Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pretend I am 18 years old, tall, slender and blessed with a 90 mph fastball and good breaking stuff. All the College World Series regulars are text-messaging me, pretty much begging me to spend my college years with them. Convince me I should say no to all of them and commit to Kansas.

Price accepted. And in just a few seconds, the fastest talker on the planet seemed to be thousands of words into why it would make sense for me, Joe Prospect, to pick Kansas.

“We’re one of the programs in the country that’s on the rise,” Price started. “The administration has made the commitment and improved our facilities. We play in one of the great conferences in the country. Our nonconference schedule may be the best in the nation.”

OK, that’s nice. Now tell me how I can expect to develop at Kansas.

“You come to the University of Kansas and we’ll develop you and play you early in your career,” Price said. “We play freshmen. If you look at our league, very few freshmen play as true freshmen. We play more freshmen than anyone in our league. We recruit high school kids who fit the profile of what is needed to succeed academically at our school.”

Tell me more about that pitching right away business.

“We just lost our Friday starter, our Saturday starter, our Sunday starter and our closer,” Price said. “I don’t know what major program you could go to in the country that would give you a better opportunity to pitch right away.”

The Jayhawks didn’t make it out of the Corvallis, Ore., regional because they didn’t have enough pitching between ace Kodiak Quick and closer Don Czyz. It will take an impressive reloading job just to get back to where they were. That’s not what Price has in mind.

He said KU’s recruiting is, “off the charts right now. Every kid in the states of Missouri, Kansas and throughout the Midwest, four years ago all those kids wanted to go to Nebraska. Nebraska has a lot going for it: a $32 million stadium, 8,000 fans, College World Series three times in six years. We’ve closed the gap on Nebraska big-time. Kids know freshmen don’t play much at Nebraska. Big-time players want to play early. They don’t want to sit on the bench.”

Price is setting his recruiting expectations higher than ever.

“We’re scheduling home visits with the top 10 players in the Midwest,” Price said. “My goal is to have verbal commitments from six of the best players in the Midwest, three of them pitchers. We’re trying to sign pitchers who throw 90, 92. Sign with Kansas. Pitch early. Get drafted in the first three or four rounds. That’s what we’re looking at.”

Price said winning the Big 12 tournament and appearing in the NCAA Tournament will make it easier to attract top recruits.

“Kids want to be associated with programs that are on the rise,” he said. “Kansas, what a great university in a great college town and now that we’re winners, it can’t get any better than that. We’ve proven it now. It’s not just talk anymore.”

Four KU players were selected Tuesday on the first day of the amateur baseball draft. That can’t hurt recruiting. Neither can having Ritch Price as the voice selling the program.