Amir Garrett

[texasdave]

Nice article on Amir Garrett.

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp..._milb&sid=milb

[RedlegJake]

man, I wish he'd just get on with baseball

[bellhead]

man, I wish he'd just get on with baseball

I was asking Doug or maybe anybody in the know, would a cool million or two do it to make him give up Basketball?

My argument is at this point he's 21, left handed mid 90's fastball, extremely athletic who has the ability to dominate low A hitters with the fastball. If he were to be coming out of a college baseball program this spring he would be a first round draft pick.

The fact that they feel he has the same upside as Price is

[CmdrCody]

It would be nice if somebody from his family showed him this. He has little chance in making the NBA at his size.

[RED VAN HOT]

He has to sit out a year before his two years of eligibility. If he plays both of them he will be 24 before he turns to baseball full time. I suspect that will not happen.

[bellhead]

He has to sit out a year before his two years of eligibility. If he plays both of them he will be 24 before he turns to baseball full time. I suspect that will not happen.

The time has come for "a come to Jesus talk" by people who care about him....

If your in low A and you have scouts outside of your organization projecting you to have the upside of a cy young pitcher which equates to about a $150 million dollar lifetime earnings, the people who care about you need to explain that to you.

[camisadelgolf]

I doubt the guy is struggling to make ends meet. He should do whatever makes him happy.

[dougdirt]

I doubt the guy is struggling to make ends meet. He should do whatever makes him happy.

I am all about personal happiness, I just hope that Garrett understands where his future is rather than where he wants it to be at more.

[WrongVerb]

Gotta wonder if a call from Adam Dunn might sway him. (not that I expect Dunn to stick his neck out for the Reds, but still...)

[PepperJack]

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp..._milb&sid=milb

While others have had their say, Garrett is still unsettled on who he will be on the mound and continues searching for answers each time out, just as he does in the basketball vs. baseball debate.

"It's kinda difficult," he said. "I'm in between trying to find out who I am out there, if I'm a groundball pitcher, if I need to pitch to contact, those kinds of things. It's just taking it one game at a time right now."

[LoganBuck]

http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp..._milb&sid=milb

This is getting old. He has no shot at playing basketball professionally in this country, and very little at a large enough contract over seas. Do what millions of other Americans do everyday, go do something that people will actually pay you to do. He sounds like the guy with the college degree in Art history, working at Starbucks, waiting for his big break.

[dougdirt]

This is getting old. He has no shot at playing basketball professionally in this country, and very little at a large enough contract over seas. Do what millions of other Americans do everyday, go do something that people will actually pay you to do. He sounds like the guy with the college degree in Art history, working at Starbucks, waiting for his big break.

And yet unlike millions of other Americans, he doesn't have to make that choice. He is nothing like the guy with the college art degree waiting for his break working at starbucks. The guy working at starbucks isn't getting paid a million bucks over several years. Amir Garrett is.

Does it suck as a Reds fan? Sure. May it ultimately lead to him not becoming what he could? Sure, it could.

But life is far too short for people to not try what makes them happy, especially when they can get away with it. Playing basketball and baseball is what he wants to do and for now, he can still do both. Good for him. It may not be good for the Reds, and I think you can get the sense that they aren't thrilled with it in the article, but for Amir, good for him.

[Benihana]

And yet unlike millions of other Americans, he doesn't have to make that choice. He is nothing like the guy with the college art degree waiting for his break working at starbucks. The guy working at starbucks isn't getting paid a million bucks over several years. Amir Garrett is.

Does it suck as a Reds fan? Sure. May it ultimately lead to him not becoming what he could? Sure, it could.

But life is far too short for people to not try what makes them happy, especially when they can get away with it. Playing basketball and baseball is what he wants to do and for now, he can still do both. Good for him. It may not be good for the Reds, and I think you can get the sense that they aren't thrilled with it in the article, but for Amir, good for him.

The money is one thing, but when judging success, I believe the Starbucks analogy is a fair one.

So is Drew Henson, a sad cautionary tale of what happens when you straddle the fence and don't commit to either sport. Henson was talented enough to be a first round pick in both baseball and football, had he been willing to solely concentrate on one or the other. Yet he didn't, and slipped to the third round of the baseball draft before being signed by the Yankees out of high school. While George Steinbrenner, a big Ohio State booster, eventually convinced him to temporarily give up football -while being the incumbent starting QB for the University of Michigan - a guy who started over Tom Brady when Brady was a Senior- the sport where he had more talent, he never quite made the major league impact many thought he could. Meanwhile, his football career languished, and by the time he tried to return to the sport he had lost his touch. So while he did get paid, and he did get to play (briefly) in both the major leagues and the NFL, he had very forgettable careers in both. Garrett, who appears to be a far-less talented (and far less successful) version of Henson in both of his respective sports, should take heed.

On the flip side, there are talents like Joe Mauer and Archie Bradley - who were both the #1 QB prospects in the country coming out of high school - but decided that the seven figure bonuses in baseball were too much to pass up, and fully dedicated themselves to the sport in order to achieve success at the highest level. Again Garrett appears to be a very poor man's comp to those talents, but yet he fancies himself good enough to continue to pursue both, albeit at a mediocre level.

[LoganBuck]

Doug, I am just saying that he isn't doing himself any favors here. He will be rule 5 eligible, before he gives up basketball at this point.

[RED VAN HOT]

Doug, I am just saying that he isn't doing himself any favors here. He will be rule 5 eligible, before he gives up basketball at this point.

I have been wondering about this also. If he has two more basketball seasons, he should finish in the spring of 2016. 2016 would be his fifth year in the Reds organization. Am I correct in saying that he must be put on the 40 following the 2016 baseball season? That might not be too bad if at that time he is competing successfully at the high A level.