Quote:
Originally posted by Andy
The main difference between football/basketball and baseball/hockey is the existence of a robust minor league system where newly drafted players are placed with other players at the same level they are.
Major League Baseball regularly drafts HS players, but who was the last HS player drafted that was sent immediately to the Major League club?
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I think this shows that the main difference between basketball and baseball/hockey is that a much higher percentage of teenage professionals are able to play at the "major league" level in basketball than in baseball.
You said it yourself, when was the last time a HS draftee played MLB? Yet, we see regularly -- every year or two -- a HS kid who can play competitively at the NBA level.
The difference, it seems to me, is not that there's a minor league system in MLB. Instead it just seems that it's easier for HS kids to perform at the necessary level in the NBA than in MLB.