The 2023 Major League Baseball project was completed in 12 (Korean time). In this project, which went into the last 20 rounds, the first overall honor in the first round was taken by the right-hand man of Louisiana State University (LSU), Paul Skins (21), named by Pittsburgh. He recorded 12 wins, 2 losses, an ERA of 1.69 and 209 strikeouts in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) league this year.
In the major leagues, there is a word ‘first-round prize’, so the main players of the project, especially those appointed in the first round, receive a huge advance and more opportunities than their competitors. However, not everyone walked the flower path. There are players who have performed slowly due to overlapping injuries and bad luck, and there are also players who have taken off their uniforms without ever making the big league stage.
Recently, Henry Davis (24, Pittsburgh) is attracting attention. Designated as the first overall pick in the first round of the 2021 Major League Baseball project while at the University of Louisville, he made his Major League debut in June only after two years. His advance was also 6.5 million dollars (about 8.4 billion won).
However, from the 14th.Davis has played in 20 games this season and has a batting average of 0.239 (17 hits in 71 at-bats), one home run, seven RBIs and two stolen bases. The SPO, which is the sum of the online percentage and the percentage reduction, is also 0.657, which is still not up to expectations.
There are cases where even after he was appointed in the first round, the contract wasn’t even signed. It was the case of left-handed pitcher Brady Aiken (27), who was selected by Houston with the first overall selection in the 2014 project.
Eiken, a native of San Diego, found a problem with his left elbow during the post-nomination physical exam. He was operated instead of a contract and eventually recruited by Cleveland with the 17th overall selection in the first round of 2015 after a rough project.
However, due to repeated injuries and slow growth, he took off his uniform after the 2019 season without being able to make it to the major leagues. The stage he climbed the most was a minor league single A. However, he managed to raise the 2.5 million dollars (approximately 3.2335 billion won) he received when he joined Cleveland. Houston initially offered him a six-year contract.Five million dollars.
Brienne Taylor (52), a left-handed pitcher who was first named together by the New York Yankees in 1991, is a similar case. He was famous for his fastball like a rocket that he threw from his height of 190 centimeters. It was to the extent that he was evaluated as “a player who had no choice but to become a star.” The Yankees gave him 1.55 million dollars (approximately 2 billion won), the highest contract for an amateur player at the time. But that was it.
Taylor injured his left shoulder in 1993, two years after his professional career, ending his season prematurely. After losing the entire 1994 season due to his rehabilitation, he was able to return to the mountain in 1995. However, the injury eventually hit him, and he announced his retirement at the end of the 2000 season. The highest league he’d flown since his debut for was just Double-A.
In the dark history of the first round, San Diego’s Ha-seong Kim (28) team is also not absent. San Diego selected athlete Donavan Tate (33) with the third overall pick in the first round of the 2009 rookie draft. The advance was 6.25 million dollars (approximately 8.0825 billion won). This shows how much San Diego expects of him.
However, after Tate became a professional, the media most often mentioned him for factors outside baseball, such as injuries while driving a mountain car in the off-season and being punished for smoking marijuana. He also took off his uniform after Single A in 2016.
Tate, who was talented in both baseball and football during his college days, later went to the University of Arizona and tried football, but it is said that he quietly dropped out of the sport when that wasn’t enough.
Unlike them, there are not a few players who haven’t received enough attention to be nominated for the lower round, but who wrote anti-war dramas after advancing to the pros. A typical example is Mike Piazza (55), who is familiar to Korean fans while working with Park Chan-ho (50), while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
At the time of the Major League Baseball project in 1988, he was so unfamiliar that he couldn’t be named based on his skills. However, with the consideration of manager Tommy Lasorda, who was close to his father, he was recruited by the Dodgers. His nomination rank was 62, 1390 in 1395 in total.
Piazza, who grew up as an offensive catcher after making his major league debut in 1992, worked for the New York Mets and hit 427 homers in 16 major league seasons until his retirement in Oakland in 2007. Starting with the 1993 National League Rookie of the Year, he won 12 All Stars and 10 Silver Slugger Awards. After his retirement, he was elected to the Major League Hall of Fame in 2016.
Paul Goldschmidt (36, St. John’s). Louis, who is the first baseman of the 21st century’s major league, is also the protagonist of a reversal of life. He was originally drafted by the Dodgers in the Major League Baseball draft of 2006 with the overall selection of 1453 in 49.Round one. However, he chose to try again and was eventually selected by Arizona on 8.Round one with 246.Global selection in the 2009 project. Your advance is $95,000 (approximately 122.83 million won). It was an amount that didn’t even meet the contract rates of Korean players who moved to the United States at that time.
However, Goldschmidt’s growth was fast enough to make his major league debut in 2011, just two years after his professional career. What followed was also unique. He’s been selected as All-Star seven times, and he’s also won the Golden Glove four times and the Golden Slugger five times. In 2013, he was also the National League RBI and home run king. Last year, he was tall as the most valuable player in the National League. He has a batting average of .284, 15 homers and 46 RBIs this season, and is recording a career batting average of .295, 330 homers and 1088 RBIs in the major leagues.
The steps left by Piazza and Goldschmidt show that, after all, success in the major leagues has nothing to do with the nominations.
