In his new book, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World,” the author David Epstein began with a premise about sports. Roger Federer played a variety of sports as a child, from skiing to squash, before settling on tennis as a teenager. Tiger Woods famously appeared with a golf club on “The Mike Douglas Show” as a 2-year-old. One began as a generalist, the other a specialist. Each became the best athlete in the world at his chosen sport as an adult. Which path, Epstein wondered, was the more reliable route to a successful career?
The title gives away the answer.
At the risk of sticking a broad concept where it doesn’t apply, major league draft directors offered a decent endorsement for Epstein’s thesis in this year’s draft. Younger specialists – high school athletes who played only baseball – fell out of favor. Older specialists and younger generalists were in.
For proof of concept, look at how two of baseball’s most progressive teams, the Astros and Dodgers, navigated the annual 40-round exercise. Houston used only two of its first 35 draft picks on high school players, the Dodgers two of their first 28.
The Dodgers’ second pick, University of North Carolina infielder Michael Busch, played football and hockey in high school. So did their second-round pick last year, University of West Virginia pitcher Michael Grove. Before he was an outfielder at St. Mary’s College, Dodgers 15th-round pick Joe Vranesh was a tight end/linebacker for Concord De La Salle, the top-ranked high school football program in the country. The Astros’ top pick, Cal catcher Kody Lee, possesses a Federerian background. According to his college biography, Lee played three years of water polo at Vista High (San Diego County) and “counts body surfing, bowling, and golfing among his hobbies.” Being a generalist isn’t enough to rocket a young athlete to the top of a major league draft board, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.
The opposite might hurt more.
Tommy John, the son of the retired pitcher, expressed this thought to me last year. We spoke on the occasion of the release of his own youth athlete training guide, “Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance.” John, a chiropractor based in San Diego, is an advocate for generalists. More than endorsing the long-term benefits of generalizing, John cautioned against the short-term drawbacks of specializing – specifically, the heightened injury risk it presents a youth athlete. The rising rate of Tommy John elbow surgery among baseball players prior to college is the most prominent example, or at least the most personal for John.
Though Epstein, a former Sports Illustrated staff writer, began his thesis with the example of Federer, he did not stick to sports. “Studies on the development of musicians have found that, like athletes, the most promising often have a period of sampling and lightly structured play before finding the instrument and genre that suits them,” he wrote.
More than any major league team, the Angels seem to be applying this theory to their single-sport specialists. After signing Japanese pitcher/designated hitter Shohei Ohtani a year ago, they subsequently employed four more two-way players in the minors: Jared Walsh, Kaleb Cowart, Bo Way and William English. Tuesday, the Angels used their fourth-round draft pick on yet another two-way player, Puerto Rican high schooler Erik Rivera.
“We’re going to give him the opportunity to do both,” Angels scouting director Matt Swanson said. “He enjoys doing both. He did both during the summer. Like what we did with Will English, we’ll allow him to get in the system and let him dictate his career. Maybe they’ll develop both ways. Maybe two or three years from now it will slide one way or another. But when you capture an athlete and give him the opportunity to do both, it’s valuable to them and it’s valuable to us.”
Perfect Game USA assigns percentile rankings to pitchers as young as middle school age. The draft suggests these rankings couldn’t matter less.
OTHER DRAFT TRENDS
Geography never seemed to matter less than it did in 2019.
Elon University, located in central North Carolina, boasted an undergraduate enrollment of 6,196 students in the 2018-19 school year. Four of them, including Angels eighth-rounder Kyle Brnovich, were chosen in the draft.
That’s nothing compared to Bryant University, located in Smithfield, Rhode Island, which boasts an undergrad enrollment of 3,499. Three, including Dodgers eighth-rounder Ryan Ward, were chosen in the draft.
Then there’s Western Oregon University, located in Monmouth, which has four draftees enrolled among its 4,648 undergrads. Go Wolves.
Bloodlines mattered again, too. The Dodgers drafted the son of retired catcher/minor league coach Bill Hasleman (Ty), and the son of retired catcher Matt Sinatro (Danny). The Padres drafted Dave Roberts’ son, Cole, who’s committed to Loyola Marymount University.
AH, THE NAMES
As always, the draft yielded names that would surely be rejected by a book publisher.
A.J. Bumpass (Reds), Michael McAvenue (Cubs), Zane Zurbrugg (Brewers), Fineas Del Bonta-Smith (Rockies), Maverick Handley (Orioles), Jaxx Groshans (Red Sox), Kona Quiggle (Tigers) and Jackxarel Lebron (Blue Jays) make a mean lineup. Marcus Lee Sang (Phillies) joins Jack Cust and Ray Shook as the rare professional ballplayers whose names are complete sentences.
