Matt Bush: New Owner of "The Worst Ever No. 1 Overall" title

[jmcclain19]

With the resurgance of Josh Hamilton, I think it's safe to say you can no longer call him a bust with the No. 1 overall pick.

That being said, there should be no doubt as of now who the worst No. 1 overall pick is - and that falls squarely on San Diego's Matt Bush.

Bush, the No. 1 overall pick in 2004, has been nothing short of a disaster for the Padres, showing zero hitting ability in two years in Low A, and getting promoted this year to High A for no other reason than they didn't want to send him back to the Midwest League for a 3rd straight year.

Now putting up a whoping .327 OPS (That's right, .327 combined On Base & Slugging Percentage) in the Cal League, a hitters paradise, He's still just 21, so the window exists that he could turn it around, but those odds are looking longer every day. I think its time to move this kid to the mound (he was rumored to also be potentially drafted as a pitcher) to hopefully salvage any sort of career he may have in baseball. Otherwise, it may go down as the worst 3.15 million spent to date in the history of draft.

Career Stats
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/playe...t-Bush-1.shtml

2007 Stats
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today....php?id=456713

[dougdirt]

Steve Chilcott, #1 overall pick in 1966, NYM. Drafted as a catcher out of Antelope Valley HS. Never played 1 minor league game. The guy drafted after him? Some schmuck named Reggie Jackson.

For as bad as Bush has been, at least he played.

[jmcclain19]

Steve Chilcott, #1 overall pick in 1966, NYM. Drafted as a catcher out of Antelope Valley HS. Never played 1 minor league game. The guy drafted after him? Some schmuck named Reggie Jackson.

For as bad as Bush has been, at least he played.

I don't think that's quite Right Doug

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/worst/no1picks.html

Steve Chilcott, 1966 MLB Draft: The Mets did a pretty good job of building a future winner in the mid-1960s, but sometimes the formula didn't add up. Steve Chilcott is exhibit No. 1. The Mets picked him over Reggie Jackson, who went No. 2 to the A's. Chilcott played six minor-league seasons before suffering career-ending injuries.

However, I think with Josh Hamilton's debut, that only leaves Chilcott, Brien Taylor, Bryan Bullington, Bush, Justin Upton & Luke Hochevar as the No. 1 overall picks who never played in the majors.

[redsmetz]

I found this little blurb at

http://www.mikesmets.com/2007/02/mem..._chilcott.html

But, old-time Met fans will always cringe at the mention of the name Steve Chilcott. For you younger fans who may not be up on early Mets history, let's go back to 1966. The Mets had the number one overall selection in the 2nd annual amateur draft and the choice clearly came down to 2 players. There was the star outfielder at Arizona State University, Reggie Jackson and a high-school catcher out of California by the name of Steve Chilcott. Of course, Reggie Jackson went on to a Hall Of Fame career, while Chilcott never made the Major Leagues. There had been some speculation that the Mets had some question about Jackson's character and associations, but at the time, most big league scouts were divided as to which of the two was a better prospect. Based on a personal scouting report from Casey Stengel, probably combined with Casey's philosophy that "if you don't have a catcher, you're gonna have a lot of passed balls", the Mets went with Chilcott.

That wasn't the first mistake the Mets made and it certainly wasn't the last, but it was definitely among the biggest. Anyway, I can say that I am probably one of the few people who actually saw Steve Chilcott play a professional game in New York City. No, not with the Mets or the Yankees, since Steve never made the big leagues, even though he got as close as AA and maybe a game or two in AAA with the Yankee organization after the Mets released him.

It was a special pre-Yankee game event at Yankee Stadium, a regular season league game between the Auburn Mets and Binghamton Yankees. Binghamton's Mickey Scott outdueled Auburn's Jerry Koosman, 1-0 in front of maybe 1000 fans, most of whom thought they were arriving early for Big League batting practice, although there were a handful of Met diehards like myself who came out to see the Auburn Mets, and more specifically, to see the future of the Mets - Steve Chilcott. Getting to see Jerry Koosman was, of course, a bonus. Koosman dominated NYP League hitters that season and after a quick jump to AAA the next season became a mainstay of the Mets' rotation.

As for Chilcott, he hit a double down the rightfield line, almost a HR into the short rightfield seats of Yankee Stadium, but he also struck out a couple of times and looked bad doing it. I was still sure that Chilcott would be starring for the Mets one day because that's what all the "experts" said. Little did I know that his appearance that day in Yankee Stadium would be the last chance I would get to see him play.

[redsmetz]

However, I think with Josh Hamilton's debut, that only leaves Chilcott, Brien Taylor, Bryan Bullington, Bush, Justin Upton & Luke Hochevar as the No. 1 overall picks who never played in the majors.

The last two listed, of course, are the two most recent draftees. According to Baseball Cube, Bullington made one appearance with the Pirates in 2005. Thus far, he's looked fairly average. Baseball-reference.com shows that one game also.

Interestingly that one appearance came against the Reds on 9/18/05 when he relieved Perez in the 3rd inning, coaxing a groundout from Ryan Freel. He then pitched the fourth and gave up two runs:

Top of the 4th, Reds Batting, Behind 5-6, Bryan Bullington facing 2-3-4
          ---  5  R Aurilia       Walk
          1--  1  A Dunn          Ground-rule Double (Fly Ball to LF); Aurilia to 3B
   RO     -23  7  A Kearns        Groundout: 3B-1B; Aurilia Scores; Dunn to 3B
          --3  4  J LaRue         Hit By Pitch
   RO     1-3  2  W Pena          Flyball: CF/Sacrifice Fly; Dunn Scores
   O      1--  5  C Denorfia      Strikeout Swinging
                  2 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 LOB. Reds 7, Pirates 6.

By the way, Adam Dunn is the only one still actively with the team.

[NJReds]

Brien Taylor never pitched after suffering an arm injury in a bar fight.

[JaxRed]

And SS Chris Nelson, who most favored over Bush for #1, and the guy that one poster here said we would regret forever passing for Homer Bailey.....

Two seasons at Low A: .241 and .260 and promoted to High A also like Bush

hitting .189 now.

[TC81190]

Why hasn't Bryan Bullington played in the bigs longer?

[dougdirt]

I don't think that's quite Right Doug

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/list/worst/no1picks.html


However, I think with Josh Hamilton's debut, that only leaves Chilcott, Brien Taylor, Bryan Bullington, Bush, Justin Upton & Luke Hochevar as the No. 1 overall picks who never played in the majors.

Well then I should go fight thebaseballcube.com!

[bucksfan2]

Was Jeff Allison the #1 pick?

[Stewie]

Why hasn't Bryan Bullington played in the bigs longer?

He missed all of last year after having surgery on his shoulder towards the end of the '05 season. Looks like he is healthy and in AAA now, though.

[flyer85]

Was Jeff Allison the #1 pick?

no

[Zippy McGee]

Brien Taylor never pitched after suffering an arm injury in a bar fight.

Not true. Taylor pitched in the minor leagues after getting released by the Yankees in 1998, with minor league teams in the Seattle and Cleveland organizations, retiring in 2000.

[westofyou]

1972-Larry Payne-RHP-Bedias-TX- 7th pick for the Reds

Just Like Homer.

[NJReds]

Not true. Taylor pitched in the minor leagues after getting released by the Yankees in 1998, with minor league teams in the Seattle and Cleveland organizations, retiring in 2000.

I wasn't aware that he tried a comeback. Obviously he didn't get very far.