Angels biggest prospect busts since 2000

Prospects are never guaranteed to turn into big league stars, but some are destined for greatness until they suddenly fall off the map. Who are the Angels biggest prospect busts since 2000?

When Mike Trout broke into the minor leagues as a 17-year-old in the Angels system, he batted .360 with a .506 slugging percentage in rookie-level Arizona. That was in 2009. By the following season, he was on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospect list, climbing all the way to the second highest ranked spot by 2012.

Obviously, Trout proved to be a prospect with real potential in the major leagues. But not every prospect is like that. For every Mike Trout, there is a player who falls off the map, only remembered on archived prospect ranking lists.

For fans, prospects represent the hope. No matter what is happening on the major league playing field, whether the team is struggling, a free agent acquisition has gone wrong, or a trade has failed to produce expected results, it’s those top guys in the minors who maintain an undercurrent of optimism among the fan base.

Which Angels prospects have disappointed the most over the past twenty years? That is what this article will examine. Who generated the most hope? Who saw their name rise to the top of the prospect rankings? And who ultimately failed to meet the expectations placed upon them as they rose through the ranks?