Southern's Weeks top player, second pick in Draft
The awards just keep rolling in for Southern University slugger Rickie Weeks and now he should be rolling in some cash, too. 
Weeks, the Jaguars' second baseman who has won back-to-back
SWAC Player of the Year awards and back-to-back NCAA Div. I battling titles,
was named last week as Collegiate
Baseball's National Player of The Year award
and a first team all-American. He is the first black college player to win the player
of the year award.
The cash part should come after Tuesday when he was chosen as the second player in Major League Baseball's Free Agent Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers. He was selected behind high-schooler Delmon Young who went first to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Weeks could get as much as a $4 million signing bonus.
Weeks hit .500 with 16 homers, 13 doubles, 67 RBI and was 27-for-27 in stolen base opportunities this season while leading Southern to the SWAC title and a berth in the NCAA Div. I national tournament. When you factor in that he was walked 46 times this season and hit by pitches 15 times, his on-base percentage was an astounding .619.
He is labeled as a can't-miss prospect, coveted for his lightning quick bat, athletic body, explosive speed and base-stealing ability. He is sometimes compared to Gary Sheffield and is considered to have 30 (home run)-30 (stolen-base) potential.
And he easily could have been the top pick.
Brewers general manager Doug Melvin says he liked Weeks from the moment they met in a Baton Rouge parking lot.
"He had a nice firm handshake," Melvin said Tuesday. "He had one of those muscle shirts on. That embarrassed me." But Melvin and Brewers scouting director Jack Zduriencik liked Weeks for more than his fashion.
The six-foot, 190-pound 20-year-old hit .473 over his NCAA Division I career, a record, and remarkably stole 65 bases in 66 attempts.
Plus, Weeks has played three positions since beginning college second base, shortstop and center field. Quite an accomplishment for a kid that was not even drafted out of high school a few years ago and was recruited by only two colleges.
"He took the challenge of not being drafted out of high school to go out there and get drafted," Melvin said. "Who knows he might take the challenge of not being the first pick and go out there and prove to prove to people that he should have been the first pick.
"He's just an outstanding individual. That's step one: drafting him. Now we have to sign him."
Weeks is the latest in a line of outstanding players from head coach Roger Cador's Jaguars to go high in the MLB Draft.
Two years ago shortstop slugger Michael Woods was chosen in the first round the Draft by the Detroit Tigers with the 32nd pick. He was the first of four Southern players to go in the draft among nine black college players. Woods finished third in the nation in batting (.450). Last year left-fielder Fred Lewis was selected 66th overall by the San Francisco Giants.
Southern again dominated picks Tuesday as the Draft staged 18 of its 50 rounds. The remaining rounds were to be conducted Wednesday.
Three other Jaguars were taken in this year's first day. Right-handed pitcher Damian Ursin was the 231st overall pick to Cincinnati, outfielder Marcus Townsend went to Cincinnati with the 411th pick and first baseman Kevin Vital was taken by Houston with the 539th selection. MEAC Player of the Year John Gagg, a left-handed pitcher and outstanding hitter from league-champion Bethune-Cookman, was named a second team all-American by Collegiate Baseball and went to the Los Angeles Dodgers with the fifth pick of the ninth round (251st overall).
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