MLB: How likely are you to make it to the Major Leagues? They are very very small

In the more than 150 years of history of MLB, about just 22,563 people have made their debut as Major League Baseball players, with Dominican Joan Adón of the Washington Nationals being the last to make it officially in the regular season. Just done to stand on MLB ground is already an immense achievement that takes many years dedication, effort, sacrifices and a lot of luck, being something that very few in the history of mankind they have even aspired.

But how likely is it that someone will one day make their MLB debut? There is no definitive answer; However, there is a lot of data and statistics that give an idea of ​​how difficult the road to the longed-for debut in the Big Top is for all the young players who have decided to make baseball their career of life.

In America, the path to playing professional sports is beginning in high school, where college scouts begin to glimpse potential college-level prospects. According to data from the High School Baseball Web, only 5.6% of high school seniors ever play baseball in the NCAA, the American College League, or three out of every 50 players.

Once at the college level, things change quite a bit, as now you have to prepare to make the jump to the MLB Draft. According to Bleacher Report data, about 10.5% of NCAA college players are selected in the MLB Draft, which consists of 40 rounds and 1,200 selections per year, plus inter-team compensation picks.

Now, you have already been drafted by an MLB team but the road to the Major Leagues is still very long, since you have to overcome the arduous road that are the minor leagues, where perhaps the players face the biggest obstacles such as the terrible conditions labor levels that players are subjected to at MiLB levels, such as low salaries, bad meals, terrible facilities and, in general, total neglect, where several very talented players lose their motivation to continue playing due to these material conditions where many, many years may pass before the Major League Baseball call arrives.

Being drafted in the early rounds does not guarantee you will make your MLB debut, although it does give you better odds, since according to Emily Cornelius of The Huffington Post, 66% of first-round players make their major league debuts, 49% of second round, while from the third to the fifth round, this drops to 32%, while further down from the sixth to the tenth round just 20%.

Assuming you made it all the way from high school to the major leagues, you must feel very proud, since you are one of the select few who could resist the road, since only 0.5% of the players who started with you the way from High School they were able to make their MLB debut. In cold numbers, an average class of high school players consists of about 455,300 players, and only 600 were drafted.

As for international players, there are no clear numbers, but now it is very common for a young player to suppose, from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela or Puerto Rico, to be viewed and signed to play in the minor leagues. According to data from El Diario Libre, between 2004 and 2012, around 3,911 Dominican prospects were signed by Major League teams, with 213 making their MLB debut, or what is the same, only 5.4% of them.

Getting to MLB is certainly tough, so whoever makes his major league debut is already among the small percentage of the best players in the history of the sport just for making his debut.