Recent Palm Desert High grad Ryan Garvey is about to face a very tough choice: whether to start college at USC in the fall, or to play minor league baseball in just a few weeks.
Garvey, a right handed hitting outfielder is projected to be a fourth round choice in the Major League Baseball amateur draft this week.
According to his dad, baseball legend Steve Garvey, the siren call of pro ball is alluring, but it has to be a perfect fit for Ryan.
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“The idea of professional baseball would have to be the right team and the right situation,” Garvey told Patch.com. “I have a pretty good idea on who develops players well, if one of those teams drafts him, then we’ll have to look at it seriously.”
Ryan has said he’s firmly committed to playing baseball next year for USC and its perennially strong program.
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“I’m looking forward to playing to USC,” Ryan said. “It’s something I’ve wanted for years.”
Many teams have sent representatives to the Garvey home in Indian Wells to discuss Ryan’s potential and his possible pro career. All of them gave high marks to the PDHS grad.
The only remaining question is, can a team convince him that pro baseball is a better option than a collegiate career?
“We say (to prospective Major League teams) ‘you’ll just have to talk him out of it,” the elder Garvey said. “Of all the teams that have come to the house … they realize that.”
“They like him, they know he’s a baseball player, with a pretty high baseball IQ and he loves the game,'' Garvey said. "With all that combined, there’s gonna be somebody that will say ‘we can make this kid into a major league player’ and take a chance.”
The road to a pro baseball career is not a fast one. The vast majority of players selected in the amateur draft never play in a single MLB game, including many first-rounders.
For example, only 25 of 64 first-round draft picks in the 2007 draft have appeared on a big-league roster; and many of those players are still waiting to appear in a major league game. For every first rounder that becomes an major league All-Star, there are dozens that become career minor leaguers, or end up being released, never to play pro ball again.
And for Ryan Garvey, the choice of which road to travel – a freeway trip to USC or an as yet unkown road to a professional team this summer -- starts Tuesday.
