Dirtbags Baseball - Long Beach State 49ers

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Friday, September 17, 2004

Neil Jamison And 5 Others With NCAA Eligibility, Drafted Between the 2nd and 10th Rounds, Opt For School

It has now been more than three months since the Major Leagues conducted the 2004 First Year Player Draft, and school is back in for drafted players who did not sign and have NCAA eligibility remaining. With Neil Jamison deciding to return to Long Beach State, declining to sign with the Mets (who selected him third in the 8th round), I was curious how many other players have made the same election.

There remain six unsigned 1st round players: Justin Verlander, Philip Humber, Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend, Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew (picked 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 12th and 15th, respectively). All were college juniors last year, and since baseball is a spring sport, it is likely all could return to school if unsigned. This is highly unlikely, and has rarely occurred with 1st rounders (though Drew's older brother played independent ball and went unsigned).

Every player selected in the Supplemental 1st round, and the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds, has signed. Between the 4th and 10th rounds, there are only 16 unsigned players. Of these, 6 are high school players, 1 is a JUCO player, 1 was with the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy, and 8 are college players (2 of whom were seniors). Most (if not all) of the unsigned high school players are headed to college, and the JUCO player comes under the draft-and-follow rules. It also seems likely the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy player will end up in pro ball.

That leaves the 6 college players with remaining NCAA eligibility (links are to stories reporting their decisions to return to school):

Player         Pos. Round Taken by   College



Seth Johnson   2b   7th   Baltimore  Texas

Buck Cody      lhp  7th   St. Louis  Texas

Neil Jamison   rhp  8th   NY Mets    Long Beach State

Jimmy Shull    rhp  8th   Arizona    Cal Poly SLO

Justin Maxwell of   10th  Texas      Maryland

Steve Pearce   1b   10th  Boston     So. Carolina

Johnson and Cody are something of a mystery - I was unable to find any stories indicating whether they were going to return to school. I invite anyone with information on them to add your comments to this post.

It's interesting that both 8th rounders who declined to turn pro, Neil Jamison and Jimmy Shull, are right handed pitchers in the Big West Conference (Shull with Cal. Poly).

posted on 9/17/2004 by Jeff Agnew

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