KU Athletics has an updated version of "Jayhawks in the Pros" posted.  The story covers 14 former KU players now in professional baseball.  Les Walrond (PHI) and Tom Gorzelanny (PIT) are both up with their big league clubs while Travis Metcalf (TEX) probably rejoin the Rangers soon.  Metcalf impressed with solid defense and good power during his August call up.  He hit four homeruns in 35 at-bats and now has a season batting line of .214/.250/.530.

Some off season baseball news from across the Big-12:  The OU clubhouse continues to be an interesting place.  The Sooners lost Teddy Nowell, a highly regarded pitching prospect, after four days on campus. 

Dan Spencer officially took over the head coaching job at Texas Tech from future Hall-of-Famer Larry Hays in June.  In an interview with Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com Spencer attributes much of TTU's sucess in the 1990's to their abilty to recruit good JUCO players out of California, something that Ritch Price has done very well during his five years at Kansas.  Much of the current OSU coaching staff also came up as assistants at Tech.  Not surprisingly Spencer's rebuilding plan involves recruiting elite high school talent both in-state and across the nation.  I guess that is the plan for about 100% of all college baseball teams.  So how will Spencer get the job done at Texas Tech?  "We need to sell that Lubbock sunshine," in the Pacific Northwest.  Well, good luck with that.  I don't know how often Lubbock sunshine will trump the two shiny new national championship trophies in Oregon State's baseball office.

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Some quick hits on the baseball team:

• While KU has not made an announcement yet, the Daily Advertiser of Lafayette, Louisiana reports that Kansas has hired John Szefc as an assistant coach.  According to the article: "Szefc will oversee the program's recruiting efforts, instruct hitters and outfielders and serve as the third-base coach."  No news on this move yet on the team's home page.  According to his bio at the UL website Szefc has had success improving the offensive production of his players.  His recruiting efforts also are praised.  Szefc is quoted in the Daily Advertiser article saying KU, "made an incredible offer to both me and my family, and that's why I chose to make this decision."
• I only learned today that Don Czyz announced his retirement last month.  Don was having a breakout season earlier this year before suffering a serious arm injury.  Best of luck to Don from here forward.  Don probably had the most impressive college career in the history of Kansas baseball.  Here is a career retrospective and interview I did on Don back in 2007.
• Chuck Woodling of the LJ World published a story last week about the incoming baseball recruits.  Woodling's article focuses on the incoming pitchers, in particular Lee Ridenhour and Tyler Blankenship.  Woodling quotes Price saying that this incoming class "may be the finest in Kansas baseball history.”
• Do you still dream of playing baseball on a big stage?  If so save the date on August 28th.  KU Baseball will hold an informal meeting that day for those interested in taking part in their annual open tryouts.  More information here.

A big welcome to Lawrence goes out to Zac Elgie and Lee Ridenhour.  Elgie and Ridenhour were drafted in June by MLB teams.  The signing deadline ended last night at midnight eastern time.  Both Elgie and Ridenhour declined offers to play professional baseball, preferring instead to come to the University of Kansas.  This is obviously big news for the KU program.  Coach Price is in line for a big congratulations here.

Elgie might be the highest profile player to sign with KU ever.  He was taken in the 12th round by Oakland but was seen as a "first day talent" (top-6 rounds).  He fell to the 12th round due to his statement that it would take a very substantal signing bonus to coax him away from becoming a Jayhawk.  Here is an excerpt from a June Baseball America feature on Elgie:

After committing to Kansas over the winter, Elgie said he will take a wait-and-see approach to the draft.

"I'm excited about it. Like (Vistas coach Todd Larson) said, I've got a win-win situation," Elgie said. "If I don't go where I want (in the draft), I'll be at Kansas. If I get drafted and things fall my way, then I'll have the opportunity to play pro baseball.

"We have some figures and rounds in mind from what we've heard from the scouts, but we don't have our mind set on a certain round. It's more play it by ear."

Elgie estimates he has had contact with 15-20 major league scouts. He said about 10 scouts have traveled to see him in person, including representatives from the Twins, Indians, Phillies, Diamondbacks and Dodgers.

"At first it was a little overwhelming," he said. "I've grown used to it. You just have to go out there and hustle and try to sell yourself by what you do on the field. You just have to go out and play."

I'll post more information about the 2009 roster as it shapes up.  For the time being here is the fall 2008 roster, slightly revised from the version posted earlier this week.  I italicized the incoming players.  Some trimming will be necessary as NCAA D-I teams can only carry 35 man rosters.  I do not know how injuries work with NCAA rosters.  I expect some of the incoming players will redshirt.  I'll try to have this all sorted out for you by January.

Fall 2008 KU Baseball Roster (as of August 16)

No. Name Ht./Wt. Pos. Yr. Hometown/High School/Last College 30 Afenir, Buck 6-1/205 C SR Escondido, Calif./Escondido 14 Blankenship, Travis 6-2/190 LHP JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State HS/Johnson Co. CC 18 Bochy, Brett 6-2/190 RHP RS SO Poway, Calif./Poway 1 Bollman, Brett 5-9/155 RHP RS JR Broken Arrow, Okla./Claremore/Arkansas 6 Boyer, Kelson 6-4/200 RHP FR Eudora, Kan./Free State HS 21 Brunansky, Jason 5-9/180 OF FR Poway, Calif./Poway HS 23 Burk, Kevin 6-1/180 RHP FR Warrensburg, Mo./Warrensburg HS 22 Dreiling, Jordan 5-10/151 IF FR Lawrence, Kan./Free State HS 5 Elgie, Zac 6-2/195 IF FR Minot, N.D./Minot HS 43 Ellenbecker, Max 5-10/178 LHP RS JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State 40 Faunce, Nick 5-11/196 OF RS SR Eugene, Ore./South Eugene 19 Hall, Shaeffer 6-2/195 LHP JR Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit West/Jefferson County CC 33 Hart, Taylor 5-10/180 OF FR Jasper, Texas/Jasper HS 9 Heere, Brian 5-10/170 OF RS SO Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence 32 Herbst, Greg 6-5/230 IF SO San Antonio, Texas/O'Connor 4 Jakubov, Jordan 6-4/200 RHP RS FR Maize, Kan./Maize 46 Kohorst, Matt 6-1/210 RHP SO Pasadena, Calif./LaSalle HS/San Diego 20 Land, Preston 6-3/236 IF SR Greenwood, Mo./Lee's Summit 31 Lincoln, Joe 6-4/198 C SO Tipton, Iowa/Tipton HS/Maplewoods CC 36 Lisher, Brett 6-0/195 IF JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State HS/Allen County CC 25 Lytle, Casey 6-2/200 OF SO Phoenix, Ariz./Chaparral 35 Manship, Chris 6-3/215 RHP FR Cave Creek, Ariz./Cactus Shadow HS 3 Marasco, Jake 6-3/205 OF FR Wichita, Kan./Maize HS 41 Marciel, Wally 6-1/230 LHP JR Kailua, Hawaii/Iolani 24 Marcin, Thomas 6-3/204 RHP JR Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison 27 Marks, Andy 6-2/215 LHP SR St. Louis, Mo./Oakville 48 Meggison, Jared 6-3/200 RHP FR Grimes, Iowa/Dallas Center-Grimes HS 10 Murray, Colton 6-0/202 IF FR Overland Park, Kan./Olathe East HS 17 Narodowski, David 5-10/193 IF JR Vancouver, B.C.//Vernon College 34 Parrish, Phil 6-1/190 OF SO Great Falls, Mont./Russell 37 Price, Robby 5-11/176 IF JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State 28 Ridenhour, Lee 6-3/190 RHP FR Lenexa, Kan./Shawnee Mission West HS 42 Silek, Cameron 6-4/230 RHP JR San Diego, Calif.//Grossmont College 12 Slagle, Blake 6-1/190 OF RS SO St. Louis, Mo./Eureka 44 Smyth, Paul 5-11/215 RHP SR Atascadero, Calif./Atascadero 35 Sperry, Zach 6-1/190 RHP FR Arlington, Texas/Lamar 38 Stanfield, James 5-11/175 IF FR Owasso, Okla./Owasso HS 11 Taylor, Thomas 6-4/180 RHP FR Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley West HS 26 Thoma, Zach 5-11/178 IF SO Omaha, Neb./Creighton Prep 8 Thompson, Tony 6-5/220 IF SO Reno, Nev./Galena 39 Walz, T.J. 6-0/165 RHP SO Omaha, Neb./Skutt 7 Waters, Jimmy 6-0/200 C SO Council Bluffs, Iowa/Lewis Central

With two and a half days left before the signing deadline several key picks remain unsigned by the Royals, including their #1 pick.  Here is the rundown from Baseball America.  Players in bold are signed:

(KU headcoach Ritch Price celebrates the FISU World Championship.  That guy bottom left looks like Price to me.) via www.fisu.net

This summer KU head coach Ritch Price was the infield coach for the U.S. Collegiate National Team.  The FISU (International Federation of University Sports) is not the Olympic team, but they do play international opponents.  The U.S. team went undefeated (24-0) this year for the first time and won their third consecutive Gold Medal.   The championship tournament was played in the Czech Republic in July.  Apparently the toughest opponents they faced were Japan and Cuba.  KUAthletics.com published an interview with Price a few weeks back.  Better late than never…

Price was very complimentary about several Big-12 pitchers on the team including Kendall Volz (Baylor), Andrew Oliver (Oklahoma State) and Tyler Lyons (Oklahoma State).  Kyle Gibson (Missouri) is the team set up man.  Price expects Volz, Gibson and Oliver to all be first round draft choices next year.

The other highlight of the summer was playing against [former Jayhawk] Hiarali Garcia and the Canadian National Team.  I have such great respect for Hiarali as a person and as a player.  He pitched a scoreless 10^th inning against us, and I was really proud of him, to see him in that Canadian National uniform, and have the chance to give him a hug after the game was a really special moment for me.

Price closed the interview remarking that this summer has also shown him how good some of the players are KU are when matched up against the best in the nation.  "We had four guys on our team last year who could start on Team USA right now, and Paul Smyth could pitch on this team."  I assume the other three players Price was referring to were John Allman, Erik Morrison and Rynn Price, but maybe he had Buck Afenir in mind.

KU has posted the Fall 2008 roster on-line.  Several freshman are listed, including Lee Ridenhour, but notably absent is Zac Elgie.  Elgie was taken in the 12^th round in the draft but to my knowledge he has not yet signed a contract.  The A’s have until Friday 11PM CST to sign Elgie.

[Update - Shortly after this story was published a revised roster was put on-line by KU which included Zac Elgie.  More reason for hope.  Six hours to go until the signing deadline.]

Newcomers listed include: Kelson Boyer (RHP, FR), Jason Brunansky (OF, FR), Kein Burk (RHP, FR), Brett Lisher (IF, JR, transfer from Allen County CC), Jake Marasco (OF, FR), Jared Meggison (RHP, FR), Lee Ridenhour (RHP, FR), Zach Sperry (RHP, FR) and Thomas Taylor (RHP, FR).  There are 32 names on the roster.  Each NCAA D-I team can carry as many as 35 so more names may be added.  This is the first year in which Jr. College transfers must sit out a year before competing so I do not expect to see any additional transfers added.