PITTSBURGH -- It would be easy for Jameson Taillon to make excuses, to draw a straight line from the cancer diagnosis that shook his team and family to the comparatively minor struggles he's had on the mound this season.
But Taillon is living proof that it's not always easy. The Pirates took him second overall in the 2010 Draft between Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, two players who climbed directly to stardom. Taillon's path has not been so linear.
On the brink of the Majors, his career was set back by reconstructive elbow surgery in 2014 and a hernia operation in '15.