So far, I have understood that determining which players are prospects and getting into contact with them is very important. Furthermore, getting to these prospects as early as possible in their careers is also very important. An interesting statistic that I learned from Ryan Smith (CEO of 7 Sports Group) is that there are more agents than baseball players in the Major Leagues. This only takes the players that are on an MLB roster into consideration and not minor league players. This means that it is a very competitive industry and that you are not the only one that is trying to contact prospects. For those wondering what a prospect is, a prospect is a player that is thought to be a player that will have the best chance of bringing in revenue to an agency. This is said to be a return on investment since most players require costs to maintain as a client from the first three to five years of their professional career. Agencies are investing in these players at the beginning of their career in hopes that they will generate a return on this investment when they sign an MLB contract.
I was joining 7 Sports Group during the time in which they were making every last effort at signing prospects for the 2013 MLB Amateur draft. One of my first jobs at 7 Sports Group was to assist Ryan in calling and setting up meetings with players on his prospects list. I spent several hours calling and talking to players and their parents about explaining who 7 Sports Group is and that we were interested in meeting with them. You think cold calling is a rough job to have, try cold calling high school seniors to meet who are on the verge of having their life-long dream come true. You will either get a very interested response from the players, or a “I am tired of you people calling” response. Some players simply did not take my call, and some were very interested in talking to you. The hardest part of this process was…(take a moment to take a few guesses)…talking with parents of these prospects. I have experienced, from what I thought, every possible type of baseball fan, or parent of a future MLB Hall-of-Fame son, during my career. But, I was wrong. I could not believe some of the things I heard from these phone calls with parents who had no clue about the process of the MLB Amateur draft but would grill you on how much my costs would be. I found it very interesting when I explained to these parents that agents do not get paid a fee for their services outside of the player signing a professional contract. We are not a service in which you must pay up front for. An agent can get paid from a signing bonus in the MLB Amateur draft, an MLB contract, endorsements, or player contracts for other professional contracts.
I was joining 7 Sports Group during the time in which they were making every last effort at signing prospects for the 2013 MLB Amateur draft. One of my first jobs at 7 Sports Group was to assist Ryan in calling and setting up meetings with players on his prospects list. I spent several hours calling and talking to players and their parents about explaining who 7 Sports Group is and that we were interested in meeting with them. You think cold calling is a rough job to have, try cold calling high school seniors to meet who are on the verge of having their life-long dream come true. You will either get a very interested response from the players, or a “I am tired of you people calling” response. Some players simply did not take my call, and some were very interested in talking to you. The hardest part of this process was…(take a moment to take a few guesses)…talking with parents of these prospects. I have experienced, from what I thought, every possible type of baseball fan, or parent of a future MLB Hall-of-Fame son, during my career. But, I was wrong. I could not believe some of the things I heard from these phone calls with parents who had no clue about the process of the MLB Amateur draft but would grill you on how much my costs would be. I found it very interesting when I explained to these parents that agents do not get paid a fee for their services outside of the player signing a professional contract. We are not a service in which you must pay up front for. An agent can get paid from a signing bonus in the MLB Amateur draft, an MLB contract, endorsements, or player contracts for other professional contracts.
RSS Feed