Kansas City Royals: Players Missed in the MLB Draft

Other players the Royals missed out on in 2009: Shelby Miller and A.J. Pollock

This one hurts. At least with passing on Kershaw and taking Hochevar in the 2006 draft, Hochevar went on to help the Kansas City Royals win their first World Series in 30 years. The guy the Royals took in 2009? Not so much.

In the 2009 MLB Draft, the KC Royals had the 12th overall pick and selected… This one stings, guys… Aaron Crow. Thirteen picks later, Mike Trout was taken by the Los Angeles Angels.

Mike Trout is only the most popular guy in all of baseball and probably the biggest name in the game right now. You see him in commercials just as much as you see him mashing the baseball and robbing teams of home runs. The dude’s a monster.

Mike Trout is only the most popular guy in all of baseball and probably the biggest name in the game right now.

Trout debuted in 2011 and has a career slash line of .308/.408/.576 throughout his six-year career. That’s pretty good, and the Royals would kill to have that type of hitter in their lineup right now, especially with the recent injuries on the team.

Now we look at Aaron Crow, who the Royals did take that year. Crow isn’t with the team anymore, as he was traded to the Marlins after the 2014 season and currently is in the Chicago Cubs organization.

Crow ended his Royals career with an average ERA of 3.43 and didn’t start a single game for the team. He started to falter quite a bit in 2014, where his ERA rose to a 4.12 and he became expendable to the team. He did, however, make it to the All-Star Game in 2011 after posting a 2.97 ERA, but he did not play in the game (and remember – Every team has to have a representative).

That All-Star year was Crow’s best, and he slowly declined each year after that.

Imagine having Mike Trout on this team during the World Series. Maybe he could have gotten something done against Bumgarner and the Royals could be back-to-back World Series champs.

Next: Another missed ace