The day that most baseball players dream of since they learned how to swing a bat occurred just a few short weeks ago. The major league baseball draft occurred June 4th — June 6th this year. If you love baseball, like me, this is a day you thoroughly enjoy keeping up with. For my baseball loving family, we keep up with which players are heading to what minor league program. For those a little confused, being drafted is the accomplishment of a life time for these young men and their families.

So what is the minor league? For those drafted into the big leagues, you do not head directly to The New York Yankees or any other team, you instead are in the minor leagues. The minor league is a way for the MLB teams to see your full potential in a more competitive and difficult game of baseball. So, while you get drafted to The Yankees you will actually be starting on their minor league teams, for the Yankees that would mean playing for their affiliate minor league team, The Trenton Thunder.

From there, players will work to prove themselves. For many, they see better talent and competitiveness than they have ever faced. If you are one of the few lucky ones that get called up, you will then make it to "The Big Leagues." With that being said, these boys work hard their entire life to be able to prove themselves to others.

This year at Louisiana State University, many expected us to lose a lot of our talent. Although LSU did not preform to their potential in the 2018 baseball season, there were several players who we believed would be leaving our program. However, LSU baseball's head coach, Paul Mainieri said we got extremely lucky and can expect to see some major talent from the 2019 team.

This year, we had seven eligible players, who if lucky enough, were top prospects to get drafted. Unfortunately, due to under performance and injuries during the regular season, only two of this season's players will be heading to the minor league, including Nick Bush and Cam Sanders. Nick Bush is a left handed pitcher who was selected by the Colorado Rockies. Cam Sanders is a right handed pitcher that was selected by the Chicago Cubs.

I definitely suggest being on the lookout for these two, now "former" LSU players in the big leagues. These boys will always be LSU Tigers and I suggest staying tuned in on these men and if you're anything like myself, grab and catching a game when possible. There is little anticipation that these boys will fail, so it will be exciting to see what becomes of two of our best pitchers.

It goes without saying that a lot of Tigers who we thought would be drafted this season were not. Five Tigers that were eligible for being selected by Major League teams will be staying behind to help build a larger and stronger Tiger team for the 2019 season. We thought we would lose a lot of our potential within the Tiger program, but were proved wrong. Louisiana's number one top draft prospect, Zach Watson, drafted by the Boston Red Sox decided not to leave the Louisiana State Program quite yet.

Along with him, the other five drafted decided to stick around and use the opportunity to study and develop more. Along with the names I've mentioned before are Hunter Feduccia, Jake Slaughter, Antoine Duplantis and Zack Hess. While these boys "dreams" did not happen this year, I have faith that next year a lot of LSU's talents will come out bigger and stronger than ever.

So, while we were expecting many more Louisiana State University players to head out and leave our program, Paul Mainieri is confident that we will return next season as a stronger and more confident team. Raise your hand if you think we should have "student purchase tickets" for Omaha 2019! Count me in.