re: MLB draft winners and losers from perfectgame.org

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Biggest Winner From Signing Deadline Day: LSU

Assuming UCLA can’t reel in Aiken and Nix, Louisiana State looks like a strong bet to top Baseball America’s annual recruiting class rankings this fall. LSU landed a whopping eight recruits who ranked in the BA 500, more than any other school; UCLA would also have eight if both Aiken and Nix show up, but LSU has the deeper class.

“I think this class is a difference-making class, particularly because of the arms, but even the position players—we’ve got frontline guys across the board,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said.

The Tigers landed one of the nation’s top recruits in lefthander Mac Marshall (No. 57 on the BA 500), the third-highest ranked player who did not sign with a pro team, behind only Aiken and North Carolina recruit Jacob Bukauskas (No. 33). If Aiken and Nix don’t go to UCLA, LSU will also have the highest-drafted freshman to attend a D-I school in 11th-rounder Jake Latz (No. 208).

The Tigers did very well in the Midwest with this class, landing Latz, his Lemont High catcher Mike Papierski (411) and righthander Jake Godfrey (130) from the state of Illinois, plus power righty Alex Lange (333) from Missouri. Latz, like Marshall, can reach 92 (or even a tick better) from the left side, while Godfrey and Lange have each bumped 94 from the right side, as has Louisiana’s Austin Bain (452). Some of those arms are more polished than others, but Marshall had some of the most advanced feel for pitching in the high school class, and Mainieri is excited about righthander Doug Norman, a sleeper who knows how to pitch and can bump 90-91.

Marshall and Norman both decommitted from Georgia after the Bulldogs made a coaching change, and LSU pounced. They were similarly opportunistic this spring when Godfrey failed to meet the academic standards at Notre Dame and was released from his letter of intent. It came down to LSU and Vanderbilt for Godfrey, who struggled through much of the spring but turned the corner late in the spring, flashing the kind of power stuff that had made him one of the top prep prospects in the Midwest last summer. The Tigers scored a late coup by snagging him.
Mac Marshall

But LSU’s biggest prize was Marshall, who wanted $1.65 million to turn down the Tigers. He turned down a bonus offer of about $1 million on draft day, causing him to slip to the 21st round, where he was drafted by the Astros. When Aiken’s physical caused Houston to reduce its offer to the No. 1 overall pick, the club hoped to use its extra savings to make a run at Marshall, leading to some anxious days last week for Mainieri. Marshall had “pretty much resolved himself” to go to LSU after he slipped in the draft, according to Mainieri, and he enrolled in summer school, where he and a number of his fellow incoming freshmen started the bonding process.

“So Marshall’s here, and all of a sudden this controversy happens with Brady Aiken and the alleged elbow issue, and all of a sudden the Astros circle around and start talking to him again,” Mainieri said. “So it was a tough thing for the kid, he was all set to go to LSU, then all of a sudden there’s a chance they might give him what he was asking for. Then on Friday, everybody’s sitting on pins and needles, not just me but Mac. I’m sure Mac had a myriad of emotions. Part of him I’m sure was hoping they’d call and offer him what he wanted, and part of him was hoping to go to LSU.

“People call me and say, ‘Congratulations, you got Mac.’ It’s hard to celebrate; I don’t want to celebrate at the disappointment of the kid. But at the end of the day I think this will be the best thing for Mac. I think he’ll develop under (pitching coach) Alan Dunn’s tutelage. And in three years, we think he’s going to be a special guy.”

The switch-hitting Papierski is one of several exciting position players in this class, along with powerful infielder Greg Deichmann (404), athletic infielder Grayson Byrd (479), and gritty identical twins Beau and Bryce Jordan. This class has it all; power, athleticism, up-the-middle talent, polished arms ready to compete immediately for rotation spots and projectable arms with serious upside. The LSU recruiting coordinator who built this class, Javi Sanchez, left the coaching profession this summer to pursue other opportunities back home in Miami, but Mainieri said this class will be his lasting legacy at LSU. He said it compares well with LSU’s watershed classes in 2007 and 2010, which both ranked No. 2 in the nation and made huge impacts on the program.

“I give so much of the credit to Javi,” Mainieri said. “He’s leaving to get out of coaching and get into the business world, and this is kind of his parting gift to LSU baseball, to orchestrate this recruiting class. So many of them thought so much of Javi, it was a big part of the reason they wanted to come here.”

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