Baseball: No Cajuns, only one signee picked

Kevin Foote, The Advertiser, June 9, 2013

For the first time since before even Tony Robichaux was pitching for the Ragin’ Cajuns way back in 1981, UL didn’t have a single player drafted.

While that may seem a bit unusual, or even like a negative for the program, don’t bother telling that to Robichaux.

He’s too busy jumping up and down with the thought of what could be next season.

“No doubt that it’s a good thing for our program,” Robichaux said. “We’ve got a group of holding that are holding on to something. I think the kids have seen how good they can be.”

In other words, Robichaux knows he’s got a talented team returning that pro scouts will be flocking to.

Going into the draft, the trio of Cajuns most likely to be selected were sophomore Michael Strentz, sophomore Seth Harrison and junior Dex Kjerstad.

“I’m not really surprised with Mike or Seth, because they’re just sophomores,” Robichaux said. “Dex surprised me a little bit because he’s the only true junior.

“A lot of them (scouts) got on them late. A lot of guys didn’t even have them turned in. So that’s going to really help them next year. They’ll start looking at them in August. They’ll all help each other next year. The Omaha team had seven drafted. They all helped each other.”

Both Harrison and Kjerstad are looking at offseason elbow surgeries.

“I don’t think that was a big reason,” Robichaux said. “Teams don’t even shy away from Tommy Johns for pitchers any more.”

Two reasons for no UL picks were the new slotting system in the draft, where a team’s ability to negotiate with a lower-round draft pick is greatly reduced, and the fact that UL’s young pitching staff didn’t fit into this pitcher-heavy draft.

In addition to not getting any current Cajuns selected, Robichaux and his staff only had one signee drafted in Salado, Texas right-handed pitcher Reagan Bazar, who was drafted as the 989 overall pick in the 33rd round by Pittsburgh.

There was, however, a former Cajun drafted in pitcher Caleb Kellogg. The right-hander transferred to Tampa University during the last offseason and was picked in the 17th round by Baltimore on Saturday.