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Brady Aiken: The Worst Draft Pick Ever

The confusing and unfortunate story of Brady Aiken dates back to June 5, 2014. It was the first day of the draft, and for the third straight year, the Houston Astros held the first overall selection. In 2012, they had picked shortstop Carlos Correa, and the next year, Mark Appel was chosen.

With the first pick, the Astros took Brady Aiken, a left-handed high school pitcher. Aiken and the Astros reportedly reached an agreement soon after, and it was reported that the pitcher had received a signing bonus of $6.5 million, tied with Jameson Taillon for the sixth-highest bonus ever.

But as problems with Aiken's golden arm, which could sling a baseball at 100 MPH, emerged, the Astros dropped their offer to only $5 million. It was revealed that Aiken's UCL was extremely below average in size, and his arm was not suited for retaining health. The five-million, many people believed, would still be enough to sway a high school boy into signing, though. Wrong. Aiken took the lowered bonus as an insult and refused to sign.

The two parties quarreled over the size of Aiken's bonus, and it came to the point when after the draft signing period, Brady Aiken was not a professional baseball player and just the third #1 overall pick to not sign.

Since he had hired an agent, Aiken was ineligible to play college baseball, so he enrolled at IMG Academy, where he intended to play until the 2015 Draft. He reported before his first contest that he was throwing better than ever, but in his first game for the Academy, he threw a pitch, "and something felt a little wrong." Actually, a lot wrong. Aiken had torn his UCL and required Tommy John surgery.

The Astros, while not ever making a public statement on Aiken's injury, obviously must have felt relieved that they had not signed the pitcher. Injuries ruin careers. Another former number-one overall, Stephen Strasburg, is currently enduring a career that has been ruined by his inability to stay healthy.

Aiken, on the other hand, claimed that he did not regret his decision to not sign with the Astros at all. He said that he wanted to play for an organization that made him feel welcome, and while he never blatantly said that the Astros were not one of those teams, everyone interpreted it as "Aiken hated the Astros."

Fast-forward to 2015. Brady Aiken's draft stock has taken a massive hit, and many people predict that he will actually fall out of the first round because no teams would want to take such a risk on a very unproven player that was recovering from an awful injury.

Dansby Swanson was taken with the first pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks, followed by Alex Bregman for the Astros and Brendan Rogers by the Rockies. All three excelled at shortstop. Five pitchers were taken before at number-seventeen the Cleveland Indians selected Aiken.

There was no sense in waiting another year to sign a professional contract, and Aiken and the Indians agreed on an over-slot bonus to lure the lefty in. I can simply not fathom spending so much money on someone who's going to be on and off the DL for his entire career. He started off his career while injured, and I believe he'll finish his career injured. His UCL is not geared towards pitching. If he's already hurt his arm this bad at age 18, do you guys really think he'll be any healthier at age 30?

Now, the only reason why I'm not going to hate on Aiken for ten pages is because I also want to talk about how the Indians justified the pick. At the trade deadline, Cleveland dealt Brandon Moss, a struggling first baseman/outfielder, to the St. Louis Cardinals for left-handed pitching prospect Rob Kaminsky, in a straight-up deal.

Kaminsky is considered by many to be one of the top lefty pitchers in all of the minor leagues. A first-rounder out of high school in 2013, Kaminsky is nearly a sure thing to make the majors at this point, as he is 21 and ready for Double-A. In the Cardinals' High-A affiliate Palm Beach this year, His security is the perfect compliment to Aiken's high-risk situation. Should both pitchers pan out and reach the very top of their potentials, the Indians will have one of the best starting rotations in baseball.

Along with earning a top prospect and dumping off a washed-up former star, the Indians completely justified their terrible selection of Brady Aiken. Now, if someone had taken Brady in the second or third round, I would have supported them. That's the kind of place in the draft where I would start taking risks. I think, though, if the Indians really wanted a pitcher, they should have grabbed a college arm like Walker Buehler that everyone knows is going to be in the majors one day. With high school players, it's always a huge "if," and success rates for such draftees are low. Aiken is a huge risk that will likely cost the Indians millions of dollars with no return on the investment.

It's going to happen. Brady Aiken is going to return to baseball and play in the minor leagues, and be perfectly adequate. Then, he'll hurt his arm again. Then he'll never recover. He'll struggle. Then, every now and then, he'll throw eight innings and strike out 17 batters. Then, everyone will proclaim that he's finally tapping into his potential. But the next time he goes out to the mound, he'll get destroyed. Decimated.

But this is no large loss for Cleveland. Come 2017, everyone's going to have a heck of a fun time watching Rob Kaminsky.

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