- Cubs select Jeff Samardzija in the 5th round. This ends Samardzija's baseball career at ND, but he's said several times that he will return for his senior football season. Rumor has it that Cubs GM Jim Hendry, good friend of ND manager Paul Manieri, will offer the Shark "first round money" in an attempt to persuade him to go baseball-only. Regardless, Samardzija will play this summer in Boise or Peoria. Boise, the Cubs short-season Class A team, starts play June 19. Peoria is Chicago's full season Low-A affiliate, and it would be relatively close to home (Valparaiso, IN) and school. Coincidentally, the Indians assigned the collegiately seasonedChris Niesel to Low-A Lake County to start his professional career. Samardzija's press conference is available on UND.com.
- Padres select Craig Cooper in the 7th round. Cooper, ND's leadoff hitter and first baseman, led the Big East by hitting .425 this year. He also led the team by a large margin in several categories: 79 runs (runner up: 46), 97 hits (68), 9 HR (6), 149 total bases (107), .654 slugging % (.525), .522 OBP (.441).
- Twins select Jeff Manship in the 14th round. Manship, a junior, said before the draft that he would return to ND if he wasn't taken in the first three rounds, so that may be the reason he went relatively late. Of course, he did miss the 2004 season after Tommy John surgery. Then again, Tommy John is as vogue as elbow guards these days, so that shouldn't be too much of a red flag.
- Tigers select Tom Thornton in the 21st round. The lefty went 7-3 for the Irish this year with 2 complete games.
- Toronto selects Greg Lopez in the 33rd round. G-Lo was a two-year captain for the Irish. The infielder, who started at shortstop this year, hit .305 on the season.
- They're endorsed by Fred McGriff!
- For those of you who forgot, Tom Zbikowski makes his professional boxing debut this Saturday. House Rock Built has the story covered.
Blatantly stolen from BGS. I hope their servers can handle the extra 40 hits a day.
