Connolly: Hobgood and Jordan

[TonySoprano]

4 minutes ago, weams said:

Narrator: "He burned through his entire bonus with nothing to show for it..."

Quote

And as for that money, that $2.4 million bonus?

He wishes he had been smarter with it. He’s generous by nature, so when he was flush with cash, he spread it around maybe a little too liberally. He bought expensive clothes and dinners, simply because he thought there would be so much more coming when he made the majors. He also didn’t invest it as wisely as he would have liked, in retrospect. He didn’t buy a home, for instance, until 2016.

He said he still has a chunk of the signing bonus remaining. He lives in a nice house in Surprise and has a low monthly payment. It’s only been in the past year that he’s been working full time.

“I’m not in a position where I can just kind of coast,” he said. “The reality of that is if it would have been managed better, spent better, yeah, that money could have been doubled, tripled.”

 

[Going Underground]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

atomic's argument that he's made previously is that everyone is immature and stupid and will blow through their multi-$million bonus in 15 minutes, so they should always forgo the bonus and go to college.

But in a less cynical world a player could set aside a small fraction of his bonus as insurance against injury or poor performance and go back to school if the need arises.  If you skip out on the $millions up front there's a good chance it never comes back, and you can lose your scholarship from injury or poor performance.

I know people who have a college degree but I would not trust them balancing a checkbook. Figuring out how much change they get back from Starbucks is a trying ordeal.

[interloper]

Fantastic article. 

[weams]

21 minutes ago, TonySoprano said:

 

Low monthly payment. Chunk. I am sure there are college accounts for the kids. 

[atomic]

22 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

But he got $2.42M.  If he'd gone to college the most likely outcome is that he was still hurt, pitches poorly, loses his scholarship in a year or two, and has to come up with the money to finish school AND he's out $2.42M. 

The only scenario where college was the logical choice for Matt Hobgood was one where he was magically not hurt and you assume he's always going to burn through his entire bonus with nothing to show for it.

The players who skip college to go for the instant gratification of a signing bonus at age 18 are probably the ones that are most likely to go through their signing bonus on frivolous things. Also I am sure the tax rate on a one time payment like a signing bonus is quite high plus agents probably get a cut.  

[DrungoHazewood]

8 minutes ago, atomic said:

The players who skip college to go for the instant gratification of a signing bonus at age 18 are probably the ones that are most likely to go through their signing bonus on frivolous things. Also I am sure the tax rate on a one time payment like a signing bonus is quite high plus agents probably get a cut.  

According to the article Hobgood now has a nice house, and a portion of the bonus still in the bank that he could use for college.  Things he would not have if he'd gone to college, stayed hurt, lost his scholarship and never been drafted.  Which is the most likely outcome of following your advice.

[survivedc]

2 hours ago, DrungoHazewood said:

According to the article Hobgood now has a nice house, and a portion of the bonus still in the bank that he could use for college.  Things he would not have if he'd gone to college, stayed hurt, lost his scholarship and never been drafted.  Which is the most likely outcome of following your advice.

I agree with you in principle but how often to people lose a scholarship? 

[DrungoHazewood]

10 minutes ago, survivedc said:

I agree with you in principle but how often to people lose a scholarship? 

I really don't know.  But NCAA baseball teams only get 11.7 scholarships per team. Most of the players on the team are paying their own way or on partial scholarship.  Are they really going to give out a full scholarship for four years to a guy who can't pitch because he's hurt?

[LookitsPuck]

Can we stop the nonsense that Christian kids aren't likely to use steroids. It's balderdash. I really like The Athletic and I reread it, but there's an undertone, maybe from Jordan or Connolly (or both) that because he was a straight edge Christian kid, they didn't think he was capable of such. Bullcrap.

[weams]

Just now, LookitsPuck said:

Can we stop the nonsense that Christian kids aren't likely to use steroids. It's balderdash. I really like The Athletic and I reread it, but there's an undertone, maybe from Jordan or Connolly (or both) that because he was a straight edge Christian kid, they didn't think he was capable of such. Bullcrap.

I think many of the ones who have been caught are forward with their faith in the media.  I know several of the Orioles who used were FCA or evangelical. 

[Redskins Rick]

3 hours ago, Going Underground said:

I know people who have a college degree but I would not trust them balancing a checkbook. Figuring out how much change they get back from Starbucks is a trying ordeal.

most of them aren't using cash anyway, swipe the plastic/debit card.

 

[weams]

Just now, Redskins Rick said:

most of them aren't using cash anyway, swipe the plastic/debit card.

 

Venmo. Apple Pay. 

[Ohfan67]

A chunk of guys who sign to play baseball out of high school don't want to go to college. Some take the community college route to try to improve draft position or get drafted because they don't wan't to deal with college. College isn't for everybody and there's nothing wrong with that. A lot of football and basketball players declare early for the draft even when they have a long shot to make it for the same reason. College is misery for some. 

[Redskins Rick]

23 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

I really don't know.  But NCAA baseball teams only get 11.7 scholarships per team. Most of the players on the team are paying their own way or on partial scholarship.  Are they really going to give out a full scholarship for four years to a guy who can't pitch because he's hurt?

This is beyond stupid.

NCAA rules for mens basketball, the team can have to 13 scholarships and while there is no max roster limit, I thought most teams average 15 players for a starting lineup requirement of 5.

So baseball has 27 players, and get 11.7 scholarships and a starting lineup of 10.

Beyond crazy.

. 

[Redskins Rick]

5 minutes ago, weams said:

Venmo. Apple Pay. 

Samsung pay, etc, forgot about those, but the main point is still valid, cashless society is what the younger kids are moving to.