The Book: 2004 Baseball

[NewsCopy]

GREEN AND ARDOIN DRAFTED ON FIRST DAY OF MLB AMATEUR DRAFT

LOUISIANA La. - The University of Louisiana at Lafayette's baseball program had two players taken during Monday's first day of the 2004 Major League
Baseball Amateur Draft.

Senior pitcher Patrick Green was drafted in the seventh round by the American League's Kansas City Royals at the 205th overall pick while junior pitcher and Eunice native Kevin Ardoin was picked up by the Texas Rangers of the American League in the 12th round at the 351st overall selection.

Green, a transfer from the University of Tennessee, is out of collegiate eligibility while Ardoin has one year of eligibility remaining at Louisiana.

Their selection marked the 10th straight year under head coach Tony Robichaux that the Cajuns have had at least one player drafted in the MLB Amateur Draft. Green's selection gave the Cajuns back-to-back seasons with a player drafted in one of the Top 10 rounds.

Ardoin, the Cajuns Friday night starter this past season, struck out 95 batters in 106 innings while notching a career-best six victories.

He took home Sun Belt Conference pitcher of the week honors on March 2 and April 12 and was also named College Baseball Insider National Player of the Week on March 5 after puzzling regional participant Stony Brook. Against SBU, Ardoin allowed a lead-off single before retiring 27 consecutive batters, 12 by strike out.

The right-hander left the game with a 2-0 lead at No. 9 Wichita State, going 7 1/3 innings while scattering six hits and striking out four.

Green missed the first part of the season with an elbow injury, but bounced back to collect six wins and a save in just 15 appearances.

He came out of the bullpen most of the season, but started five games including key contests down the stretch. Green tossed a complete game allowing just eight hits while striking out 10 in a win over New Mexico State at the Sun Belt Tournament in his last outing in a Cajuns uniform.


The Alpharetta, Ga., native posted a 2.12 ERA and opponents managed to hit just .191 against the hard-throwing right-hander. He finished the season with 55 strikeouts over 51 innings.

The 50-round draft continues through Tuesday, June 8.

LOUISIANA SI

[NewsCopy]

LOUISIANA La. - University of Louisiana baseball senior pitcher Austin Faught was chosen by the American League's Texas Rangers during the second and final day of the 2004 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft Tuesday.

Faught, who did not pitch during the 2004 season as he recovered from offseason arm surgery, was selected by the Rangers in the 43rd round at the 1,279th overall pick.

Texas picked up the lefthander for the second straight season. The Rangers took Faught in the 35th round of the 2003 MLB Draft, but the Houston native chose to return to UL Lafayette for his senior season.

Faught played two seasons at the University of Houston before transferring to Louisiana-Lafayette during the summer months of 2002. As a junior, he pitched for the Cajuns in the 2003 season. As a senior in 2004, he took a medical redshirt leaving him with one more season of eligibility remaining.

The lefthander went 4-3 with a 4.08 ERA in his first season with the Cajuns in 2003. He made 14 appearances and had nine starts.

He struck out 43 batters over 46 1/3 innings and collected the win in the Cajuns series-clinching win over Florida International on Easter Sunday going the distance and allowing the Golden Panthers just four hits while fanning seven hitters.

Before joining UL in 2003, Faught was a Freshman All-American at UH and was an All-Conference selection for the Cougars during that freshman campaign.

His selection by the Rangers gives the Cajuns baseball program three players taken in the amateur draft, joining fellow pitchers Patrick Green (7th round, Kansas City Royals) and Kevin Ardoin (12th round, Texas Rangers) as Cajuns drafted in the 2004 MLB Amateur Draft.

Since Tony Robichaux took over the reigns at Louisiana-Lafayette in 1995 a grand total of 23 players have been drafted and at least one player has been drafted each year.

[Turner]

An email from a friend in Alabama says they are going after our baseball coach. Can anyone confirm?

[RaisingCajun08]

I can not confirm but I heard Jay talking about Auburn listing the South Alabama coach as a candidate. Jay also said that it is very unlikely that the South Alabama head coach is going anywhere. I think I would have to say the same about Robichaux. Robe is a Cajun.

[Turbine]

Originally posted by Turner
An email from a friend in Alabama says they are going after our baseball coach. Can anyone confirm?

Can't confirm.

This is the first I hear of it, however I'm not surprised to hear a coach of his caliber being mentioned.

[El Sidonio]

Hey Auburn,
Hands off Robe! We don`t want another set of Tigers as rivals! j/k. NO really, hands off. Robe`s gonna kick some ~~~ next season!

[Turbine]

Nooooo

[1stTake]

PAY the COACH

[bengalcajun]

Tony hasn't come up anywhere that I have seen. All the Aubie fans are keen on Ray Knight, but the early front runners seem to be:

Coach Lowe from AUMhas been contacted)kinda old though
Brian Shoop Bham Southern: will be hot commodity after gtting his team in the NCAAs
Jamie Shoupe: doubt we will get him
Steve Kitrell head coach from South Alabama: that program speaks for itself...
Tim Corbin-Vanderbilt Head Coach
Mike Bianca - Head Coach at Ole MIss..(has expressed interest)
---from the Auburn board

Auburn has THE best baseball facility in the SEC and probably the nation. They are going to go for top coaches w/ consistent post-season success.

[NewsCopy]

North wants change
Gannett News Sevice

June 29, 2004

OMAHA, Neb. – It may continue to be a cold day in hell before a Big Ten Conference baseball school finally reaches college baseball’s heaven here at the College World Series, unless global warming increases drastically or the schedule is changed.

The last one to make it here was Michigan in 1984, and Big Ten commissioner James Delany and his coaches blame the weather.

They and other northern schools are pushing a proposal to the NCAA that calls for uniform, later practice and play starting dates of Feb. 1 and March 1, respectively, to if not even the playing field, at least clear the snow off of it.

The later start time would push the CWS to the Fourth of July. Limiting fall practices is also in the works.

Texas and Cal State Fullerton are squaring off this weekend in Rosenblatt Stadium for the national title, marking the 10th straight year that a southern or sun belt school is in the championship round.

Oklahoma in 1994 is the last national champion that could be called a cold weather school. The last Big Ten school to win it all was Ohio State in 1966, climaxing a run of seven Big Ten national champions since 1953. The CWS began in Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1947 before moving permanently to Omaha in 1950.

“If you look at the last 25 years, 20 percent of the country has controlled what’s gone on in Omaha,” said Ohio State coach Bob Todd, who has dominated the Big Ten for 15 years but the closest he ever made it to the CWS was a Super Regional in 1999. As a Missouri assistant from 1974-83, he also never made it.

“Abner Doubleday when he invented baseball didn’t expect them to be playing it in February and March in New York,” Todd said.

St. John’s in 1980 is the last New York school to make it, and that was during the span of 1950-83 in which the NCAA baseball committee chose one team from eight geographic districts. Todd, meanwhile, has been swinging at southern windmills since the 1970s.

“I can show you notes when I was in the old Big Eight at Missouri when we were trying this,” he said. “This is not a new concept.”

Neither is the weather.

The rest of the story

[NewsCopy]

Bertman: Sounds like BCS notion


June 29, 2004

OMAHA, Neb. — So why all of a sudden is the northern bloc fighting for competitive equity in college baseball? It’s not like the southern bloc just began dominating last year.

After 1983, which was the last year that teams were selected by geographic regions for the College World Series, southern or sun belt schools have owned Omaha.

“It’s like Tulane suddenly wanting to get into the BCS (Bowl Championship Series),” LSU athletic director Skip Bertman said. “That’s basically a mini version of what we’re talking about. The Big Ten wants a piece. They see now that college baseball can be a money maker. Some schools want a piece of the pie that schools like LSU and South Carolina have been getting. The coach at Ohio State (Bob Todd), for example, says he can draw for a Michigan game or for some other league games, but it’s too darn cold so they want the schedule started later. So it’s really about money now.”

Interestingly, Big Ten commissioner James Delany, who has been leading the Big Ten’s baseball charge against unfairness, is a chief power broker of the BCS that shuts out many schools like Tulane from its elite dance, or treats them like Big Ten baseball schools.

The rest of the story

[bigearl]

I think that proposal will benefit everyone b/c the later the BB season starts the later it will end, meaning less time without the "big three" like we have now (no football, basketball or baseball).

I'm all for it.