Head coach Tony Gwynn has released the 2010 schedule for his San Diego State Aztecs.  The Aztecs will enter the 2010 campaign without Stephen Strasburg, the first overall selection in the 2009 MLB Draft.  SDSU will begin the season with six straight games at Tony Gwynn Stadium.  The Aztecs host Oklahoma and Indiana (Feb. 19-22) opening weekend before a mid-week contest with UC Riverside (Feb. 23) and a split four-game weekend series against cross-town rival San Diego (Feb. 25-28).

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Kendall Rogers of Rivals continues his series of articles on conferences with the Mountain West conference. The teams in the conference are looking to build on the national media attention that came to them last season as Stephen Strasburg was a member of the San Diego State Aztecs. They were not the only team from the conference to get a bid to the NCAA tourney as TCU made the Super Regional in Austin and Utah won the Mountain West conference tournament to get in.

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Kendall Rogers of Rivals had an interesting article a few weeks ago on how San Diego State will handle the press that Strasburg gave the Aztec program. I agree that any press for college baseball is great but I think the biggest improvement in the SDSU program will come from Eric Valenzuela taking over the recruiting/pitching coach duties this season. (FULL STORY). He has handled the great pitching staffs of the San Diego Toreros including Brian Matusz and Josh Romanski so he should be able to bring in some great talent into the Aztec program both on the mound and at the plate.

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FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE

SAN DIEGO – San Diego State Head Baseball Coach Tony Gwynn has announced the hiring of Eric Valenzuela to the position of Aztec pitching coach. Valenzuela comes to SDSU from the University of San Diego where he served as the Toreros’ pitching coach the past six seasons. Gwynn also revealed that former SDSU player Brock Ungricht will assume duties as the program’s volunteer assistant coach for the upcoming campaign.

Known as a standout recruiter and instructor, Valenzuela was a key component in the success of USD baseball in recent years and was instrumental in the development of the Torero pitching staff into one of the finest in the nation. He made an immediate impact during his first season at USD in 2004 as the Torero mound corps led the West Coast Conference in team ERA. Valenzuela spearheaded the recruiting efforts for the 2008 USD recruiting class that was ranked the nation’s best by Baseball America. He was also the catalyst for the 2006 recruiting class that was among Baseball America’s Dandy Dozen.

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The national nightmare has come to an end as Stephen Strasburg has signed with the Washington Nationals for 15.67 million over four seasons according to a report by Baseball America’s Aaron Fitt which posted the following tweet.

Aaron Fitt reports Strasburg signs. MLB deal worth $15.67 million over 4 years.

Interesting that he got such a large deal and was only 4.33 million off the 20 million that was getting thrown around over the last few days.

The big story of the day is whether the Washington Nationals are going to sign San Diego State’s Stephen Strasburg by the midnight deadline tonight.  He is not the only one as number 2 selection in UNC’s Dustin Ackley is still unsigned among others. Both of these players are represented by baseball power agent Scott Boras who has become one of the toughest negotiators in the industry over the last few years. This has ended up hurting some players in their negotiations for a contract as many players have slipped down the draft board.

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The Corvallis Knights will defend their West Coast League championship against the Wenatchee AppleSox. The best-of-three championship series starts in Wenatchee, WA on Saturday, August 15. The second and third (if necessary) games will be played in Corvallis, OR on Monday, August 17 and Tuesday, August 18. Read the rest of this entry »

Thomas Boswell of The Washington Post has a lengthy article about Stephen Strasburg and his negotiations with the Washington Nationals. Boswell caught up with Strasburg after the 2009 Golden Spikes Award ceremony which took place at the 2009 MLB All-Star game. Strasburg states that there has been very little contact with the team besides them offering him a minor league contract so Strasburg couldn’t become a free agent if he is not able to come to terms by the deadline in August.

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Doug Buser

The Kitsap Blue Jackets play their home games at the Kitsap Fairgrounds and Events Center near Bremerton, WA, which is a one-hour ferry ride west of Seattle.

A wild West Coast League evening started with the completion of a game that was suspended after 16 innings on June 17 with the score 1-1, because the lights went out at 11 PM. It took another four innings to settle it. Andy Bethel (Washington) hit a ball into shallow center field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the twentieth inning. The outfielder dropped it to allow the winning run to score. Cody Hevner (hasn’t picked a college yet) got the win, and Steve Kalush (Santa Clara) got the loss. Box score and play-by-play The Knights defeated the Blue Jackets 1-0 the previous night (Liam Baron [Linn-Benton CC] pitched a three-hit shutout), and Blue Jackets owner Rick Smith, a Bremerton attorney, was quick to point out that his team had held the Knights, ranked #3 nationally by Perfect Game Crosschecker, to a total of two runs over 29 innings. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM USA BASEBALL

WATCH GOLDEN SPIKES AWARD SHOW

ST. LOUIS — USA Baseball announced Tuesday the selection of San Diego State’s Stephen Strasburg as the winner of the 2009 USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award. This year marks the 32nd consecutive year that the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award has been presented to the nation’s premier amateur baseball player. Read the rest of this entry »

The Corvallis Knights lead the West Division with a 21-5 record. The defending champions swept three games against the Kelowna Falcons, and won two of three against the East Division leader, the Wenatchee AppleSox.

Eddie Orozco (UC-Riverside), Trevor Smith (Linn-Benton CC), Drew Leary (San Diego State), and Liam Baron (Linn-Benton CC) combined for a 3-0 shutout at Kelowna, holding the Knights to three hits. The next night, Steve Kalush (Santa Clara) scattered five hits over seven innings in a 6-0 shutout of the Falcons. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM PRESS RELEASE
LUBBOCK, Texas—San Diego State’s dominant right-handed pitcher Stephen Strasburg is the recipient of the 23rd annual Dick Howser Trophy as college baseball’s player of the year. The presentation was made Thursday for the first time In Lubbock, Texas as part of the festivities to recognize and induct the College Baseball Hall of Fame and the awarding of several other national honors for 2009. Read the rest of this entry »