Rivera was the one I really liked though. I was looking forward to seeing him...everybody was raving about this kid who could play CF like mays and hit 450 foot bombs and we watched him take BP and he hit, like, nothing...foul back, swing and miss, grounder. My buddy said "I have never seen a future star hit this bad in BP" In fact, we had never seen ANYBODY hit this bad in BP. I told him must be having a bad day or something because I had heard such good things about him. Soon I had to admit he was right. He was a legend though and, a hell of an athlete. Just not a hitter. Still playing, I believe.

Two guys that kill me are Jeff Austin and Chris George, probably Kyle Snyder, Colt Griffin, and Dee Brown among others. Wow that list jumped from two to 5 really fast.

Tim Redding - Still in the minors, but I am sure a lot of us saw the line from that 12 run, like 2 inning gem he pitched a few days ago.

Rene Reyes - Did well in the minors, but couldn't hit consistently in the majors. Went back and forth from the Rox to the SkySox, and then stopped hitting down there too. Not sure if he even still plays. Still have him on my reserve roster cause I don't want to pay him the money it will cost to release him.

Chris Mabeus - I drafted him as a sleeper back in 04 or 05 I think. He put in a great stint in AA and did well in AAA at Sacramento. Then the next season he seemed to stuggle. He has spent a little time in the majors now, a couple innings I think, but he looks to basically be done.

Ricardo Rodriguez - I traded for him back in 2003 and stuck by him for quite awhile. He would put together some great stretches with the Rangers as recent as 2005, but always got injured. Plus he walked way too many.

Craig Griffey - Yes, Ken's brother. I was big into baseball cards back in the early 90s and got a few of his. Him and his father and brother together, even a hologram set of each of them individually. Apparently Sr. was quoted as saying Craig was the more athletic of the brothers. I guess that shows that sometimes you need baseball players, not athletes.

And a year ago at this time, I would have mentioned Brandon Phillips and Josh Bard. I had given up on them and traded both as throw-ins in deals I made. Boy do I feel foolish now. Also, is it too early to mention Mark Prior?

Also Dan McGwire... oh wait, that was the Seahawks gaff, not the Mariners. Stupid SDSU QBs who are brothers of mashing first basemen in the major leagues!

Runners up: Adam Johnson; second overall pick, cup of coffee. Ryan Mills; seventh overall pick, never made it past AAA. David McCarty; third overall pick, no more than a bench player in the majors.

When you look at the performance of the Twins scouting department in the 90's (including Travis Lee and Jayson Veritech not signing), you see how far they have come. Most teams would have fired Mike Radcliff after all those first-round busts. Terry Ryan has been rewarded for his patience with Radcliff.

Never really made it past AAAA status, and ended up playing indy ball.

Choi never got a chance, but when he did he mashed. Thing is, all anyone saw was his awkwardness and his K rate and said forget it. He could have been a solid starter for someone.

Everts still has a chance, but he's really had trouble coming back from TJ surgery. He was my favorite player in the '02 draft, and Kazmir's athletic, RH teammate with 3 plus/plus plus pitches.

A couple other guys have been mentioned in this thread. Carlos Pena, all Cubs pitching prospects in the past million years, Nick Neugabauer (sp?), J.M Gold...

Wow theres alot.

Some Indians' busts I can recall -

RHP Tim Drew - the "forgotten" Drew brother never panned out - had a low-90s fastball and was supposed to be quite polished for a HS pitcher, but between being rushed a bit by the Indians and the fact that he never adapted to AAA, he never achieved the success many predicted for him (and has only appeared in 35 ML games between 2000-2004, and didn't pitch anywhere in 2006 after having shoulder surgery, I believe.)

Really, the warning sign should have came in AA - while his H, HR, and BB rates were quite good, his K rate was 3.81 K/9 IP (though admittedly, it was only 9 AA starts - conversely, Jeremy Sowers' AA K rate was 7.65 K/9 IP, more than twice that of Drew's AA K rate.)

Drew's K rate at AAA did "rebound" slightly to 4-5 K/9 IP, but his other numbers worsened, especially his H rate (much closer to or over 9/9 IP.)

Ironically, he had shoulder surgery (I believe) just recently and the Indians were considering resigning him to a Minor League deal if his workout impressed them enough, but I didn't hear anything more about that (this was about 3-4 weeks ago,) so I presume the Indians decided to pass on resigning him.

Others include - as mentioned, Ricardo Rodriguez (command wasn't good enough and his temperament was a bit volatile at times, as well as being stubborn at times as well) and Alex Escobar (didn't make enough contact to allow his power to be useful.)

Others:
3B Russell Branyan - John Hart had the choice between him and Sexson; while Sexson hasn't been Thome's equal, Sexson has been considerably better than Branyan, so I think Hart chose the wrong one.
3B Corey Smith - never put together a full great season, as he was too streaky, plus he had trouble making consistent contact.
RHP Jeremy Guthrie - AAA was too much for him - he breezed through AA his first time, allowing just 6.32 H/9 IP, though a warning sign should have been that he had just a 5.03 K/9 IP rate (that too was just in 9 AA starts, so small sample size, perhaps.)  But, when he got to AAA, much like Drew, he got rocked to the tune of 12.01 H/9 IP, and unlike Drew, gave up 1.40 HR/9 IP.

After several years in AAA, it looked like he broke through somewhat in 2006, with a 7.59 H/9 IP, along with a 0.44 HR/9 IP, a 3.44 BB/9 IP, and a 6.42 K/9 IP rate, but still never fully adapted to the Majors, though the Indians did not give him much opportunity in a starting role, and as a reliever, he was pretty inconsistent (one good outing, followed by 2-3 bad ones.)

I think the Mormon mission that caused him to miss 2 years or so might have had something to do with his struggles - he wasn't as developed with his command as many thought he was when he was drafted, and being that he was away from the game for 2 years, he lost critical development time.  Plus, the fact that Scott Boras got him a ML contract limited the Indians' ability to send him to the Minors, since I believe he only had 3 option years (could be wrong on this,) so the Indians had to rush him somewhat even when they probably knew he wasn't ready to get ML hitters out on a consistent basis.

There are probably others I could think of, and maybe I'll add another post later, but these are the ones that come to mind at the present time.

Take care and have a great day!

McPherson is another one I thought would be a star by now.