Mat Batts -- 2015

[jokin]

 

If you read his article, it's not just something he woke up to last week and turned in his resignation letter to the boss.

 

And I think it's unfair to say he didn't think it through. He clearly did. And came to a different conclusion than expected, due perhaps to different base axioms in his life than you or I might have.

 

He may have thought it through, but he didn't reach the most logical conclusion. 

[Squirrel]

 

He may have thought it through, but he didn't reach the most logical conclusion. 

Seriously? He made the best decision for himself ... just because that doesn't make sense to you does not make it illogical.

[jokin]

 

Working in a job you don't want to be in, to maybe get money so later in life you can maybe do the things you want.....imo.....that's the problem with American's and their relationship to work and why we are generally less happy than other nations' workers. YMMV, of course.

 

Most Americans like and aspire to having a nice place to live, with multiple easily accessible life-enhancing conveniences and diversions, plus in a safe environment, and achieving all of the above through ideally doing the thing you love to do most. Since there's no such thing as a perfect world, there are no guarantees that you will achieve all of these things, especially if you discount the thing you're most talented in and that also offers the greatest potential material reward.  Put simply, after a self-assessment and a transactional analysis of one's set of talents and interests, one can best achieve all of those goals above (including the part about working the first job to lay the groundwork for the "job you really love") by making the commitment to hard/smart work- I don't see how setting goals-> hard work-> achievement is the #1 "problem with America." 

 

In addition, I would like to see your data on Americans being "generally less happy" at their jobs relative to happiness quotients around the world. This CNBC article cites a survey of 120,000 workers from around the world, with nearly 50% of the participants expressing very low job satisfaction rates.

[jokin]

 

Seriously? He made the best decision for himself ... just because that doesn't make sense to you does not make it illogical.

 

In dollars and "sense", it's highly illogical and demonstrably not the best decision for himself long-term...  To be blunt, there isn't much future in newspaper reporting- given his highly unique skill-set, he's essentially making a poor utilitarian decision.

[jokin]

 

Working in a job you don't want to be in, to maybe get money so later in life you can maybe do the things you want.....imo.....that's the problem with American's and their relationship to work and why we are generally less happy than other nations' workers. YMMV, of course.

 

I had a college teammate who wasn't quite good enough to play in the States, and after he got his business degree he took the great risk to leave his friends and family behind, and go into a very uncertain situation, with a huge language barrier, and play professionally overseas. When he retired a few years later, he was set for life financially (I know first-hand, I managed his portfolio). You won't find a happier guy today, a great family, a nice home, and he's doing a job he really loves (just for a lot less money than he made in Europe).

[Squirrel]

 

In dollars and "sense", it's highly illogical and demonstrably not the best decision for himself long-term...  To be blunt, there isn't much future in newspaper reporting- given his highly unique skill-set, he's essentially making a poor utilitarian decision.

Yeah ... I basically got the same kind of comments when I left my math major behind and any thoughts of engineering to pursue ... music. But I thought it all out, did a lot of soul searching, and, despite being a really good math student, chose that which I loved the most. The comments I received ... from how I was going to be a burden to society to how could I waste my mind like that ... were meant with good intent, but without all the information at hand. Just those from outside looking in, thinking my decision was the most illogical, mostly from a money and mind perspective. But, everyone else was wrong. You might be, too, even though it seems most illogical to you.

[jokin]

 

Yeah ... I basically got the same kind of comments when I left my math major behind and any thoughts of engineering to pursue ... music. But I thought it all out, did a lot of soul searching, and, despite being a really good math student, chose that which I loved the most. The comments I received ... from how I was going to be a burden to society to how could I waste my mind like that ... were meant with good intent, but without all the information at hand. Just those from outside looking in, thinking my decision was the most illogical, mostly from a money and mind perspective. But, everyone else was wrong. You might be, too, even though it seems most illogical to you.

 

Or maybe not. I'd shoot for the best way to try to have it all, financially and personally, Delayed Need Gratification and such.

 

I had another college teammate. A very good athlete, but more of a late-bloomer-type, not a lot of self-confidence growing up. Although he was the 4th or 5th option, he was NCAA playoff MVP in his senior year. Instead of taking a chance on a big contract playing overseas (he was drafted by the NBA but didn't make the cut), he used his degree in chemistry (he really liked science!) and became a successful pharmaceutical rep. To this day, despite all of his success, he came to often wonder what might have been had he continued his athletic career to the professional level.  

 

I try not to rub it in and mention to him that he probably left at least a couple million tax-free dollars on the table (clear and above his good salary with the major drug company), that properly invested would now be worth 2-4 times that much. He could have built his own personal chemistry lab from his small fortune, with money left over.

[jokin]

 

Yeah ... I basically got the same kind of comments when I left my math major behind and any thoughts of engineering to pursue ... music. But I thought it all out, did a lot of soul searching, and, despite being a really good math student, chose that which I loved the most. The comments I received ... from how I was going to be a burden to society to how could I waste my mind like that ... were meant with good intent, but without all the information at hand. Just those from outside looking in, thinking my decision was the most illogical, mostly from a money and mind perspective. But, everyone else was wrong. You might be, too, even though it seems most illogical to you.

 

 You have an interesting story.  Somewhat coincidentally, I have a friend whose child is a piano prodigy, but also a math genius. He loves them both, it's difficult at this point to say which he prefers. He is currently enrolled at a premier college in the Chicago area (care to guess which one?). Both the music school and the math department are trying to convince him to emphasize his focus in their respective disciplines. His current solution is to disregard their pressures, and double major in music and engineering. 

 

I respect your decision, but why leave one aspect of your talent on the table? Especially if it's more likely to set you up for life, or at the very least, much more likely to pay the bills? By doing so you are positioning yourself to grant you the freedom to pursue the other passions in your life without altering your lifestyle. What if this college kid I mentioned, or Mat Batts, or you, would have had/will have a severe family crisis, a major medical malady, a life-altering accident? If you already build up your bank account and investment portfolio by the time you're 30, you help put the rest of your life on the glide path you sought out at the time you made your initial decision.   

[Craig Arko]

Could be the financial planning thread belongs in the Sports Bar.

[jokin]

 

Could be the financial planning thread belongs in the Sports Bar.

 

Or could belong here too, on his own thread, since we're considering reasons for, and the validity of, why this young Twins prospect did something practically unprecedented, being the rarest of baseball commodities- an up-and-coming LHP prospect- and then deciding to retire, seemingly right out of the blue.

[Seth Stohs]

Way over-thinking it.

 

For whatever reasons he has, he has decided this is the right decision for him right now. Maybe it was money related. Maybe it was some looking in the mirror and thinking about his career path. Maybe it was that he didn't love baseball as much as he loves writing. Only he knows. And he's a very smart guy, so we know he took the time to think about it and didn't rush to this by any means...

 

As for the money down the line, that wasn't guaranteed. Even with as well as he pitched in the four lowest levels of the minor leagues, guys who top out at about 87 mph have a lot to prove in the upper levels of the minors. The odds were stacked against him. That's not at all to say that he couldn't do it. But again, he was making maybe $1800 per month this season, and maybe would make $2000/month wherever he is next year. That's hard to live on for a man and his soon-to-be-wife.

 

Also, we know how much he loved sports writing. He did a great job in the articles he wrote for us. If you read his article on his retirement, it's clear that he is great at it...

 

Summary - it's his decision and he sounds completely fine with it. That's enough for me. I just wish him the best.

[jokin]

 

Way over-thinking it.

 

For whatever reasons he has, he has decided this is the right decision for him right now. Maybe it was money related. Maybe it was some looking in the mirror and thinking about his career path.

 

But again, he was making maybe $1800 per month this season, and maybe would make $2000/month wherever he is next year. That's hard to live on for a man and his soon-to-be-wife.

 

 

 

For the record, I think we all respect his decision. His article makes it sound like he got his taste and he's had enough. He seems particularly wary about the perils of continuing on and ending up being defined in his life as a baseball pitcher rather than a full human being who happened to be good at throwing a baseball. Not one thing wrong with that kind of thinking.

 

But are we "way over-thinking it"? I'm not so sure about that.  When I first saw Seth's blip, it said Batts took a job for a Lexington newspaper. I thought about that, and still said to myself, "not a good enough trade-off'- I actually thought it meant he took a job in Lexington, KY.  Combined statistical area population of 707,271 and home of University of Kentucky sports. This is a growing area, almost booming, both in the city and the region. By all accounts in Indeed and Glassdoor, the Lexington Herald-Leader is the premier media outlet in the region... but the starting salary for a news assistant is just $19,000, for a cub reporter- merely in the low-to-mid-$20s, the median salary for all reporters at the paper- which includes all of the 30+ year ink-stained wretches- is $44,438. The prestigious paper has a daily circulation of 75,000 and a Sunday circulation of 97,000.

 

And yet, they're still laying off, buying out long-time writers and downsizing the paper.

 

But wait a minute... Mat didn't take a job at that reputable newspaper. He got a job at the Lexington Dispatch in North Carolina. Lexington, NC has a population of 18,993.  The population of the city DROPPED by 5% between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. It's the county seat of Davidson County, population- 163,420.

It gets worse.  The paper is only published Tuesday-Saturday.  No Sunday or Monday editions- dropped years ago- which makes it kind-of hard to get caught up locally on your first-hand weekend sports recaps.

The circulation of the newspaper is 6,892.

I couldn't find any job postings at the paper, the most I could find was that seasoned full-time reporters were estimated to be making between $23,000-30,000- which would imply that starting out, Mat would likely make less than that, perhaps only $1500/month.

 

Still pretty hard for a newlywed couple to live on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, we know how much he loved sports writing. He did a great job in the articles he wrote for us. If you read his article on his retirement, it's clear that he is great at it...

 

Summary - it's his decision and he sounds completely fine with it. That's enough for me. I just wish him the best.

 

I did read his article, it was a very good read. (One dangling preposition- "to".)

He does seem like a much deeper guy than the average jock athlete. Probably easily likable, as well. 

Perhaps his Father-In-Law owns the paper- or he is on an accelerated career track.

But, based on what we know, I still question his decision to prematurely pull the plug on his baseball career- clearly his new career choice offers a lot of uncertainty- maybe as much or more as continuing to pursue his baseball career. Besides a sketchy chance for ever receiving  rewarding renumeration- the shaky industry he wants to work in means he stands the strong chance to lose not only his job at a moment's notice, but also his health and pension benefits at any time. Whereas, as a potential major league baseball player in say, maybe 2-3 years down the road, even for just one season, he stood the chance for earning lifetime health care coverage and a very lucrative pension.

 

Having said that, I certainly hold him no ill well on his decision, and hopefully like Seth and all Twins fans, wish him nothing but the best.

 

[brvama]

I think we need to be careful about suggesting Mat went down the wrong path here. We are looking at his decision using our own priorities and values, not his; even if we know his reasons. Anyone who has adult children have probably experienced the same feelings. I know I have.

[ashbury]

Moderator's note: I am closing this thread, as the discussion has gone well beyond the range that the Adopt-a-Prospect forum is meant for - the latest goings-on with one's prospect during the season.

 

The discussion itself is not wrong, but belongs either in the Twins Minor League forum, if you want to talk about Mat specifically, or perhaps in Other Baseball if you want to talk about the economics of being a minor leaguer. Feel free to resume the discussion there.