If Aiken truly has no regrets, and stuck with his principles over playing for a team he lost respect for, I applaud that.  Not many people can say that they turned down 5 million dollars with no regret.

But, one thing is talking this way when the cameras are still focused on him.  What happens after a year or two if the recovery doesn't go well, and the camera disappears, and the baseball media isn't asking him questions or getting his input.  What will Aiken be saying once the song "Glory Day's" from Bruce Springsteen hits too close to home?  Not to say Aiken won't recover, but at this point he's got a long road to earning 5 million dollars in baseball again.

The last two # 1 draft picks the Astros had risked it big time.  Appel back in 2012 made a huge gamble and won.  Aiken made a huge gamble and now finds his career in limbo.


As a Houston sports fan, and having to hear that Clowney may never again be the player that the Texans drafted, because of the Micofracture surgery; having to deal with the Aiken injury would have been horrific (two potential lame duck #1 picks in the same year!!!!).  Without the benefit of a physical before the draft, the Astros trusted their medical staff and lowered their offer significantly, and today they can breath a sigh of relief that it isn't their jobs on the line.  Because no matter how you dice it, this Aiken's injury might have cost all of them their jobs in 3 or 4 years.  I don't think I would have traded the # 2 pick in this draft for Nix and Marshall.  So, as an Astros fans, I'm just looking forward to the 2015 ML baseball draft.

It's a redo for the rich and powerful club of the Astros.  But for the player, he's got to look into his future as a person who will likely have to earn his living doing something other than baseball, if the recovery is as difficult as the Astros had thought it could be.