I’m working on the Hawgs Illustrated Baseball Preview. In interviews this week with Dave Van Horn and many others, I confirmed that sophomore pitcher Caleb Bolden had Tommy John surgery in December. Bolden was 3-0 with a 4.40 ERA last year.
Also, Bobby Wernes has taken a job in professional baseball. I think this is an analyst job. MLB has greatly expanded the workers behind the scenes that they need to do analytical research. I think Bobby will be doing some of this.
Incoming to take Bobby’s place as student assistant is Jared Gates. Gates was starting 1B on the CWS team last year. He is a junior college transfer who played two years here. He’s close to a degree. It always makes me feel good to see these guys coming back to get their degrees.
Good for Bobby Wernes! It is a really tough row to hoe in the minors. Players get well less than minimum wage and no overtime. I also understand that they must pay the clubhouse managers. They often live 6 to a 2 bedroom apartment.
Debbie Ficociello posted a link (on Facebook) to an article about pay in the minors and why MiLB has not unionized: <LINK_TEXT text=“https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/6/5/1 … union-phpa”>https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/6/5/17251534/mlb-draft-minor-league-baseball-union-phpa</LINK_TEXT>
Good for Gates. Always liked that young man, and when you get an opportunity for a degree, you better take it.
Thus be it ever. Without organization, or legal action, the players at any level of any sport are at the mercy of their teams. You could even argue that at their most corrupt, AAU team organizations act as a small players’ union, funneling illicit shoe company benefits to their players. Colleges added cost of attendance for athletes only at the gunpoint of legal action, and who knows what will happen as a result of the current antitrust suit against the NCAA in California. But without that, you still have just room, board, books, fees – and poverty. Just like the minor leagues.
College baseball players have it much better than minor leaguers, especially in the SEC. I mean the Hogs fly to games.
This is true, and college ball shortens the amount of time a player will have to spend riding those minor league buses before they get to the Show. Benny basically took one full year. That’s unusually quick, but in a lot of ways the SEC is at least Double A level.