A big welcome to Lawrence goes out to Zac Elgie and Lee Ridenhour.  Elgie and Ridenhour were drafted in June by MLB teams.  The signing deadline ended last night at midnight eastern time.  Both Elgie and Ridenhour declined offers to play professional baseball, preferring instead to come to the University of Kansas.  This is obviously big news for the KU program.  Coach Price is in line for a big congratulations here.

Elgie might be the highest profile player to sign with KU ever.  He was taken in the 12th round by Oakland but was seen as a "first day talent" (top-6 rounds).  He fell to the 12th round due to his statement that it would take a very substantal signing bonus to coax him away from becoming a Jayhawk.  Here is an excerpt from a June Baseball America feature on Elgie:

After committing to Kansas over the winter, Elgie said he will take a wait-and-see approach to the draft.

"I'm excited about it. Like (Vistas coach Todd Larson) said, I've got a win-win situation," Elgie said. "If I don't go where I want (in the draft), I'll be at Kansas. If I get drafted and things fall my way, then I'll have the opportunity to play pro baseball.

"We have some figures and rounds in mind from what we've heard from the scouts, but we don't have our mind set on a certain round. It's more play it by ear."

Elgie estimates he has had contact with 15-20 major league scouts. He said about 10 scouts have traveled to see him in person, including representatives from the Twins, Indians, Phillies, Diamondbacks and Dodgers.

"At first it was a little overwhelming," he said. "I've grown used to it. You just have to go out there and hustle and try to sell yourself by what you do on the field. You just have to go out and play."

I'll post more information about the 2009 roster as it shapes up.  For the time being here is the fall 2008 roster, slightly revised from the version posted earlier this week.  I italicized the incoming players.  Some trimming will be necessary as NCAA D-I teams can only carry 35 man rosters.  I do not know how injuries work with NCAA rosters.  I expect some of the incoming players will redshirt.  I'll try to have this all sorted out for you by January.

Fall 2008 KU Baseball Roster (as of August 16)

No. Name Ht./Wt. Pos. Yr. Hometown/High School/Last College 30 Afenir, Buck 6-1/205 C SR Escondido, Calif./Escondido 14 Blankenship, Travis 6-2/190 LHP JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State HS/Johnson Co. CC 18 Bochy, Brett 6-2/190 RHP RS SO Poway, Calif./Poway 1 Bollman, Brett 5-9/155 RHP RS JR Broken Arrow, Okla./Claremore/Arkansas 6 Boyer, Kelson 6-4/200 RHP FR Eudora, Kan./Free State HS 21 Brunansky, Jason 5-9/180 OF FR Poway, Calif./Poway HS 23 Burk, Kevin 6-1/180 RHP FR Warrensburg, Mo./Warrensburg HS 22 Dreiling, Jordan 5-10/151 IF FR Lawrence, Kan./Free State HS 5 Elgie, Zac 6-2/195 IF FR Minot, N.D./Minot HS 43 Ellenbecker, Max 5-10/178 LHP RS JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State 40 Faunce, Nick 5-11/196 OF RS SR Eugene, Ore./South Eugene 19 Hall, Shaeffer 6-2/195 LHP JR Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit West/Jefferson County CC 33 Hart, Taylor 5-10/180 OF FR Jasper, Texas/Jasper HS 9 Heere, Brian 5-10/170 OF RS SO Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence 32 Herbst, Greg 6-5/230 IF SO San Antonio, Texas/O'Connor 4 Jakubov, Jordan 6-4/200 RHP RS FR Maize, Kan./Maize 46 Kohorst, Matt 6-1/210 RHP SO Pasadena, Calif./LaSalle HS/San Diego 20 Land, Preston 6-3/236 IF SR Greenwood, Mo./Lee's Summit 31 Lincoln, Joe 6-4/198 C SO Tipton, Iowa/Tipton HS/Maplewoods CC 36 Lisher, Brett 6-0/195 IF JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State HS/Allen County CC 25 Lytle, Casey 6-2/200 OF SO Phoenix, Ariz./Chaparral 35 Manship, Chris 6-3/215 RHP FR Cave Creek, Ariz./Cactus Shadow HS 3 Marasco, Jake 6-3/205 OF FR Wichita, Kan./Maize HS 41 Marciel, Wally 6-1/230 LHP JR Kailua, Hawaii/Iolani 24 Marcin, Thomas 6-3/204 RHP JR Huntington Beach, Calif./Edison 27 Marks, Andy 6-2/215 LHP SR St. Louis, Mo./Oakville 48 Meggison, Jared 6-3/200 RHP FR Grimes, Iowa/Dallas Center-Grimes HS 10 Murray, Colton 6-0/202 IF FR Overland Park, Kan./Olathe East HS 17 Narodowski, David 5-10/193 IF JR Vancouver, B.C.//Vernon College 34 Parrish, Phil 6-1/190 OF SO Great Falls, Mont./Russell 37 Price, Robby 5-11/176 IF JR Lawrence, Kan./Free State 28 Ridenhour, Lee 6-3/190 RHP FR Lenexa, Kan./Shawnee Mission West HS 42 Silek, Cameron 6-4/230 RHP JR San Diego, Calif.//Grossmont College 12 Slagle, Blake 6-1/190 OF RS SO St. Louis, Mo./Eureka 44 Smyth, Paul 5-11/215 RHP SR Atascadero, Calif./Atascadero 35 Sperry, Zach 6-1/190 RHP FR Arlington, Texas/Lamar 38 Stanfield, James 5-11/175 IF FR Owasso, Okla./Owasso HS 11 Taylor, Thomas 6-4/180 RHP FR Overland Park, Kan./Blue Valley West HS 26 Thoma, Zach 5-11/178 IF SO Omaha, Neb./Creighton Prep 8 Thompson, Tony 6-5/220 IF SO Reno, Nev./Galena 39 Walz, T.J. 6-0/165 RHP SO Omaha, Neb./Skutt 7 Waters, Jimmy 6-0/200 C SO Council Bluffs, Iowa/Lewis Central