My Name is Travis Harrison

I have always been much better at Math then English so I hope there less English classes haha I also figured that it cant hurt to understand how to make and lose money.

Thanks Travis for a very good article, but especially for your time on the Q&A.

Good for you to go back to school. How did you decide on finance?

Great question! I was lucky to have a few options, ASU, Cal state fullerton are just a couple. One thing that suprised me was there was a couple schools that wanted me to skip my senior year of high school to go to college a year early. They said i would get drafted to high and they didnt want to lose me to the draft (LSU, Oregon, UCLA, Miami). USC is a beautiful school and the people there treated me very well. The decision to go was not that difficult after I knew the twins would pay what we were asking for. (which was 15 minutes before the deadline)

Hey Travis, thanks for doing this!

You mentioned in one of your answers that you had a full-ride scholarship to USC on the table. Do you recall which other schools had offered you scholarships, and what reason(s) pushed your decision to USC? Was it a difficult decision to pass on the college experience to go pro?

Thank you! that means a lot! I worked hard on that. 

Travis,

Loved watching you play for the Ft. Myers Miracle. I did the graphics and ran the scoreboards. Scotty P (official scorer) and I would constantly talk about your hustle and how we never saw anyone who could take an extra base on balls in the dirt like you. For years we'd say "Travis Harrison would have been on second on that pitch!" Wish you all the best in the future.

Mitch K

The Twins are the only baseball games I watch! I will watch At Bats of my buddies on the other teams but not the game.

So another question... Are you now a Twins fan? 

 

Hope you stick around. 

That is very nice of you! Thank you and I know myself and many players highly respect what you guys do here at Twins Daily.  The nutrition got much better the second half of my career with the Twins. And with weight lifting... I was always the strongest guy in the gym

You are not "just a guy on the internet". You actually were good enough to be paid real money to play baseball. Every one of us contributors at Twins Daily would love to have had that opportunity. We are your "groupies". We are all interested in your perceptions of spring training, what players in the low minors think about bus travel, whether you have seen a change in the nutrition program and training with weights since you started with the Twins organization, whether you think the baseballs were juiced this year, etc. We have tons of questions. Thanks for agreeing to respond and for your answers.. Speaking for all of us at TD, I can say whether you are starting for the Minnesota Twins, or playing in Rookie ball at Elizabethton, we all are fans of the Twins organization, and especially the guys who actually get paid to play. So thank you for taking time to respond. I can assure you we are interested in your perspectives.

oooo minor League pay is an interesting topic.... I guess my main thought on that is minor league baseball players are the top 1% of anybody who ever played baseball. Its hard to find another profession where the top 1% makes $1800 a month haha. The difference in someone making 50 million and someone making 10k is so small its mind blowing. I was lucky and was paid a lot of money to play but most guys are not. 

Very nice that Travis is kind enough to answer questions. I'll just ask what was your favorite on the field memory as a baseball player? And did you excel at other sports in high school or just focus on baseball?

good question! that really is hard, I loved every AB in the 9th inning. One thing I am proud of is every manager I had said if they could pick anyone to be up to bat with the game on the line, it would be me. I finally learned how to take that intensity to every AB but just a little late

Travis, would be interested in your thoughts on the MLB proposal to eliminate a couple levels of minor league ball.

 

Setting aside the whole issue of so many communities potentially losing their minor leage affiliations, what are your thoughts on the number of levels that exist currently?

 

Are there too many levels? Do the teams have to fill too many roster spots with players that have little real hopes of success, just to provide enough competition for those that do? How would your career have been affected, positively or negatively, if there had been no short season leagues other than GCL and one fewer class A levels, for example?

ooooo good one. To be honest, I am not well-versed enough to answer this question. This is not a political answer, I just simply do not know exactly what there purposing. But, eliminating lower level teams probably would have been great for me personally being a high pick. Overall though, probably bad for the sport and not giving opportunities to people who otherwise would not get a chance.