The promise of a first-round pick is always enticing, but the reality is more harsh. Many first-rounders go on to become All-Stars, but roughly one-third of them won't reach the big leagues, and a similar number will have insignificant careers at that level.

This has been true since the first Draft in 1965. The first No. 1 overall pick, Rick Monday, spent 19 years in the Majors. The player chosen right behind him, Les Rohr, spent 24 innings there. The fourth choice, Alex Barrett, topped out in Triple-A.

And it's still true today, even as scouting has become more sophisticated. Trying to project how high schoolers and collegians will perform against much more advanced competition, while making the transition from metal to wood bats, is extremely difficult.

The Angels stole Michael Trout with the 25th overall choice in 2009, then made Chevy Clarke a first-rounder the following June. The White Sox saw something in Chris Sale that other teams didn't when they took him at No. 13 in '10, then wasted the exact same pick on Courtney Hawkins three years later. The Astros built a World Series champion by using early first-rounders on George Springer (2011), Carlos Correa ('12) and Alex Bregman ('15), but they also blew a No. 1 overall pick on Mark Appel (2013), one of three players in Draft history selected that high to finish his career without advancing to the Majors.

A week after presenting each club's best first-rounder from the past decade, we offer our choices for their worst.

American League East

D.J. Davis, OF, Blue Jays, 2012 (No. 17 overall)

Five picks before they selected Marcus Stroman , the Blue Jays took Davis, a raw Mississippi prep with top-of-the-scale speed and five-tool potential. But those tools have never translated into consistent production for the 24-year-old outfielder, who's produced a .232/.314/.306 line with five home runs in 231 games at Class A Advanced Dunedin over the past three seasons.

Matt Hobgood, RHP, Orioles, 2009 (No. 5 overall)

The 2009 Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year pitched in the mid 90s as a high school senior, but struggled to hold 90 mph early in his career and was consistently overweight. He underwent shoulder surgery in 2012, was moved the bullpen the following year and required shoulder surgery again in '15. He elected free agency after the season.

Josh Sale, OF, Rays, 2010 (No. 17 overall)

Sale showed five-tool potential as a Washington prep, but repeated poor choices resulted in an abbreviated pro career. He received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for stimulants during the 2012 season, a team-imposed suspension for an off-the-field incident the next year and then a second drug violation in late '14.

Kolbrin Vitek, 3B, Red Sox, 2010 (No. 20 overall)

Considered one of the best hitters in the 2010 Draft, Vitek was a two-way star at Ball State, and some scouts projected him moving to the outfield and becoming a more physical version of A.J. Pollock. But he never got his bat going in pro ball, posting a .258/.326/.356 line in four seasons while topping out in Double-A.

Ty Hensley, RHP, Yankees, 2012 (No. 30 overall)

Hensley impressed scouts with his fastball and curveball as an Oklahoma high schooler, but the Yankees discovered some abnormalities in his shoulder during his post-Draft physical. Rarely healthy, he pitched only 42 2/3 innings in parts of three seasons and endured two Tommy John surgeries.

AL Central

Brady Aiken, LHP, Indians, 2015 (No. 17 overall)

Aiken and the Astros couldn't come to terms after they selected him No. 1 overall in the 2014 Draft, and he underwent Tommy John surgery the following spring while pitching for IMG Academy's (Fla.) college team. The Indians still took a flier on him in the mid-first round that June, but Aiken's career trajectory as a pro has been the opposite of what it appeared it would be during his senior year.

Ashe Russell, RHP, Royals, 2015 (No. 21 overall)

MLB Pipeline's top-rated high school pitcher in the 2015 Draft, Russell suddenly lost the ability to find the strike zone after his pro debut. He pitched only two innings in 2016, and hasn't appeared in a pro game since, walking away from the Royals in June 2017.

Jonathon Crawford, RHP, Tigers, 2013 (No. 20 overall)

The University of Florida product had a solid first full season in the Midwest League with the Tigers, then was dealt to the Reds in December 2014. An inability to find the strike zone (5.2 walks per nine innings in his career) and injuries have limited Crawford to 158 innings in three years since the trade, and he didn't pitch at all in '18.

Levi Michael, SS/2B, Twins, 2011 (No. 17 overall)

The University of North Carolina product made it to Double-A in his second full season, but stalled after that and had a .584 OPS in the Southern League in 2016, with injuries hampering his development. He reached Triple-A briefly in '17, but the Twins released him before the 2018 season began. He had a solid season, mostly in Double-A, with the Mets in '18.

Courtney Hawkins, OF, White Sox, 2012 (No. 13 overall)

Hawkins electrified White Sox fans when he did a backflip during the 2012 Draft broadcast and then turned in a scintillating pro debut that included two homers in the Class A Advanced Carolina League playoffs. The Texas high school product's inability to make consistent contact doomed him afterward, and after he got released this past April, he spent the summer in the independent Atlantic League before hooking up with the Reds.

AL West

Michael Choice , OF, A's, 2010 (No. 10 overall)

Choice slugged his way through the Minors en route to a 2013 debut with Oakland, only to be dealt to the Rangers after the season. He hit .182 over 86 games in the Majors the following year and was traded to Cleveland late in the 2015 season after being designated for assignment. He split the '17 season between Milwaukee and Baltimore's system on Minor League deals and spent last year with Diablos Rojos del Mexico in the Mexican League.

Chevy Clarke, OF, Angels, 2010 (No. 30 overall)

Concerns about Clarke's feel to hit and instincts for the game proved to be somewhat well-founded after the Angels took the Georgia prepster late in the 2010 first round. Clarke never made it past Class A Advanced and hit .217/.312/.346 combined in affiliated baseball. He's still playing, seeing time in two different independent leagues in '18.

Mark Appel, RHP, Astros, 2013 (No. 1 overall)

One of only three No. 1 overall picks to end his career without reaching the Majors, Appel decided to take a break from baseball and the Phillies last spring. Signed for $6.35 million (a record for a college senior) by the Astros and shipped to Philadelphia in a deal for Ken Giles in December 2015, he never showed the dominant stuff he had at Stanford and went 24-18 with a 5.06 ERA in the Minors.

Danny Hultzen, LHP, Mariners, 2011 (No. 2 overall)

Hultzen was every bit worthy of the No. 2 overall pick, as at that time, the University of Virginia lefty had the look of a future front-end starter who could be fast-tracked to the Major Leagues. Unfortunately, surgery to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff after the 2013 season derailed Hultzen's career, and he required surgery again in '15 before being designated for assignment.

Jake Skole, OF, Rangers, 2010 (No. 15 overall)

Considered a tough sign because he had a football scholarship from Georgia Tech, Skole boosted his stock with a late surge as a Georgia prepster and jumped into the middle of 2010's first round. He struggled to hit once he reached Class A Advanced and produced a .227/.325/.330 line in seven pro seasons before departing to play college football as a defensive back at Georgia.

National League East

Braxton Davidson, OF/1B, Braves, 2014 (No. 32 overall)

Davidson came out of the North Carolina high school ranks in 2014 with the reputation of having a strong left-handed bat that would provide average and power. The power has been there, as he hit 20 homers in '18, then added six more in the Arizona Fall League this fall, but he's yet to get past Class A Advanced and struck out 213 times during the regular season.