Baseball: MLB draft was easy on Cajuns

Joshua Parrott • jparrott@theadvertiser.com • June 12, 2009

As the Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft concluded on Thursday, UL coach Tony Robichaux felt confident about how his team would look next season.

The Cajuns had only one player selected in the 50-round draft as junior left-hander Greg Wilborn got picked in the 18th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday. Sophomores Les Smith and Tyler Benzel recently announced that they were transferring to play closer to home, but UL expects to have its other underclassmen back in 2010.

Incoming signee T.J. Geith, a lefty from NJCAA Division II runner-up Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College, went to the Chicago White Sox in the 49th round on Thursday. But that’s probably too low for Geith, who logged an 8-2 mark with a 2.90 ERA in 16 appearances as a sophomore, to get enough money to give up joining the Cajuns.

"I think everything is solidified for us but Greg Wilborn," Robichaux said. "We’ve got to see what Greg is going to do. T.J. Geith was drafted in the 49th round, but we’ve already talked with him. Because of that round, we feel pretty good about him being here next season.

"Right now, it looks like we got through the draft pretty good."

Wilborn and Geith must sign with their respective teams by 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 17 or go back into next year’s draft pool.

In his first year back from elbow ligament reconstruction surgery, Wilborn went 3-4 last season with a 7.83 ERA but was drafted largely due to his potential and velocity. His return, granted he improves as a senior, would be a boost for a starting rotation that will include Zach Osborne and Justin Robichaux. (Coach Robichaux told theadvertiser.com on Wednesday that his son would return in 2010; Osborne later told theadvertiser.com that he would be back for his senior year.)

UL is looking to rebound from a 27-30-1 season, although the Cajuns did reach a bracket final in the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

"I’m disappointed with how it (the draft) went, but I’m excited about all the guys coming back next year," Osborne told theadvertiser.com on Wednesday. "I think we’re going to turn everything around."

With Wilborn going in the 18th round, UL saw its streak of consecutive years with at least one drafted player extended to 28.

But the one drafted player was the program’s fewest in a single year since 1998, when B.J. Ryan was a 17th-rounder by the Cincinnati Reds. It comes on the 20th anniversary of the Cajuns having a school-record six players drafted in 1989, a mark equaled again in 2000.

"If some of our guys had prostituted themselves we would have had more guys drafted," coach Robichaux said. "But as coaches, we wanted to make sure that our players didn’t give up their final year of college for a $2,000 signing bonus.

"As a head coach, you want your guys to be drafted. But sometimes when the draft doesn’t work out it can be a benefit for them and the team to play one more year."

The only other players from the area drafted on Wednesday were freshmen Joey Bourgeois and Zach Kirksey from LSU-Eunice, which advanced to the NJCAA Division II World Series this year.

Bourgeois, a righty from Lutcher High, got picked up in the 39th round by the Atlanta Braves. He posted a 12-2 mark this past season with a 5.90 ERA in 15 starts.

Kirksey, a left fielder from West Monroe High, went in the 41st round to the Toronto Blue Jays. This year he hit .370 with nine triples, 10 home runs and 66 RBIs.