As baseball, like all sports, becomes more data-oriented and technology-driven, MLB hitting coaches are no longer required to have actually played in the big leagues.
Details: Instead, teams are looking for coaches who are well versed in how to use the new technologies available to them (hitting apps, machines) and leverage the data they produce.
A whopping 49 of the record 144 underclassmen who decided to end their college careers early and enter this year's NFL draft went undrafted, per The Athletic's Max Olson, leaving them without a school to return to or a true developmental league to join.
Between the lines: Many undrafted players will sign with NFL teams, but those deals guarantee them very little money and almost zero job security. So, unless their sole mission was to never attend another college class or eat another slice of dining hall pizza, the majority of undrafted underclassmen would have been better off returning to school.
