If you are seeking professional advice for young baseball players here’s some tips for you from Matt Bruback.
First off you can do your research. My father was really big on Baseball America. It gives you a lot of information. You have this idea that all the clubs are working against each other.
They are trying to have the best talent. Once you learn the different teams conclude and they really have control over a player’s fate. To go against that is counterproductive. At the end of the day, you as a player want to be successful. You as a parent want to give your child the best opportunity to be successful.
The best thing you can do is to prepare them with building true confidence, especially if you are good enough to get drafted. You sign that contract and you go to play, it is easy to recognize who the prospects are and who the non-prospects are.
I think the majority of the guys will get down on themselves when they realize that, it is what they call filler, that they are a filler player just out on the field to really develop those prospect players.
I think to be able to prepare your child for the realization that you really need to be able to perform, and you also need to be able to read a situation so that you can make an educated decision. Obviously it is your dream. It is what you love and it is what you want to do. At some point, we all have to be realistic.
A great example, a high school buddy of mine, John Clark, he was drafted in the fourth round and got really good money out of high school. He went and played a year and a half of professional baseball. Here is a guy drafted in the fourth round, but he recognized very quickly that there was a prospect that was a short stop above him and he was filler. He moved on with his life and he became a pastor. Now he is an engineer.
The reality is baseball is a great sport to teach life lessons. Once you get into professional baseball, it is a business. To be able to take that mature prospective of this is a business, if you are not going to move up, you should probably find something that will help you and your family be successful together.
Matt Bruback
Played professional baseball for nine years and created a weighted sports belt to help improve balance for athletes. In 2006 this application was found to help infants and children with developmental disabilities including autism, ADHD, and many other sensory related disorders. The sports belt was redesigned at Community Haven with the help of occupational and physical therapists.