What It's Like To Be a Complete Bust As a Top Draft Pick
Posted: 29 May 2025 09:27 am
Imagine being a MLB team's first-round pick and getting into only 21 games for your entire career. Or worse: None at all, like the fictional but beloved Moonlight Graham in "Field of Dreams".
If you were in St. Louis during the football Cardinals era, just hearing the name George Boone will make you nauseous from all of his horrid picks, which led to Don Coryell quitting. At least one really bad one got a big laugh in the Cardinals press box on Draft Day, when the NFL commissioner announced "The St. Louis Cardinals with their first pick choose Kelly Stouffer", prompting Post-Dispatch wag Tom Wheatley to exclaim, "Omigod, this time they drafted a girl."
Stouffer refused to sign with St. Louis and spent four seasons as a backup QB in Seattle, completing only 51.5% of his passes which is still better than Tim Van Galder.
When I lived in San Diego and had no choice but to be a Padres fan, they really tested my patience with all their draft busts, like catcher George Kotteras....shortstop-turned-pitcher Matt Bush and his off-field issues....outfielder Matt Antonelli: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/637030 ... Id=7541559
It was like being an NFL Chargers fan and reliving Ryan Leaf almost every season.
If you were in St. Louis during the football Cardinals era, just hearing the name George Boone will make you nauseous from all of his horrid picks, which led to Don Coryell quitting. At least one really bad one got a big laugh in the Cardinals press box on Draft Day, when the NFL commissioner announced "The St. Louis Cardinals with their first pick choose Kelly Stouffer", prompting Post-Dispatch wag Tom Wheatley to exclaim, "Omigod, this time they drafted a girl."
Stouffer refused to sign with St. Louis and spent four seasons as a backup QB in Seattle, completing only 51.5% of his passes which is still better than Tim Van Galder.
When I lived in San Diego and had no choice but to be a Padres fan, they really tested my patience with all their draft busts, like catcher George Kotteras....shortstop-turned-pitcher Matt Bush and his off-field issues....outfielder Matt Antonelli: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/637030 ... Id=7541559
It was like being an NFL Chargers fan and reliving Ryan Leaf almost every season.