Almost every P5 college baseball game is on TV these days. College teams take private buses and chartered planes to games and come back home to sorority girls and cheerleaders. You spend all your hours with other guys like you, many of whom you played travel ball with your whole life. You train in state-of-the-art facilities, eat in fully stocked dining halls, and play in front of thousands of adoring fans every weekend, with one game a week in between. Your family and friends can attend most, if not all, of your games. Once you are drafted you'll mostly go straight to High-A ball, with a potential fast-track to the big leagues in 2-3 years if you perform well. If it doesn't work out you've got a college degree and connections to successful alumni who love to hire college athletes.
High schoolers who go straight to the minors usually sign a contact giving a club rights to you for your first five seasons in the minors, and your first six years in the majors, after which you'll be eligible for free agency, at about age 30. You'll likely start in rookie ball, or Low A ball, and get to travel overnight from Danville to Pulaski. You'll spend most of your time with people you don't know from all over the globe, many of whom speak little or no English. You'll share hotel rooms with two or three teammates and eat PB&J's. You'll play six games a week and there are often more people in the dugouts than in the stands. Since MLB successfully lobbied to be exempt from Federal labor laws, you'll be paid $1,160 per month during the season— $7.25 per hour, for a 40-hour work week, five months out of the year, for a total salary of about $6,000 per season. You will not be paid for spring training or offseason workouts, though you will be required to stay in shape all year. You will count on your signing bonus, or what's left after taxes and agent's fees, to support you until you reach the big leagues or don't get re-signed by your club, a process that could take a year or two, or five, or ten, or possibly never. Either way, when your playing career is over you'll likely be entering the work force without a college degree, and no work experience other than playing baseball.
Unless the money is absolutely life changing I know which one I'd pick.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mauryb...-and-the-minimum-wage-exemption/#24cd31c53c21