Raising Teenagers

Russell Carlton writes a wonderful blog over at Baseball Prospectus called "Baseball Therapy."  Having only recently become a Baseball Prospectus subscriber -- it only costs $40 per year (!!) and is well worth the investment -- I was not familiar with his writing.  He is thoughtful and excellent and writes about the type of issues facing baseball that I am interested in (and am interested in writing about here).
His latest piece discusses becoming an adult as a professional baseball player.  The article is here and gets a full link:  http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=24455

I have often wondered about this exact issue.  Should major league teams operate more like college football teams?  Should the Braves build and operate what essentially would be an upscale dorm for each minor league city (Danville, Rome, Lynchburg, Jackson, and Dacula)?  Should they have a dining hall with a nutrition expert?  Should there be a state-of-the-art gym included?  Should they teach practical classes such as personal finance, anger management, nutrition, etc? 

This is a fun topic to me.  It always seemed odd to me that minor league players are million dollar investments for major league clubs, yet the general consensus with housing, nutrition, etc. was to allow kids to figure it out themselves.  There are constant stories of Gulf Coast League players subsisting off Taco Bell and other drive-thru menus.  It is good to know that organizations are taking this more seriously and realizing the potential benefits from investing in their players.

[Update: Grantland and former Baseball Prospectus EIC Ben Lindbergh posted another excellent article on this topic.  After reading Ben's article, I have two additional thoughts.  First, my classroom example could and should be used to develop a minor league system where the team is teaching its "way."  This includes starting at instructional ball to have players buy in to advanced analytics.  My second thought is that players such as David Ross (mentioned in Lindbergh's article) would be a great resource for developing the minor league dorm system.  They can look back on their minor league upbringing and provide suggestions for improvements and suggestions on things that should remain.]