Well that sucks.
Good question. He's a 15th round draft pick for pete's sake. At least Carter Stewart made sense in the fact that he was a first round pick who the Braves wouldn't give first round money. If Tarver is that dead set against spending 3 years in college he might as well take the $125K now rather than wasting a year at a JUCO gambling that he might be able to move up. Heck, he might get injured or he might have a less than stellar year and drop further. He certainly won't get the coaching or training program at a JUCO he would get at MSU.
This is all true.
I think what happens to some players especially guys like a Tarver they get it in their head that they are going pro but the reality is they aren't as valued by MLB as much as they think they are sometimes. So they fall into the trap of trying to get back into the draft as soon as possible and it rarely works out.
I guess for most guys that need more time to develop three years is probably what they need in most cases than just one. It seems more often than not the guys that go the one year JUCO route end up being drafted lower than the year before.
That makes sense as it seems like a tie/lose situation. If he goes to Juco and tears it up for a year, so what. The scouts basically have no new information. Yes, it's a good sign that he doesn't see a drop off moving from high school to Juco pitching, but that's still not in the same ballpark as what they will see in the pros, so I'm not sure it makes it much more likely that they will be able to hit at higher levels.
Kids today are dumbasses.
I would guess that this is accurate for almost all Jucos. You have a few that get high quality arms like Chipola that have guys but you wouldn't see that type of pitching but a handful of times. This is probably one of reasons that guys don't typically increase their draft stock because they are essentially playing down to competition.
Yeah, the juco route makes no sense to me unless the only reason for the draft drop was injury and it's just a matter of proving your are healthy for a season.
Well, all indications are he didn't sign. Guess he can start lining up his JUCO. What a waste.