prospects run the field a year after being drafted. Baseball has larger contracts and many players to expend and play so diving into the minor league pool isn’t always typical unless the noise the players make are physically defining the way of the sport.

It’s a real legacy moment if a player gets called up early and ends up starting in their early 20s all the way to an inevitable hall of fame like career. This mainly occurs with International players who are able to become free agents at 16 years old, so they have time to develop faster than their American teammates who don’t get drafted until 18 and can get drafted again later if they decide to play in college in case their draft number is too high. Now that the picture is painted, if you are a 20 year old player being called up with less than a year or two in the minors you are built for a phenom career.

Bryce Harper was called up in 2012 with just one year in the minors under his belt, after hitting .297 with 115 hits the Nationals called him up the following year after just recording 20 games in the 2012 minor league season. He was idolized as the next generational talent, with how scouts saw him as an 18 year old gave them confidence he can ride this talent all throughout the minors and be a fast call up. It doesn’t happen often for a player to be called up 2 years from being drafted nonetheless being called up 1 year after draft day. Harper started playing at 18 and is in the midst of a $300 million deal, at 30 years old he looks to be a lock for the hall of fame.

Bringing it back to the NBA, players get added to their roster at the age of 19 as the usual and most of them who perform above exceptions get on a hall of fame caliber career because of the expectations for NBA players are different than they are for MLB. There is not such a challenge for players to stand out and their career starts earlier, baseball is more pressure to exceed since they know it won’t be given like the other sports.

If the team is lacking the push they need for a playoff bound season they will make the needed call-ups to push for success. It is more frequent that pitchers get the call sooner than batters, unless the batter is proving themselves like Harper then there is a chance an early call up to the majors is in the books. But for the recent majority of American youngsters it happens to be pitchers. A load of pitching talent has been brought to the majors the past two years with the looks of George Kirby, Tanner Bibee, Logan Allen, Bryce Miller, Matthew Liberatore and Tommy Henry being some examples of pitchers getting the call up at an early age to help boost their team. 

But none of these shake the room as much as Braves 24 year old pitching Phenom; Spencer Strider who has been making history with the level of strikeouts and dominance he is putting up at an early age. He was drafted during the 2020 covid season so his first year was cut short, he returned to action in 2021 with a 3-7 record and an ERA under 4.00. It is pretty solid numbers for a first year minor leaguer, however Strider had a strikeout per 9 rate of 14.6. Pure filth for the first year of the minors! In only 94 innings pitched he had 153 strikeouts, remarkable, he had around 7 strikeouts per game and was consistent enough to get an early call up for one game in 2021 and then doing it all again in 2022.

2022 was a season to remember for Strider and for young stars in general, the work he put together that season makes it evident more teams need to push the button to call up their young stars quicker and give them a longer lasting career. To add to his one minor league season he had. a13.8 SO per 9 and ended up with 202 strikeouts in 131 innings pitched. He reached the marks of rookie sensations and though he was far from Dwight Gooden’s 276 strikeouts he still put up a masterpiece of a season. 

This further reiterates my point on the level of difficulty and responsibility it takes for a young below 24 year old player to make the jump to the majors. It doesn’t really have anything to do with your grind and work ethic it’s how to stick out with 1,000+ other competitors all vying for a spot on a 40 man roster. Strider only made it to Double A before the Braves decided it was time.

People talk badly about baseball that it is one of the easiest pro sports to play, but that simply just isn’t the case given the amount of time and work these players put into their development in the minor leagues before even being considered ready for a call-up. If you excel at college level basketball or football you are set and ready for the pros, but baseball is a different level of endurance that most are not able to withstand. It’s a level of dedication that when the time comes makes this sport so much more valuable and entertaining to them all. To watch a prospect develop over time and become one of your favorites and see them blossom into a major league ready player and make their mark is simply just the beauty of the game. It’s simply the luck of the ball and the unique talent of the ball players that decides their early future to the MLB.