This is a storied program in recent history. A lot of great draft picks, Most recently, Brett Sinkbeil (19th overall pick to Florida in 06) and last year Ross Detwiler (6th overall to Washington) but before that, you have the 2006 NL MVP and one of the best players in all of major league baseball in Ryan Howard. Kansas City boy and currently in Toronto, Shaun Marcum and also the 2003 batting title winner and 04 world series winner with Boston, Bill Mueller. All in all, they have proven to much better than most of the Big 12 in recent years as far as producing primetime baseball players and winning games. . (In the past they have taken a lot of good players from the area that KU and Mizzou and Wichita St. battle for in recruiting) This year the Jayhawks will catch Missouri St. in a "down year" as they lost a lot of players to the draft or to graduation. They have 7 freshman and 5 transfers, so this is a very freshly renovated team with a few very good players mixed in to act as the glue. Missouri St. has been playing much better and they have a few nice wins under their belt. Their weakness is definitely still their pitching. This is one of those games that KU really needs to help their RPI.

The Bears have several players with future draft possibilities.

Senior RFer Nolan Keane. Keane is a power hitting lefty that hit .314 with 9HR and 32RBI last season. This year he is at .352 with 3HR and 31RBI. He too has a shot to be drafted in the middle rounds with his nice bat. I will be watching him to see if he has any pop or if hes just a hit-for-average type player. I will also be curious to see his arm.

Another senior is CFer Ben Woodbury. Woodbury is a very tough out who very rarely strikes out. Last year he hit .309 and showed a great knack for getting on base with his strike zone discipline. He is tearing it up this year batting .412 with 25RBI and only 7 strikeouts. Woodbury is someone I would not want to pitch against and because of his on-base abilities; he has a chance to be drafted in the upper-middle rounds. I think he is one of the top 20 outfielders in the country this year and I will be watching closely to see if his skills will translate to a higher draft pick, possibly in the 5th-10th round area.

Another player that is having a great year is Junior 3B Brayden Drake. * Drake is hitting .379 with 5HR and 38rbi this year with 13 K's and 4 walks. I think he may have some hidden power potential as he has 12 doubles to go along with the 5 homeruns. He also has some speed with 8 steals. If he can keep it up, i can definitely see Drake getting drafted fairly early this summer, possibly as high as the 5th round. I will be interested to see if he has a powerful swing and how his defense looks.

Sophomore *1B Ben Carlson ( a Topeka kid) is batting .413 with 10hr and 39rbi. He has exploded onto the scene and is making a serious case to be a top 3 rounds type guy. He does have 22 strikeouts to along with only 10 walks but with his average and power, i still think he has some good things to offer at the next level. I cant wait to see his swing.

Senior catcher Kyle Paul Paul batted .323 with 4HR and 37RBI last year and destroyed KU pitching. Thus far he has been limited and is batting .327 in only 49 at-bats. Im not sure if he is injured or what is the cause of his lack of at bats. He was drafted in the 41st round in 2006 and he had a chance to get chosen in the top 10 rounds after an improved season. Good catchers that can hit are very hard to come by.

(FUN FACT: Junior OFer Ryan Mantle is a 3rd cousin to Mickey Mantle)

So as you can see, they have plenty of bats and will score plenty of runs. The problem and the question marks are with the pitching. As of right now we will be facing Tyler Ryun who is a freshman and has only started 1 game. Their 3 main starters wont be used today.

Sophomore Tim Clubb beat KU easily last year. Clubb went 6-3 last year with a 4.07 ERA as a freshman. With the loss of so much of their staff, he automatically becomes the ace but for good reason. Clubb is a very good pitcher and thus far this year he has a 2.73 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 56 innings pitched. To go along with that he only has 18 walks but has given up 51 hits. This tells me he is a control pitcher and may be hittable but he keeps the damage at a minimum.

Another prospect would be Sophomore Buddy Baumann who is a 5'10", 175 pound strikeout pitcher and has 49K's in 39.2 innings pitched. He does run into trouble however and has a 5.67 ERA. He has given up 22 walks and 44 hits.

They also have Freshman Aaron Meade from Rockhurst in KC who is a very talented pitcher with a 5.67 ERA and 44K's in 39.2 innings. Meade has 22 walks and has given up 38 hits.

Matt Frevert 6'1, 205, Junior RHP is the closer and has put up great numbers so far this year. In 18.1 innings he has struck out 23, walked 15 and given up 17 hits with an ERA of 3.93. Frevert looks like he may have some control issues at times, but manages to succeed at getting out of his troubles. We may get to see him pitch tonight.

So while the pitching is thin, it appears they have reloaded and will be back to a power in the next year or so. Im hoping KU can catch them while they are down and before their pitchers can settle in.