[06/06/01] The Kansas City Royals made Taylor Tankersley an offer he could refuse. So he did.

The left-hander who helped lead Warren Central to the Class 5A state championship got an offer from the Royals to be their sixth-round selection, the 175th overall pick, but the money was not enough to sway The Vicksburg Post Player of the Year.

“It’s a little disappointing,” said Tankersley, who was expected to be picked Wednesday in the final 30 rounds. “They talked like they wanted to work something out, but it’s all about signability. No team wants to waste their money on someone they won’t sign.”

Tankersley, an Alabama signee, said the Royals offered $140,000 to sign, but that was “not good enough to trade for an education and an opportunity to play in the SEC.”

Kansas City wound up picking Williams Frost, a right-handed pitcher from Columbus, Ga., in the sixth round.

In his senior year, Tankersley went 13-0 with a 0.44 ERA. He struck out 165 in just 95 innings pitched. He also had a streak of eight straight shutouts three short of the national record.

Michael Brown, who hit leadoff for Mississippi State in his first season, also went undrafted after being a 36th-round selection last year out of Chipola Community College in Pensacola, Fla.

Only six Mississippians were taken on the draft’s first day.

Chamar McDonald, an LSU signee who starred at Madison Central, was taken in the fifth round by Kansas City. He was the first player from the state selected.

Delta State’s Eli Whiteside (173, Baltimore), Mississippi State’s Brandon Medders (248, Arizona), George County’s Lance Davis (392, Florida), Mississippi State’s Tanner Brock (396, Cincinnati) and Saltillo’s Tim Dillard (448, Milwaukee) round out the selections from the state. In all, 586 players were taken in the draft’s first 20 rounds.