2010 FOLLOW LIST

COMPILED by DAVID RAWNSLEY

STATE OVERVIEW

In mid-April, it was baseball as normal in the state of Louisiana. Despite some minor signs of trouble with its pitching staff and a somewhat-soft bottom third in the batting order, defending national champion Louisiana State was cruising along with a 32-6 record and challenging for the top spot in the national college polls.

The Tigers gave every indication of being not only legit contenders to return to Omaha, but possibly making another run to a College World Series title—the program’s seventh in the last two decades.

Since April 24, though, LSU has gone a shocking 1-11 in Southeastern Conference play and dropped out of the national rankings altogether, although it still stood at 34-18 overall with a week remaining in the regular season. The only victory in that stretch, amidst series sweeps at the hands of Florida, Mississippi and Kentucky, was an ugly 16-15 extra-inning win over Vanderbilt.

Worse yet for LSU’s post-season chances, and coincidental with the team’s downturn, is the stunning and abysmal performance of ace righthander Anthony Ranaudo, who had a fair chance of becoming the No. 1 pick in the draft at the outset of the 2010 season. With a 2-2, 9.09 record in nine starts, Ranaudo has not even been a shadow of his former self on the mound amidst speculation by scouts that he has not recovered from the stress reaction in his elbow that forced him to the sidelines for a month after his first 2010 outing.

Ranaudo has shown little or no sign of turning things around, and his performance and stuff have actually gone backwards, not forward. LSU’s pitching staff as a whole has compiled a 5.68 ERA overall, with the starters shouldering the bulk of the problems. Without a sudden reversal, the Tigers’ hopes of even reaching the eight-team SEC tournament are hanging in the balance.

As LSU goes, so generally goes the baseball fortunes of the state. Yet with the team’s sudden downturn and possible demise, as many as four other Division I schools in the state could claim to be more-representative post-season candidates than the Tigers, a testament to the depth of talent in the Louisiana college ranks this spring.

Southeastern Louisiana (39-14) has been a frequent participant in PG Crosschecker’s national Top 50 rankings this spring, mainly because of a deep pitching staff. Two other state schools, Louisiana-Lafayette (34-17) and Northwestern State (32-19), have been solid as well. Tulane (30-22), probably the second-highest profile college team in the state after LSU, features one of the state’s top college position players in sophomore third baseman Rob Segedin, but the Green Wave could also be on the outside looking in as post-season play unfolds.

Despite the formidable presence of LSU and its impressive run of success at the national level through the years, Louisiana remains just the 12^th-most productive state in terms of churning out draft picks from the state high-school ranks. Over the six-year period from 2004-09, the yield is 186.

Of the top 20-ranked college players from Louisiana for this year’s draft, just seven attended state high schools. Two of the top three prospects, Ranaudo and Segedin, came from New Jersey. Among the 41 college players ranked on the accompanying Louisiana follow list, players from 15 different states populate the list.

Meanwhile, almost every top prospect at the state’s local junior-college power, two-time former national champion No. 1 LSU-Eunice, is a home-state product.

LSU-Eunice has continued its dominance of the NJCAA Division II ranks with a season-long No. 1 ranking, but the Bengals (as differentiated from the Tigers) had a late-season slump of their own. After starting the season at 42-6, the Bengals entered regional play at 43-11. The team’s two top prospects, righthander Tony Dischler and lefthander Mitch Hopkins, attracted large crowds of scouts early in the 2010 season, but saw their potential draft slots in the top 10 rounds slide a bit during the course of the spring. With a mid-90s fastball, Dischler was envisioned as a potential second- to third-rounder at one point.

Louisiana might have had a first- or second-round pick in its high-school ranks this year were it not for the misfortune that struck Barbe High third baseman Gerin Cecchini. He went into the season as the state’s consensus top prep prospect, and still might be on draft day, depending on how scouts judge the effects of his early season torn ACL and subsequent surgery, plus how that setback will impact his signability. Cecchini, whose father Glenn is the long-time and highly-successful baseball coach at Barbe High, has committed to LSU.

With Cecchini on the sidelines for much of the spring, his teammate, first baseman/catcher Hommy Rosado, has more than stepped in to fill the breach. Rosado has committed to LSU-Eunice, but isn’t viewed in the same regard as a prospect as Cecchini.

Though two of the state’s top high-school prospects share the same team, Cecchini and Rosado have very different stories.

Rosado, who hit only three home runs as a junior while battling hamate-bone problems, blasted a state-record 27 home runs this spring, many of them of the tape-measure variety. Figuring out Rosado’s draft status is a little more difficult, though, as he is a 6-foot, righthanded hitter, not a popular draft demographic. Some scouts are enthralled with his swing and natural power, while others likely do not even have him turned in.

IN A NUTSHELL

STRENGTH: Position players with power.

WEAKNESS: High-school depth, healthy prospects.

OVERALL RATING (1-to-5 scale): 3.

BEST COLLEGE TEAM: Southeastern Louisiana.

BEST JUNIOR-COLLEGE TEAM: LSU-Eunice.

BEST HIGH SCHOOL TEAM: Catholic HS, Baton Rouge,

PROSPECT ON THE RISE: Rob Segedin, 3b, Tulane. Draft-eligible sophomore has quietly put himself into national player-of-the-year consideration (.436-14-53, 27 2B).

PROSPECT ON THE DECLINE: Anthony Ranaudo, rhp, Louisiana State. Elbow woes and subsequent performance problems have clouded both his draft status and LSU’s season.

WILD CARD: Garin Cecchini, 3b, Barbe HS. Suffered season-ending ACL injury just when solidifying top 2-3 round draft status; still might go high.

BEST OUT-OF-STATE PROSPECT, Louisiana Connection: Kevin David, c, Oklahoma State University (Attended high school in Baton Rouge).

TOP 2011 PROSPECT: Mikie Mahtook, of, Louisiana State.

TOP 2012 PROSPECT: Stryker Trahan, c, Acadiana HS, Lafayette.

HIGHEST DRAFT PICKS

Draft History: Danny Goodwin, c, Southern U. (1975, Angels/1^st round, 1^st pick); Ben McDonald, rhp, Louisiana State U. (1989, Orioles/1^st round, 1^st pick).

2006 Draft: Ryan Adams, 3b, Jesuit HS, Mandeville (Orioles/2^nd round).

2007 Draft: Brian Rike, of, Louisiana Tech (Rockies/2^nd round).

2008 Draft: Shooter Hunt, rhp, Tulane U. (Twins/1^st round, 31^st pick).

2009 Draft: Jared Mitchell, of, Louisiana State U. (White Sox/1^st round, 23^rd round).

BEST TOOLS

Best Hitter: Rob Segedin, 3b, Tulane.

Best Power: Hommy Rosado, 1b, Barbe HS.

Best Speed: Johnny Dishon, of, Louisiana State.

Best Defender: Leon Landry, of, Louisiana State.

Best Velocity: Chad Sheppard, rhp, Northwestern State.

Best Breaking Stuff: Anthony Ranaudo, rhp, Louisiana State.

TOP PROSPECTS

Full scouting reports available on players ranked on national Top 500 list (click on National Top 500)

GROUP ONE(Projected ELITE-Round Draft / Rounds 1-3)

1. ANTHONY RANAUDO, rhp, Louisiana State (Jr.)                                      National Top 250 (Rank 12)

Second elbow problem in 3 years, plus poor performance in comeback, raises big questions for clubs