Recruiting rankings praise LSU

It may not be long until LSU baseball is back among the nation's elite. That is if you read the recruiting rankings for the 2007 classes across the country.

The Tigers' class was named tops in the country by Collegiate Baseball last week and, earlier this week, picked up a No. 2 nod from Baseball America.

And, before you ask, these are post-draft rankings. Now that the NBA has instituted an age rule for its draft, no college sport's recruiting class can be destroyed -- or saved -- by the draft quite like baseball's.

The only strange thing about the LSU class is the large number of Midwest players in the class.

In Skip Bertman's glory years, the Tigers generally relied on players from within the state or worked Bertman's pipelines to Florida and California.

It seems Paul Mainieri has decided a national recruiting base is best for his program. The rankings seem to reinforce that, but, as we all know, championships aren't won on paper.