Mammoth Blog

There is a high-profile baseball program to coach and a national championship to defend next spring and summer for LSU's Paul Mainieri.

But he's got something else to tend to now.

Mainieri spoke out Tuesday on the Major League Baseball-mandated deadline that arrived Monday and turned into a dark day for Mainieri and the Tigers program.

Monday was the final day for players drafted in the 2009 MLB draft to either agree to terms or pass up the chance to turn pro for another year.

LSU lost two more players from its 2009 recruiting class on Monday's deadline, one expectedly and the other as he was standing in line to get his ID picture taken at freshman orientation.

That player, Brody Colvin of St. Thomas More-Lafayette, was the final piece of a recruiting class that took on a different shape in the last few weeks. Colvin was the fourth LSU signee who signed with the team that drafted him, joining Chad Stang, Zack Von Rosenberg and Slade Heathcott.

The two that hurt most are Von Rosenberg and Colvin, in-state players who spoke of their desire to play for the Tigers.

As late as Monday morning, Mainieri exchanged text messages with Colvin that indicated the player was set to play for LSU. Less than three hours later, Colvin was on his way back to Lafayette after agreeing to a $900,000 signing bonus from the Philadelphia Phillies.

"Those players chose baseball over the experience at LSU," Mainieri said. "I won't belittle anybody for taking a significant signing bonus and going into pro baseball.

"I am disappointed, but we're going to win and be successful with players who want to be at LSU. We have all the pieces in place to have an outstanding team."

The occasion Tuesday was designed for Mainieri to announce the incoming 13-man recruiting class that will fill out the Tigers' 2010 roster.

But Mainieri didn't pass up the chance to voice his displeasure about the current system and vow to find a way to change it.

"I'm going to spend the next year of my life trying to get Major League Baseball to change that date," Mainieri said, later saying he planned on speaking to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig. "I hope that my status as the coach at LSU and (as) the defending national champions that maybe we have some credibility with the people in Major League Baseball -- the decision-makers -- and I can rally some of my peers and we can petition Major League Baseball to change that date to July 15." Meanwhile, the Tigers will launch defense of their national crown next week when a 34-player roster finalized after Monday's jolt.

The 13 players in the 2009 class include six freshmen and seven junior-college transfers, six pitchers and seven position players. Five of the newcomers have been drafted at least once.

That group will blend in with 21 returning players.

"I'm extremely excited about this incoming group," Mainieri said. "The class is really an outstanding class. Despite losing three of our high school signees to the major league draft, this is still an outstanding group.

"The bottom line is we are going to play with the kids who want to be at LSU. I don't belittle anybody for going into professional baseball."

The influx of junior college players is a direct result of the uncertainty of the players who were drafted. Two of the transfers, Joey Bourgeois and Trey Watkins, signed just last week.

"It's a little bit more junior-college heavy than typically we would want it to be," Mainieri said. "It wasn't exactly the way we wanted it to be, but believe me, the sky is not falling in."

The affable Mainieri bristled at the notion that the late signees were LSU's Plan B and said he doesn't regret imposing his own deadline on Heathcott, Von Rosenberg and Colvin.

Mainieri's deadline was two weeks earlier than Monday and he said he asked the players to let him know if they planned on continuing to negotiate with the clubs that drafted them or if they were ready to give their word they would head to LSU.

"I was not going to let Major League Baseball determine the fate of LSU baseball," Mainieri said. "I told the three players that by Aug. 3 either they sign professionally or decide to come to school.

"Just because they had a deadline of Aug. 17 didn't mean I had to wait until Aug. 17."

He didn't, but Colvin did. Mainieri said late last week he thought Colvin was LSU-bound, and that feeling persisted until Monday when he got a phone call to the contrary.

"Part of the job of being a college coach is handling the risk of losing players to Major League Baseball," Mainieri said. "You recruit against other schools. Then, a Major League team drafts a player and can throw as much money as they can at him. It's a real issue." source>>>