If there was any question that Louisiana State’s dominance of college baseball ended in 2000, when it won the last of five College World Series titles over a 10-year span, that notion was erased in 2008. The Tigers went 49-19, amassed a Southeastern Conference 23-game winning streak and won their first game in Omaha in eight years.
All that occurred with LSU just trying to re-establish its footing in the SEC after coming off a 29-win season in 2007 (the fewest wins by an LSU team in 24 years) and missing the NCAA tournament altogether the previous two seasons. Be assured, the resurgent Tigers are back and won’t catch anyone in the college game off guard this season.
Not only is LSU heavily favored to return to Omaha under third-year head coach Paul Mainieri, but interest in the program locally may reach new heights in 2009 as the Tigers, national attendance leaders for 13 straight years, move into a new playing facility with a greater seating capacity.
Not only do the Tigers have that in their favor, but the impressive talent flow that came to define the program in the ‘90s has returned. At the height of its dynasty, LSU routinely had more players drafted annually and more big-league alumni than any college, and the same kind of impact should be felt in the draft over the next three seasons.
PG Crosschecker is in the process of assembling extensive state-by-state follow lists for the draft classes of 2009, 2010 and 2011, and it’s readily apparent by viewing the top prospects in Louisiana that LSU has returned to prominence with a vengeance. The Tigers should be major players in each of the next three drafts.
The accompanying Top 10 takes a sneak peek at Louisiana’s top prospects for this year’s draft and the list is dominated by LSU—both its own players and its recruits. Much the same scenario should play out in 2010 and 2011.
From a pure talent standpoint, LSU’s two best prospects are outfielders Jared Mitchell and Chad Jones, both members of the football team. Their baseball development has been retarded because of their commitment to football. Both were key members of LSU’s 2007 national championship team and were it not for football, it’s entirely possible that neither player would even be in college as Mitchell was projected to be a first-rounder in 2006 and Jones in 2007.
Mitchell was ultimately selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 10th round out of a Louisiana high school, a concession to his signability, and has yet to hit even .300 in his first two years at LSU. But he has teased scouts with his power-speed combination by contributing nine homers and 34 stolen bases.
After not starting a game at wide receiver this fall for the football Tigers and hauling in only nine passes overall, Mitchell may be ready to turn his full attention to baseball—especially since he is projected to be a first-round pick again in June. Not only is Mitchell the fastest player on the Tigers roster, with a clocking of 6.45 seconds in the 60, but he has sneaky, evolving power in his 6-foot, 200-pound frame.
Jones, a 13th-round pick of the Houston Astros prior to enrolling at LSU, is less likely than Mitchell to turn his attention exclusively to baseball—not yet, at least. He does not have a defined role with the Tigers on the eve of the 2009 season after playing in just five baseball games as a freshman and spending all of the fall with the football team, most prominently as a safety and kick-return specialist.
He’ll have to fight for playing time in a LSU outfield that features Mitchell in left, defensive whiz Leon Landry in center and the team’s best hitter and power hitter, Blake Dean, in right. Landry profiles as a second-rounder in 2010, Dean a third- to sixth-rounder this year.
While scouts will naturally focus more than their share of attention on Mitchell and Jones, the two best athletes on the LSU roster, the overall talent is so deep that it’s entirely possible that neither will be the first LSU player drafted this year or next. Shortstop D.J. LeMahieu, a draft-eligible sophomore, stands a good chance to be selected ahead of Mitchell in this year’s draft, while 6-foot-7, 225-pound sophomore righthander Anthony Ranaudo, scheduled to be the team’s Friday night starter, is a near-lock to go in the first round in 2010.
Landry and catcher Micah Gibbs, both highly-rated sophomores, are also targeted to be picked in the top two rounds—and it may be too tall an order for the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Jones to leapfrog all three, unless he devotes more of his attention to baseball the next two seasons and lets his raw talent blossom.
Not only will LSU players dominate the early rounds of this year’s draft, but the state’s top three high school prospects, as ranked by PG Crosschecker, are also LSU recruits. Given all that, it’s safe to say the Tigers are back—and ferocious as ever.
We’ve ranked nearly 150 prospects from Louisiana in our 2009 draft overview, and here’s our take on the 10 best: