For Aaron Crow, the magic number is nine.

He was the ninth pick in the 2008 draft. But now he's waiting about nine months for his professional career to start, because of $900,000.

Crow is a picture of persistence. Six days a week he works out, most of the time by himself. Throwing a baseball against a wall.

"It's harder to do stuff by yourself because when you have a whole team there pushing you it makes it a lot easier," said Crow.

"I think it's pretty impressive. It takes a lot of guts to walk away from what he walked away from," said Missouri baseball coach Tim Jamieson.

Crow was the only 2008 first round pick not to sign a contract.

"It definitely couldn't have worked out any worse than it did," said Crow.

Crow lives in limbo land. Not in college, not in the pros. His life is on hold.

"I'm not going to school anymore. I'm not on the team. It's kind of weird. I'm hanging around all the same guys, but I'm not going to practice. When they go to practice, I just sit at home," said Crow.

His agent reportedly turned down $3.5 million on the August 15 deadline. They wanted $4.4 million, leaving people to wonder why.

"I really don't think it was about the money. He believes he'll get his money. He'll make his money in a long big league career. He wants it to be a good opportunity and he wants it to be with a good organization," said Jamieson.

"The morning of August 16th I was pretty down. Everything I've ever worked for, it was right there, but then it didn't work out. Then I started to realize it happened for a reason," said Crow.

He still hasn't lost a game since June 4th, 2007. After going a perfect 13-0 with 127 strikeouts last season. But the reigning Big 12 pitcher of the year has competition when it comes to this season's draft from current tiger Kyle Gibson.

"We're hopeful both of them go in the top 10 picks which I think is fairly realistic, but I think bragging rights are up for grabs right now," said Jamieson.

"A lot of people when they get done with college they have to go work and find a real job. I think I got pretty lucky. I just get to play baseball," said Crow.

Crow is going to play for the Fort Worth Cats of the Independent League when the season starts in May. He'll stay with them until the 2009 draft on June 9th. He should have six starts to show he hasn't lost his stuff.

The Washington Nationals have the first pick in this year's draft. They are expected to take a right handed pitcher, but not Crow again.