I'm certainly not defending the practice you describe, but my point is that as crummy as that is, getting a free college degree is like hitting the lottery. If a kid has a major league future, he's likely going to get playing time. Otherwise, college ball will be the end of his baseball career regardless of playing time, and he's going to make money doing something else for the rest of his life, so riding the bench is a small price to pay for getting a free college degree that costs well above $100,000 these days. A lot of kids would do anything to have that opportunity.