5 worst players drafted 1st overall

Some years, the first overall pick in the MLB draft is a slam dunk, like when Seattle landed Griffey in 1987, or when the Nationals took Bryce first in 2010. More than a few teams, however, have totally whiffed with that vaunted first selection, too, since the inception of the MLB amateur draft in 1965.

Having already looked at five of the best first-overall selections in MLB history, with the 2016 First-Year Player Draft set to kick off in a few hours, let's check out five of the worst players chosen with the first pick.

Steve Chilcott, C - New York Mets, 1966

A catcher who can hit is among the rarest, most valuable assets in baseball, so the Mets - a fledgling franchise with at least 109 losses in each of their first four seasons - seemingly made the right choice in taking Chilcott, a California high-schooler, first overall in lieu of Arizona State standout Reggie Jackson. Except that Chilcott dislocated his shoulder in 1967 during his first full season as a professional and was out of baseball five years later, following an injury-marred career in which he never advanced past Triple-A. Jackson, who wrote in 2013 that his coach at Arizona State said the Mets passed on him because he was "dating a Mexican girl," went on to become Mr. October.

Danny Goodwin, C - California Angels, 1975

The only player ever to be selected first overall in the MLB draft twice, Goodwin spurned the White Sox to play ball at Southern University after Chicago took the 17-year-old catcher with the first selection in 1971, but managed to entice the California Angels into using their first pick on him four years later after he hit .408/.543/.728 as a senior with the Jaguars. By 1979, however, Goodwin was through behind the plate due to an arm injury suffered in his first professional season, and despite enjoying considerable success in the minors - he hit .313 with a .926 OPS in the minor leagues, mostly in Triple-A - he just couldn't hack it in the bigs. In parts of seven seasons in the majors, split between the Angels, Minnesota Twins, and Oakland A's, Goodwin hit .236/.301/.373, with a 19.4 percent strikeout rate and never appeared in more than 59 games in a year.

Shawn Abner, OF - New York Mets, 1984

The Mets' amateur scouting department was presumably on cloud nine in June of 1984, with Dwight Gooden - their first-round selection two years prior - already navigating his way to the NL Rookie of the Year award. The party ended pretty quickly, though, after the club took Shawn Abner, a toolsy outfielder out of Pennsylvania, with that year's first pick. He put up decent numbers through his first three years in the minors, but, as the San Diego Padres discovered after acquiring him as part of an eight-player deal in 1987, Abner just couldn't hit. From 1987 through 1992, Abner served as a reserve outfielder for the Padres (and, briefly, the Angels and White Sox), but hit just .227/.269/.323 in 392 games. After the 1992 campaign, Abner was released by the Angels, and he was out of professional baseball before his 30th birthday.

Brien Taylor, LHP - New York Yankees, 1991

Only once in the last 24 years has a team taken a high-school left-hander first overall. Brien Taylor may or may not be responsible for that. Once described by former Yankees scout Bill Livesey as "the best amateur pitcher he ever saw," Taylor hit 98 on the radar gun in high school and, after landing a $1.55-million signing bonus, was poised to be the pitcher to pull New York out of a playoff drought that stretched back to 1982. His promising career was derailed almost immediately after it began, though, as Taylor tore his rotator cuff - the worst Dr. Frank Jobe had ever seen - trying to protect his brother in a bar fight in North Carolina one night in 1993. He was never the same after that. After missing the entire 1994 campaign, Taylor spent the next four years flailing in Low-A Greensboro, where he walked a whopping 175 batters in 108 2/3 innings. In June 1998, Taylor was released. Two years later, he was out of professional baseball for good.

Bryan Bullington, RHP - Pittsburgh Pirates, 2002

Though scouting director Ed Creech preferred taking high-school shortstop B.J. Upton, the consensus top talent in the draft, newly hired GM David Littlefield wanted someone who could get to Pittsburgh a bit quicker, so he opted for Bullington, a polished right-hander who earned plaudits for his command and pitchability during his tenure at Ball State. Despite putting up strong numbers in the minors and earning a September call-up in 2005, Bullington was never able to get his career back on track after suffering a labrum tear that cost him the entire 2006 campaign. He spent most of 2007 in Triple-A and fizzled as a September call-up, posting a 5.29 ERA in three starts and two relief outings before being claimed off waivers by Cleveland the following year after being sent back to the minors. Bullington made three appearances for the Indians in 2008 and spent the next two years bouncing from Toronto to Kansas City, but was finished by the end of 2010 after having only once thrown more than 17 innings in a season for an MLB club.