Jayhawks popular in MLB draft

Five current and former Kansas University baseball players and one future Jayhawk were selected during the third day of the 2013 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft on Saturday.

Kansas seniors Alex DeLeon (23rd round, St. Louis Cardinals), Thomas Taylor (26th, Los Angeles Dodgers), Kevin Kuntz (28th, Kansas City Royals) and Tanner Poppe (31st, Milwaukee Brewers) were drafted, along with junior Frank Duncan (39th, Cleveland Indians) and incoming freshman Denton Keys (11th, Philadelphia Phillies), who signed a letter of intent to play for the Jayhawks last fall.

Duncan and Keys will have to decide whether to play for KU or sign before the July 12 signing deadline.

The five Jayhawks selected is the largest haul for Kansas since a school-record seven players were picked in the 2010 draft.

“I’m thrilled for the seniors in our program that have worked so hard to make their dreams a reality,” Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “I want to thank them for the contributions they’ve made to our program, and we’ll all be excited to follow their careers. To have that many guys selected obviously speaks volumes about the type of talent we had on the team. We had a really good year, disappointed we were left out of the NCAA field.”