Harpswell Native goes #5

Mark Rogers of Orr's Island and Mt. Ararat High School was the #5 pick taken (by the Milwaukee Brewers) in the major league draft. Rogers becomes the highest drafted Maine high school player, although South Portland's Billy Swift was selected #2 overall after his senior season at UMaine. Here's the Times Record version of the story.

Rogers had been headed to the University of Miami, but this article makes it sound like he's going to go pro. I think it makes sense to go pro, for a couple of reasons:

1) If he blows out his arm in college, he never gets the payday,
2) The minor league organization is more likely to look after his arm (limited pitch counts) than the college team is. The goal of the minor league system is to get a healthy player to the major league team. The goal of the University of Miami is to win the College World Series, and lots of college coaches will send their kids out for 140, 150 pitch games. This goes back to #1.
- I think that having his dad for his coach probably really benefitted Rogers during high school. He had a longer view of the implications of Mark pitching too much.
3) He'll have cash in the bank to get his education if his playing career falls short of expectations.

(Also, being a 3.9 student, he might just get an academic scholarship regardless).

Now, if a guy is passing up college for a $100K bonus or so (or anything lower), I think that it's a bad move. For Mark Rogers, I can see mostly positives if he signs with the Brewers (the fact that it's the Brewers being the biggest negative).