re: Why didn't LSU greats like Brandon Larson, Eddy Furniss, etc. make more noise in MLB?

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It's difficult to truly understand how good you have to be to land a spot on a major league roster.

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No doubt. You have to be really talented, a really hard worker, and really lucky with injuries. I think some people don’t realize just how many people play baseball. Unless you are just the elite of the elite of the elite talent-wise, there’s another just like you to take your place of you get hurt. And if the organization hasn’t invested a lot of resources in you (money, high draft pick, time), they probably will.

I played college ball with a big 6’5” hard-throwing RH. Got drafted out of high school and JUCO late and didn’t sign. Had nice JR and SR seasons, but was “only” sitting about 92/93 and, as a 22-year-old, went either undrafted or drafted pretty late—I can’t remember.

Anyway, he got in the Royals organization somehow, found a couple extra mph on his fastball, and they turned him into a reliever sitting 96/97 with a pretty wicked slider. (This was 25 years ago, when everybody and their momma didn’t throw that hard). By his 3rd year in the system, he was the closer on their AAA team and #9 on their prospect list. Was on a 1st name basis with their big league GM and talked to him frequently. Then boom, hurts his shoulder and missed a year. Comes back throwing 89/90. GM forgot he existed. There are a thousand RHers who throw 89/90. And because they hadn’t invested anything in him really, it was just next man up.

To his credit, he stuck it out, learned to “pitch,” got back to 90/91, and was able to bounce around AA and AAA in a couple different organizations for a few more years. But he was never a threat to make the big leagues. Too many guys that were younger with the same skill set who had never been cut on. It’s a brutal profession.