The Flops Deluxe Edition: #1 Picks Who Failed

I haven't had much sports motivation or desire this week, but an article I saw in USA Today this week helped me get my mojo back (a little bit at least). USA Today featured an article about former major league pitcher Ben McDonald, who in 1989 was a can't miss pitching prospect coming out of college. With the baseball draft next week, we are witnessing another can't miss college pitching prospect in Stephen Strasburg from San Diego State. Being local here in DC, it seems pretty obvious that the Nationals should take Strasburg with the first pick as a building block for their horrible pitching staff. But history does not side with Strasburg and the Nats should think very long and hard about this before selecting.

Today's post will be dealing with overall #1 draft picks in baseball, football and basketball who did meet the high expectations that the pick implies. Sure, there have been great success stories (Ken Griffey, Jr, Chipper Jones and ARoid for example). But where baseball is concerned, there have been countless failures. Today, I will be listing some of those failures. This is by no means a negative article. Perhaps this can be used as a cautionary tale about how risky the drafts are for teams.

As mentioned, Ben McDonald was an outstanding player in college, and the Orioles jumped on board right away. Unfairly, Big Ben was looked at as a savior and was paid accordingly. He only ended up in the major leagues for about 8 years or so, winning 78 games. He never won more than 14 games in a season.

For baseball, here's a small list of #1 overall picks who never quite made it:

-David Clyde, 1973. Lights out in high school, the Texas Rangers selected Clyde and went straight to the big leagues. Not a good move. Career record: 18-33 with a 4.63 ERA

-Brien Taylor, 1991. Never made the major leagues in large part because of a fight that resulted in a torn labrum. Just the second player in the amateur draft who never made the majors.

-Shawn Abner, 1984. .227 batting average and 11 home runs over pieces of 6 seasons.

-Steven Chilcott, 1966. The other player drafted first who never made the majors.

-Matt Anderson, 1997. 15-7, with an ERA over 5.00 over 7 seasons. Best known for injuring himself throwing an octopus.

-Bryan Bullington, 2002. 0-5, with an ERA over 5.00.

-Al Chambers, 1979. .208 batting average, 0 home runs in parts of three seasons.

In looking at the list of overall #1 picks, most players had solid, unspectacular careers. But so much more was expected. Is it safe to say that teams were fooled? Or rushed the players who turned out to fail? Be careful Washington!!

Football's list of #1 "failures":

Football has a longer list of success stories than baseball. Notable examples: Terry Bradshaw, OJ Simpson (sports only), Earl Campbell, John Elway, Bruce Smith, Drew Bledsoe and Peyton Manning among others. But the list of failures is also very telling:

-Ki-Jana Carter, 1995. Coming out of Penn State, there was high hopes. But injuries ruled a promising career, only running for 1100 yards in 10 years.

-Tucker Fredrickson, 1965. 2200 yards over 6 years. Not horrible, but #1 worthy??

-Kenneth Sims, 1982. Only played 74 games over 8 years with only 17 sacks.

-Steve Emtman, 1992. His 6 year career was marred by injuries and never really established anything.

-Courtney Brown, 1999. Another #1 Penn Stater who never met expectations, with only 17 sacks in his career.

Other notable failures: Tim Couch, Alex Smith, David Carr

Basketball's list of "failures":

-Who could ever forget Portland taking Sam Bowie with the #1 overall pick over Michael Jordan? That in itself is a colossal failure as Sam Bowie never had much of a career. Other failures:

-Kwame Brown, 2001. The pratfalls of picking high school players. Brown never fit in DC and has been a journeyman ever since.

-Pervis Ellison, 1989. Played 12 years and had one year where he averaged 20 points a game. But most of his career was largely unspectacular and injury riddled.

-Kent Benson, 1977. Only averaged 7 points a game in his career.

-Michael Olowokandi, 1998. Taken ahead of Vince Carter, Dirk Nowitzi, Antwon Jamison. Has played only 360 games, averaging 9 points a game. Considered one of the recent big busts of the NBA Draft.

Some perspective here: many of these athletes had distinguished high school and college performances. Tons of athletes never get the opportunity that the above players received. But we do judge (unfairly perhaps?) on performance and sadly, that is the legacy of failed #1 picks.

Tomorrow: my baseball review will look at some baseball draft gems and some first round failures.

JP