Brien Taylor

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Brien Taylor (born December 26, 1971) was a baseball pitcher best known for being just the second Major League Baseball player to be picked first in the Major League Baseball Draft and never make the major leagues. (The first was Steve Chilcott, in 1966.)

Taylor was born in Beaufort, North Carolina and drafted by the New York Yankees in 1991. He was offered about $350,000 to sign a minor league contract, the typical amount given to #1 draft choices at that time. However, agent Scott Boras (acting as an "advisor" because unsigned players were not allowed to have an agent at that time) advised the Taylor family that last year's top-rated high school pitcher, Todd Van Poppel, was given more than $1.2 million dollars to sign with the Oakland Athletics, giving up a scholarship to Stanford University in the process. The Taylors held out for "Van Poppel money" even though they had less leverage due to the fact that Brien's poor grades at East Carteret High School in North Carolina prevented him from getting a college scholarship anywhere. They then used a local community college as leverage to get the Yankees to agree to pay Van Poppel money. The Yankees were without the official services of George Steinbrenner who was serving a suspension at the time but through the media, Steinbrenner said that if the Yankees let Taylor get away, they should be "shot." Taylor was signed for $1.55 million the day before his classes were set to begin. Further delay would have meant the deal could not be signed until after the school year ended, which coincided with the following year's draft.

While working up the minor league ranks in 1993, Taylor suffered a torn labrum while defending his brother in a barfight. He was never the same pitcher again. He was at AA before the incident but spent the bulk of the remainder of his league career struggling at Single A.

He was released by the Yankees at the end of the 1998 season and pitched for minor league affiliates of the Seattle Mariners and Cleveland Indians until retiring in 2000.