Friday, September 26, 2008

Number 100 & We Almost Couldn't Hear It


This evening was the very first time Sohna and I had the opportunity to listen to Charlie Slowes & Dave Jageler on 1500 AM--
WFED--since Bonneville Communications removed Our Washington Nationals from 107.7 FM. To say the least, this new arrangement is UNACCEPTABLE!! From our home in Alexandria, Virginia--we can barely hear the signal properly. Echos and Constant Noises--many times The African Queen and I felt like we were listening to Charlie & Dave from a bunker in Afghanistan.

Honestly, it was that bad.

If Bonneville signed a contract with Our Washington Nationals to broadcast the games on 1500 AM and 107.7 FM, among other affiliates for the 2008 Season, what gives Bonneville the right to arbitrarily remove Washington Broadcasts from the air and put them, as a fall back, on WFED ONLY--when the current season has yet to be completed?

Seems like a breech of contract to me?

Our Washington Nationals need to solve this issue over the off-season. Charlie & Dave need a strong FM Signal to broadcast their games. There is no way Washington Fans throughout the Greater DC Area can not hear the radio play-by-play properly. This is not 1968, but 2008. The time of Digital Communications. Our Washington Nationals should not be regulated to the bygone days of AM Radio Only.

If Bonneville has breeched the contract, then Our Washington Nationals should have the right to shop their broadcasts elsewhere. Nothing less is acceptable. Whether another strong FM Signal might be available--is the other question.

Of course considering the outcome of tonight's game at Citizens Bank Park, maybe The African Queen and I were lucky the 1500AM signal was so weak in our home. Facing a loud, hostile and close to Division Championship Wanting Crowd in South Philadelphia, Our Number 40 got whacked. No one for The Phillies doing more damage than Ryan Howard. The Former NL MVP knocking a three run homer and rbi double, giving The Home Side an early 7-1 lead that Washington could never fight back from. What made the early deficit so frustrating was watching Balester serve Howard low in the strike zone fastballs and breaking pitches. The very pitches Ryan can hammer. Maybe his command was off, maybe he just had a bad night. Maybe his September call up catcher, Luke Montz, didn't fully understand the game plan, but Collin needs to either throw the ball in the dirt or pound Howard with letter high fastballs. Ryan Howard has never been able to consistently hit those pitches.

What Balester threw him--Howard crushed--even into a stiff wind blowing from centerfield to rightfield.

Hopefully, Collin Balester learned a lesson tonight. He didn't look good, under pressure, in a playoff environment.

Now behind by six runs before the second inning was even completed--Washington attempted to get back into the game. A two run 5th and a Kory Casto Home Run to right field was simply not enough--even after Our Number 5's shot was the very first Homer subjected to Instant Replay by The Umpires. With the naked eye, it was unclear whether a fan leaning over the railing had interfered with the hit ball. After a short delay, The Umpires ruled the fan did not touch the ball until after the baseball had gone over the right field wall. Casto awarded his 2nd Homer of 2008.

A then 7-4 score that never became closer as a fervent Home crowd--waving their White Rally Towels all night long--did all they could to cheer their Phillies to victory. An eventual win, combined with a New York Mets loss to Florida at Shea Stadium this evening that sets up Citizens Bank Park tomorrow afternoon as a possible clinching date of the NL East Title. The Mets play at 1PM. The Phillies at 3:55PM. The African Queen and I are going to be in The Lion's Den in South Philly tomorrow. Experience tells us it's not going be easy rooting for Our Washington Nationals. But, unquestionably, it's going to be very, very interesting. At least for us, we are going down fighting as the season comes to an end.

As Sohna said tonight as we watched the Game on MASN, while attempting to listen to Charlie & Dave on 1500AM: Can you imagine what Nationals Park will be like when we are that close to winning a title? Yes, she is right. The thrill of it all would be mighty exciting and make all the experiences we lived through in 2008 and beforehand--all the more worthwhile. A High Time we hope comes more sooner than later.

Final Score from a ROCKING Citizens Bank Park, The Philadelphia Phillies 8 and Our Washington Nationals 4. Washington reaching the century mark in losses in 2008. Now 41 Games Below .500, a Moment In Time no one following Baseball In Washington really wanted to see.

No one--no matter the circumstances.

But The African Queen and I would still have enjoyed LISTENING to this affair (with the TV sound turned down) with Charlie & Dave coming in crystal clear on the radio. No Away Game of Our Washington Nationals is worth paying attention to without Two Of The Finest Radio Broadcasters in the game calling the Play-By-Play. Which had Sohna and I laughing over the quandry: So, if we couldn't hear them, as hard as we tried--did this loss really take place?

Game Notes & Highlights

Lastings Milledge once again had me shaky my head over a defensive decision. As Emilio Bonifacio drifted back for a pop up by Reigning NL MVP Jimmy Rollins, Our Number 44 called for the ball in the bottom of the 4th inning. With Emilio seconds away from making the catch--Milledge's yells for the ball forced Our Number 7 to drift away from the falling hit. Only to see Lastings DIVE FOR THE BALL AT THE LAST MOMENT. Like--say what? Lastings, if you are calling for the ball, you better have the catch under control--not sending another fielder away that already had the ball in sight--easily. The Result--Lastings Milledge missed the ball and Rollins ended up on second base. He didn't eventually score--but the misplay was just awful. There is no excuse for bad communication this late in the season.

Manny also had me wondering in the 7th. With Michael Hinckley in trouble, Our Manager came out to remove him from the game. The Phillies had runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs. Our Number 58 had just recorded that second out on a ground ball by Shane Victorino. A potential 6-4-3 Double Play Ball that was foiled when Philadelphia's Eric Brunlett took out Bonifacio at second base. A good, clean play.

With the lefthanded Greg Dobbs stepping to the plate, Our Number 14 removed Hinckley from the game--knowing full well The Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel would counter with a right handed hitter--Pedro Feliz. This was a three run game at that time. Hinckley had yet to allow one single run in his previous 12 appearances in The Majors. A Perfect Record.

Why trust the situation to "The Human Rain Delay"? Why send Jesus Colome to the mound to relieve Michael Hinckley? Would it not be better to see if this youngster can find a way out of a situation of his own doing? Why not let Our Number 58 grow up on the job? This is what September is about for teams out of contention.

The fact that Hinckley was unscored upon hopefully was not a factor. But I am not sure. But I would have loved to ask Manny that question. Especially after "The Human Rain Delay" threw a rising fastball that Luke Montz could not handle. A passed ball that officially gave Michael his first run scored against--although an unearned one. Still, I would have enjoyed more seeing Our Number 58 working himself out of his own trouble--facing the heart of The Phillies Lineup. Experience he could harness for situations to come later, in his burgeoning career.

Luke Montz would knock in his first RBI of his Major League Career. A two out single to left in the top of the 2nd that scored Elijah Dukes from third with Washington's First Run of the evening. Cristian Guzman had another two hit night. But with Ryan Zimmerman still out of the lineup recovering from Flu Symptoms--few others could pick up for his loss.

Of course, Collin Balester had put Washington in a Big Hole with his worst start of his young career. 1.2 innings pitched allowing 7 runs on 7 hits and one walk. When Manny took that slow stroll out to the mound to replace Balester with Jason Bergmann, you could see the frustration on Balester's Face as Our Number 14 simply took the ball from his hand. As Collin slowly walked away, he looked dejected--knowing A Huge Phillie Home Crowd would be cheering him lustily for his mistakes--all the way to the clubhouse. Not a good feeling that must have been.

Finally, interesting that Manny Acta announced to the media covering Our Team this afternoon that changes are a coming within Our Coaching Staff for 2009. The shakeup is about to be announced. A not unexpected move after a new manager usually gets his say on his own people for the first year or two of his reign. You have to figure that Pitching Coach Randy St.Claire is safe. I can't say for 100% who else may be.

Tonight's InGame Photos--(AP) H. Rumph, Jr.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

SBF said...Finally, interesting that Manny Acta announced to the media covering Our Team this afternoon that changes are a coming within Our Coaching Staff for 2009. The shakeup is about to be announced. A not unexpected move after a new manager usually gets his say on his own people for the first year or two of his reign. You have to figure that Pitching Coach Randy St.Claire is safe. I can't say for 100% who else may be.

I think Manny needs a "bad cop" to go with himself as the "good cop" at his Bench Coach position.

We don't need a bunch of "yes" men to surround ourselves with.

I think this current roster is more coachable since August 1st, but can't stop thinking of the many players that lacked good fundamentals in 2008 with baserunning, angles to balls, and bunting. Plate discipline improved dramatically the last 2 months.

Lenny Harris had a much better 2nd half of the season and you have to believe he is still on the hot seat.

I think Tim Tolman did a good job at 3rd base and Rick Aponte in the bullpen did a good job in preparation.

I wonder if there will be changes with the training staff?

Anonymous said...

Before I turned on the debate on TV, I tried to listen to the game on 1500 AM. I've never been able to get 107.7 FM from my home in Arlington, so I've been listening to the Nats on 1500 AM. The signal has been bad before, (buzzing, cutting in and out) but I've usually been able to hear the game. Tonight I was hearing contention from another program somewhere else.

I agree, this situation ABSOLUTELY needs to be resolved.

As far as the plate discipline, I have to wonder if bringing in Rick Epstein in August has something to do with it. I certainly got tired of watching hitters approach the plate with no apparent plan and going after the first pitch in the early part of the season -- I was happy to see more longer at bats from our hitters in August and September.

Edward J. Cunningham said...

On the Sports Reporters, Thom Loverro was asking why the Nats were not broadcast on 3XESPN. He seemed to think the obstacle was the Nats not wanting to pay the station as much as the Orioles. Dan Snyder's station would certainly be a higher profile, and the only weakness is that with Big 100 back to playing music all the time, Red Zebra does NOT have a strong FM station. (Their two FM stations are better than 1500 AM, though.)

My other suggestion would be WJFK. What does that station broadcast in the evening? The Jim Rome show. Not exactly a ratings bonanza. And since the station only broadcasts re-runs on weekends, you can easily broadcast most games on that station without a scheduling conflict.

Are the Lerners just willing to go for any station that will pay them to broadcast games, or whichever station charges the least? If it's the latter, they need to open up their wallets because it is unacceptable that the Orioles WHO ARE NOT A HOME TEAM are broadcast on a stronger, more higher-profile station than the Nats.

If the Nats were on WJFK, I believe the strong line-up ahead of them can give the team a good lead-in going into the games. I don't know if the Nats front office reads this blog, but the fans have to let the team know this is unacceptable.

Edward J. Cunningham said...

One more thing. If the Orioles have an affiliate in Washington and we are not allowed to black them out, then the Nationals should get an affiliate in Baltimore. It doesn't matter if no station there wants us---PAY FOR THE AIRTIME. If somebody from the Orioles say that is in violation of their territorial rights, RAISE A G-D STINK!!! Orioles fans should have to tune their radios to a Baltimore station or buy satellite radio to listen to the Birds. This is NOT their market anymore!

Edward J. Cunningham said...

One more thing about Bonneville. This is the network that thinks it's news stations are too good to broadcast sports. They kicked off the Orioles years ago even though their equivalent station in New York broadcasts Yankees games. They refused to use their good FM station 103.5 to broadcast our games and is taking their second station away.

What is this rambling leading up to? Never mind about just finding a new radio affiliate for Washington, D.C. GET THAT WTOP BANNER OUT OF NATIONALS PARK NEXT YEAR!!!

JayB said...

"There is no excuse for bad communication this late in the season".....Indeed, but there is a reason....Manny Acta and his coaching staff is the reason. Finally after two years of amateur hour at 3rd and at Hitting Coach we will be getting some accountability. But it all starts at the Top on a coaching staff. Acta has allowed the team to get worse in basic baseball fundamentals not better in the tenure.

Yes ABM will bellow on about how it is not Acta’s fault but rather the players, and that I expect perfection…..but more and more people around the league, the team and this blog are coming to terms with the facts that have been there all year. This was a very poor job of coaching by Acta and his staff. Queue ABM that he did not pick the staff……the excuses never end with the Nats and ABM do they?

Anonymous said...

jayb - Manny now has a coachable team and he seems to have control now.

I judge Manny and his coaching staff before/after August 1st and it is like 2 different teams.

The W/L record will be how people that don't know the team will judge you ultimately, but we all know that with the injuries that crippled this team the W/L record does not tell the whole story.

The Nats employed a real outfield instructor to work with the OFs on their fundamentals which still needs improvement.

Whether it was Lenny Harris or Rick Eckstein, plate discipline has improved.

Our bullpen has been much better prepared when they enter the game.

Baserunning mistakes are better but still not great and the bunting is marginally better. Bonifacio shows bunt but never lays one down. This has to improve.

Tim Tolman has improved at 3rd base and I think he deserves another year.

Since Manny said "changes" and not "change" I am thinking he will make 2 or more moves.

Like I said, I would start with the training staff and go from there.

In my mind, Manny Acta gets a B+ since August 1st and I am very happy about the turnaround.

Anonymous said...

Andrew, what grade would you give him for March-July? What would you give Acta for a Final Grade? I agree things improved and the trend was up but not steeply, just marginally up.

With Lopez my grade was F for Acta.

Post Lopez my grade is a C for Acta

Full Year my grade is a D + for Acta

As I have written many times.....I can live with Acta for next year....IF, he gets a wake up call from Ownership, that is, improve the quality of baseball fundamentals, hustle and manage to win games not protect egos.

My personal choice would to fire the whole staff, including training staff (strongly agree with you here). Start fresh with a new attitude and higher expectations that 'learning the game at the MLB level'. This time do not hire the cheapest interviewee, but the best manager and coaching staff money can buy.

Anonymous said...

Anon said...As I have written many times.....I can live with Acta for next year....IF, he gets a wake up call from Ownership, that is, improve the quality of baseball fundamentals, hustle and manage to win games not protect egos.

The hustle factor now is incredible. I love Bonifacio's hustle on routine ground balls. If we can get the whole team running on to the field together when they leave the dugout to take the field that will be nice to see in 2009.

Highlight---management did a great job to difuse the whole Elijah Dukes "blowing the kiss" issue.

Since you asked, Manny's grade pre Aug 1st would be C-.

Anonymous said...

I agree with all the frustration about the radio signal. I live in the District and was never able to get a clear FM signal at my home.

My solution was listening to 3WT via Gameday Audio. It was $14.95 for the season, if I recall correctly.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for advocating for a better radio situation in 2009. I'm in northern Virginia and can barely pick up a scratchy signal from 1500 AM at night, and that is using a portable world-band radio and constantly manipulating it. I need my Charlie and Dave fix!!

Anonymous said...

Also agree re. losing the WTOP banner.

Anonymous said...

Since they dropped the 107.7 station, we can't even hear Manny's interview after the game, several times we had ads for the WFED stuff voiced over Manny and the call in show.
I'm wondering how long it will be until someone writes a story about what the Nationals would have been like if ownership had gone to one of the other bidders.

Chris Needham said...

1500 was bleeding over for me on the radio yesterday too. Sounded like the debate was running over it on a close station in the Shirlington area.

I'm pretty sure that the team still buys the airtime for the radio. I know that was the case the first few years, at least. Doing that allows them to pocket all the ad revenue, instead of having to split it. Besides, with the ratings they get, buying airtime can't be that expensive! ;)

paul said...

Weird. 1500 AM is one of the stronger signals up and down the east coast. I have picked it up from Maine to NC. Perhaps there is some interference in your apartment, or is the Pentagon somehow in the way?

Also the weather might have been a factor. Whenever the weather is clear the radio reception is better.

I'm also curious about your total defection from Bob & Don, willing to even listen to a scratchy Charlie and Dave. Let's run another post on the TV commentators sometime.

Speaking of weather, good luck today with sitting in the rain.

Anonymous said...

As I understand it, the 1500 signal is directional at night to avoid interfering with another station. While it can be picked up far north and south, for some DC Metro area locations (such as mine) reception is quite poor.

Edward J. Cunningham said...

Both the Nats and the O's spend money (rather than receive it) to broadcast their games in the Washington area. The Orioles are willing to spend more, so they are broadcast on the only sports station in the D.C. area. What does this tell Joe Blow who is channel surfing on his radio?

It's one thing to decide that it isn't worth it to outbid the Cubs for Alfonso Soriano. But it's another trying to shop the radio rights to the cheapest bidder. What happens if the Nats become a pennant contender but nobody gets on the bandwagon because they can't hear the games?

I think if the Nats are willing to up the ante, they can kick the Orioles off 3XESPN. Either that, or they can go to WJFK and have their games follow the Mike O'Meara show. The Terps are broadcast on WJFK, so it's a station that sports fans know about.

What's clear is that Bonneville doesn't want us. Why should we want Bonneville?

Anonymous said...

EJC said...It's one thing to decide that it isn't worth it to outbid the Cubs for Alfonso Soriano. But it's another trying to shop the radio rights to the cheapest bidder.

You are misinformed again. The same group that was outbid for Soriano wasn't the same group shopping the radio rights!

The Lerner Group had nothing to do with the current radio deal.

The radio deal just like MASN was negotiated prior to MLB selling the team.

On January 19, 2006, Bonneville got the radio rights to the Nationals games in a 3 year deal.

Anonymous said...

Andrew - You are probably aware that the current radio deal has also already been extended with Bonneville for 2009 and 2010 so we are stuck for a while longer and Lerner is working on upgrades to the content.

Edward wants to paint a picture that Lerner should be blamed for everything from Hot Dog vendor employees to radio as the choices for radio are very limited. Just ask Dan Snyder as he found with the Redskins so Dan bought his own stations.

Most teams either get paid by the radio stations or buy the time block and get to keep the ad revenue or some other type of combination that can make money or lose money unlike the typical local TV deals. You could definitely do a lot worse than 1500AM which is the strongest AM signal in most of the listening area except as you approach 395 in Virginia and some other pockets.

Here we are at the end of the season and don't you wish Edward J. Cunningham could get something written without his BS added. Tell the truth and don't write what you know nothing about.

Anonymous said...

I come from Cincy where the Reds are on 700 WLW which is a AM station with limited range. I think if you go through the list of most MLB teams, it is AM slim pickens for radio coverage.

The Reds pay WLW for time slots and then get control over the hiring of their broadcasters and the Reds get almost entirely full rights and revenue then to sell all advertising for the pregame, in-game and for the postgame.

Edward is mistaken on going for the cheapest deal rather you go for the best deal and hopefully make money which is also a function of how good the team is and how much of the geographic area is reached. Check your Arbitron ratings. For most sports teams, they would rather have advertising go to radio than to TV.

I live in northern Maryland and the signal is very strong and could hear Charlie and Dave well.

Edward J. Cunningham said...

The Lerner Group had nothing to do with the current radio deal.

The radio deal just like MASN was negotiated prior to MLB selling the team.

On January 19, 2006, Bonneville got the radio rights to the Nationals games in a 3 year deal.


Andrew, please accept my apologies. Like SBF, I feel frustrated and I believe the Nats should be on a higher-profile radio station in D.C., even if costs a little more.

Edward is mistaken on going for the cheapest deal rather you go for the best deal and hopefully make money which is also a function of how good the team is and how much of the geographic area is reached.

I wasn't advocating going for the cheapest deal. I believe I was arguing that in the long-term, it may be better for the Nats to pay a bit more to get on a higher-profile station.

The Reds pay WLW for time slots and then get control over the hiring of their broadcasters and the Reds get almost entirely full rights and revenue then to sell all advertising for the pregame, in-game and for the postgame.


Would switching to 3XESPN or WJFK mean relinquishing control of their rights, including advertizing?

Here we are at the end of the season and don't you wish [Screech's Best Friend] could [post] something written without [Eddie's] BS added. Tell the truth and don't write what you know nothing about.

I was expressing the same frustration in my reply that SBF did with his blog entry. Sorry if I offended you, but if baseball fans never wrote about anything except subjects which they were completely knowledgable about without any errors, there would hardly be any traffic on the MLB boards.

Anonymous said...

EJC - As DCBATGIRL said, you can buy the radio feed for the season on MLB GameDay Audio and if you have XM Radio you can get radio feeds too.

Other than the obvious Orioles fans on here I think we all have a common bond with the Nationals.

Yes, it can be frustating at times like in today's game where we lost by 1 run, but there is some real promise in the future.

Manny Acta made a great quote today,
"Losing brings out bad characters. It's very easy for some of you (members of the media) to hide behind guys named sources, think tank, an opposing scout, a National League top executive and an official. I don't believe most of those comments, because any one of you guys can hide behind any of those guys. It's an old trick."


Edward, at least you sign with your real name and not hiding behind the "Anonymous".

I believe support from the fanbase is imperative for future success. So much of the extreme negativity gets contagious and takes away from the great Blog that SBF and the AQ have provided for us.

Anonymous said...

EJC said...Would switching to 3XESPN or WJFK mean relinquishing control of their rights, including advertizing?

The Nationals are most likely stuck with their contractual 2009-2010 radio deal and hopefully by the end of the 2010 season some other opportunity opens up.

Anonymous said...

The whole radio mess is a Bonneville decision. They pulled the plug on 3WT and decided to invest their resources (and strongest frequencies) in WTOP. The Nats were a casualty of that decision, as well as the Caps and the various college sports that
3WT carried. On the bright side, it looks like there will be changes before next season. Charlie mentioned that they got a lot of complaints/questions at the STH picnic and he said on air that there are plans to add another frequency next season to compensate for the loss of 107.7 in the western part of the metro area. Not a done deal yet, but Charlie sounded pretty confident about it. The only FM frequency I can think of off the top of my head that really covers the western part of the area is 92.5, so we'll see what happens...

Anonymous said...

Good news, Brian. Thanks for reporting it.

Anonymous said...

Seattle won!!!! If the Nats lose tomorrow, the Nats officially win the Strassburg sweepstakes!

Anonymous said...

I agree with Paul here. I also thought that 1500 AM was one of those "clear channel" stations that don't have frequencies nearby to interfere with the transmission. As a kid in the Bay Area, I used to listen to Vin Scully doing night ballgames from Los Angeles. Perhaps the rules have changed on these stations though. See this entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clear_channel

Living in Maryland, I had not realized how important the 107.7 frequency was to you folks in Northern Virginia. But I'm sure that Bonneville had to know, so there is no excuse for this!

In any case, Friday's game was on MASN-HD as well as over the air Channel 20-HD. So, why not just listen to the TV broadcast?

Anonymous said...

Homework time again!!!!

Stephen Strasburg. In the past 20 years, the only Hall of Fame calibre players picked with the #1 overall have been Chipper Jones and ARod and there are several All Stars and several busts.

Here's your list of all the other overall #1 picks in the past 20 years:

Ben McDonald in 1989
Brien Taylor 1991
Phil Nevin 1992
Paul Wilson 1994
Darin Erstad 1995
Kris Benson 1996
Matt Anderson 1997
Pat Burrell 1998
Josh Hamilton 1999
Adrian Gonzalez 2000
Joe Mauer 2001
Bryan Bullington 2002
Delmon Young 2003
Matthew Bush 2004
Justin Upton 2005
Luke Hochevar 2006
David Price 2007
Tim Beckham 2008

What is it with #1 overall picks at pitcher. Outside of Andy Benes in 1988 who was a 1 time All Star pitcher, the history of pitchers at #1 is horrific. Seems that position players have done well in the #1 picks.

Time will tell with David Price and Luke Hochevar and possibly Stephen Strasburg!

Anonymous said...

Here is a listing from today of all radio stations serving each game with Home/Away radio stations.


TB @ DET WHNZ WXYT WGES

FLA @ NYM WAXY WFAN WQBA WADO

NYY @ BOS WCBS WRKO WNSW SBN

TOR @ BAL FAN WHFS


WSH @ PHI WWWT WPHT SBN WUBA

ATL @ HOU WGST KTRH VIVA KLAT

CHC @ MIL WGN WTMJ WRRD

CLE @ CWS WTAM WSCR

KC @ MIN KCSP TRN KMNV
CIN @ STL WLW KTRS

TEX @ LAA KRLD KLAA KFLC KWKW


LAD @ SF KABC KNBR KHJ KLOK

PIT @ SD WPGB XPRS XEMO
COL @ ARI KOA KTAR KSUN

OAK @ SEA KFRC KOMO FSN

NYY @ BOS WCBS WRKO WNSW SBN

Anonymous said...

Here are the USA Olympic team final stats:

http://web.usabaseball.com/news/stats.jsp?ymd=20080823&content_id=35130&vkey=recap_usab&gid=2008/08/23/jpnint-usaint-1

Stephen Strasburg is a strikeout machine but is he a sure thing at the #1 pick?

Baseball America's Top 25 College/High School Players

1. Stephen Strasburg rhp Jr. San Diego State

2. Alex White rhp Jr. North Carolina

3. Grant Green ss Jr. Southern California

4. Dustin Ackley 1b/of Jr. North Carolina

5. Mike Minor lhp Jr. Vanderbilt

6. Kendal Volz rhp Jr. Baylor

7. Kyle Gibson rhp Jr. Missouri

8. Andrew Oliver lhp Jr. Oklahoma State

9. Kentrail Davis of So. Tennessee

10. Blake Smith of/rhp Jr. California

11. Mike Leake rhp Jr. Arizona State

12. Jason Stoffel rhp Jr. Arizona

13. Jared Mitchell of Jr. Louisiana State

14. Ryan Jackson ss Jr. Miami

15. Ben Tootle rhp Jr. Jacksonville State

16. D.J. LeMahieu ss So. Louisiana State

17. A.J. Pollock of/2b Jr. Notre Dame

18. Brett Jackson of Jr. California

19. Matt den Dekker of Jr. Florida

20. Tyler Lyons lhp Jr. Oklahoma State

21. Jeff Inman rhp Jr. Stanford

22. Brad Stillings rhp Jr. Kent State

23. Shawn Tolleson rhp R-So. Baylor

24. Robbie Shields ss/2b Jr. Florida Southern

25. Ben Paulsen 1b Jr. Clemson
And then high school …

1. Tyler Matzek lhp Capistrano Valley HS, Mission Viejo, Calif.

2. Donovan Tate cf Cartersville (Ga.) HS

3. Matt Purke lhp Klein HS, Spring, Texas

4. Jacob Turner rhp Westminster Christian Academy, St. Charles, Mo.

5. Mychal Givens rhp/ss Plant HS, Tampa

6. Zack Wheeler rhp East Paulding HS, Dallas, Ga.

7. Ian Krol lhp Nequa Valley HS, Naperville, Ill.

8. Luke Bailey c Troup HS, Cartersville, Ga.

9. Brian Goodwin cf Rocky Mount (N.C.) HS

10. LeVon Washington cf/2b Buchholz HS, Gainesville, Fla.

11. Bobby Borchering 1b/3b Bishop Verot HS, Alva, Fla.

12. Max Stassi c Yuba City (Calif.) HS

13. Jiovanni Mier ss Bonita HS, Pomona, Calif.

14. Chad James lhp Yukon (Okla.) HS

15. Deven Marrero ss American Heritage HS, Davie, Fla.

16. Matt Davidson 1b/3b Yucaipa (Calif.) HS

17. Austin Maddox c Eagle’s View Academy, Jacksonville, Fla.

18. Jacob Marisnick of Riverside (Calif.) Poly HS

19. Shelby Miller rhp Brownwood (Texas) HS

20. Wil Myers c/3b Wesleyan Christian Academy, Thomasville, N.C.

21. Matt Hobgood rhp Norco (Calif.) HS

22. Slade Heathcott lhp/of Texas HS, Texarkana, Texas

23. Chad Thompson rhp El Toro HS, Trabuco Canyon, Calif.

24. Keyvius Sampson rhp Ocala (Fla.) Forest HS

25. Jonathan Walsh c Coppell (Texas) HS