With apologies for any omissions and thanks to jjpaq for starting this list.

#8 (1) Wade Townsend (Rice) to Tampa Bay
#25 (1) Matt Garza (Fresno St.) to Minnesota
#79 (2) Brett Hayes (Nevada) to Florida
#98 (3) Josh Geer (Rice) to San Diego
#139 (4) Lance Pendleton (Rice) to NY Yankees
#199 (6) Doug Fister (Fresno St.) to NY Yankees
#236 (8) Jacob Butler (Nevada) to Toronto
#282 (9) Anthony Contreras (San Jose St.) to San Francisco
#377 (12) Rudolph Quinonez (Fresno St.) to Atlanta
#403 (13) Bryson Cox (Rice) to LA Angels
#447 (15) Travis Becktel (San Jose St.) to Colorado
#521 (17) Isaac Omura (Hawaii) to Oakland
#530 (17) Michael Cooper (Fresno St.) to St. Louis

Hey, thanks for including Rice guys on the list. Congratulations to the other WAC teams with draftees listed.

In other news, the Owls are still standing... and still wearing that WAC patch on their sleeves for another few weeks here! We knocked LSU out of their own home regional and are headed to Tulane for the superregionals this weekend. I hope Rice can continue to make the WAC (and C-USA) proud.

Hey! You're part of the family for 3 more weeks.

Great win over LSU! Congrats! Go Owls!!!

Now that we're staring at the end, it really does seem like the changes will be good for everyone...it'll certainly be a good move for Rice baseball.

More WAC picks today:

#602 (20) Ben Mummy (Nevada) to Cincinnati
#611 (20) Stephen Bryant (Hawai'i) to Oakland
#770 (25) Adam Rodgers (Rice) to St. Louis
#881 (29) Brad Kilby (San Jose St.) to Oakland

Yeah -- overall there's very little of the rancor & ill will that there seems to be in some of the other realignments (ACC/Big East/C-USA). It was just a move that made sense for the folks involved.

The move will be good for Rice baseball, though I kinda like the setup we've had in the WAC better -- home & home series, regular season is it. Tournaments can put a damper on a whole season's work (unless it's the $EC, where you don't even have to MAKE the conference tourney to get an NCAA bid. Disgusting.) Plus, a team can tear through the conference tournament, but then run out of gas when it comes NCAA time.

On the other hand, if your regular-season champ finishes, say, 2nd in the tournament, one would think it could help you get multiple bids. I hope that's how it plays out for y'all. Honestly, I think Rice leaving will be good for WAC baseball in the long run. As it stands now, the selection committee can just rubber-stamp Rice & not even look at anyone else. Next year, maybe they'll have to look more carefully at what the WAC teams have done. (I hope that didn't come across as arrogant -- I didn't mean it that way.)

Way to go Owls. Good luck and congrats! One more NC trophy wouldn't look bad in the case.

SoCalValleyDog Wrote:Way to go Owls. Good luck and congrats! One more NC trophy wouldn't look bad in the case.

Agreed. I would love to see the WAC in Omaha this year!

Quote:We knocked LSU out of their own home regional and are headed to Tulane for the superregionals this weekend.

Yeah, I'm pissed Owlzone was down. Listened to the regional games Online. Big Congrats to the Owls! Tulane this weekend will be a huuuuge task. It would be one last great accomplishment for you guys as WAC members this week if you made it to the CWS.

Thanks, y'all!

The Owlzone outage is frustrating; but some Rice folks have found their way over here in the meantime, which is nice.

2 more Owls were drafted in the late rounds:

#1245 (41) Ed Degerman (Rice) to Boston
#1420 (47) Adam Morris (Rice) to St. Louis

It was just going to bug me if I didn't finish what I started.