A Brewers Prospect and His Law School Application
Just over a month ago, I led one of my Sunday Notes columns with Jon Perrin and his microscopic walk rate. At the time, the 22-year-old Milwaukee Brewers prospect had issued just one free pass in 36 innings. He had 47 strikeouts.
A few days later, Perrin was promoted from Low-A Wisconsin to High-A Brevard County. His numbers with the Manatees aren’t quite as eye-popping, but they’re still impressive. On the season, Perrin has now issued seven walks over 71 innings. The Oklahoma State alum has 77 strikeouts and a 2.66 ERA between the two stops.
His numbers were only part of the story. An aspiring attorney, Perrin had taken the LSAT and was awaiting word on a law school application. Despite his success on the diamond, he was possibly going to be hanging up the spikes.
As Perrin put it in May, “If I get into Harvard, I’m probably going to be out of here. I love the game, but I think I can do more good in this world with a degree from Harvard Law School than I ever could playing baseball.”
He’ll have to settle for baseball (at least for now). Perrin learned earlier today that he wasn’t accepted at Harvard Law.
David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.
As a graduate of one of our nation’s finer law schools, I urge Mr. Perrin to continue playing baseball.
Considering he is a 27th round pick out of college (and by his own admission barely gets it above 90 mph), who almost certainly projects to be a career MiLB player, this is poor advice.
On the other hand, considering the current labor market in the law world… if Perrin can get into a Top 14 school and graduate in the upper third of his class, he’ll do OK, like many of my friends have done. But the law school industry in general is still cranking out waaay too many lawyers for waaay too few decent jobs.
And then there’s the whole problem of “doing good for the world” vs. “paying off student loans”. I know a couple of juvenile public defenders…on balance, they’re better off than a career minor leaguer. But not by as much as they oughta be.
In all seriousness, I don’t regret my career choices and Perrin might well have a long and fulfilling career in the law ahead of him, but law school is the sort of thing that can and ought to wait when you have even a 5% chance of spending a year in a major league bullpen.
Couldn’t agree more. Way too many law graduates, not enough attorney jobs. Not too mention the student loan debt. Becoming a paralegal is a much better career choice.
Yup, I went to law school, got admitted to the bar, and didn’t practice a day of my life because it would’ve taken 5+ years to get the salary of an entry level position in the tech industry. Thank god for that C.S. degree.