Today's hobby hype is all about Stephen Strasburg. Ten years ago, people were drooling over Mark Prior. Twenty years ago, the New York Yankees drafted Brien Taylor with the first overall pick in the MLB amateur draft.I'm headed out to dinner, so I'll keep this short and simple. Brien Taylor is one of the greatest draft busts of all time. Scouts were all over his fastball back in 1991 and so were the Yankees. They were so anxious to have him, they gave him a 1.55 million dollar signing bonus. He turned around and built his parents a brick house and bought himself a black Ford Mustang.
What did the Yankees get for that money? Well due to an injury, he never pitched an inning in the big leagues. In fact, he never made it past AA ball. He pitched for seven seasons in the minors and earned a career pitching record of 22-30 with a 5.12 ERA.
As of 2006, Mr. Taylor lived with his parents in the brick house he had built and was driving the same black Mustang.
I don't recall what collector's were dropping for his 1992 rookie cards, but Strasburg collectors might want to reconsider spending hundreds of dollars on a pitcher who only has 3 career starts. Even if he has a stellar rookie season, he could always turn out to be the next Dr. K.
4 comments:
Wow, that is a great card. Mostly because I'm a Yankees guy. Nice work Mark. I love that the card says, "Fort Lauderdale Yankees" on the bottom left. Its a nice auto too. Those Classic auto'd cards from the early and mid 90's are great!!!!
Loving the bust series. Keep up the excellent work.
Hoopography - Thanks... I was really bummed that I couldn't pick up his 1992 Topps Gold autographed card... however those go for big money.
Nick - I'll keep posting if you keep reading... thanks for checking it out. I have several more that I'll post in the next couple of weeks.
Love the update as of 2006 that you provided for Taylor.
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