Burnt Orange Nation, a Texas Longhorns community

The prize of Texas' baseball recruiting class for this season, Everett Williams, is instead going to be the pride of the Padres' minor league system. Good luck to Williams in the pro game. Along with the loss of fellow recruit Colton Cain and of course first baseman Brandon Belt, it has been a tough--but totally expected--offseason for Augie's bunch. There's still an awful lot to be excited about in 2010, though.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on their website Thursday that Texas baseball commit Colton Cain, a pitcher/first baseman from Waxahachie, is set to sign with the Pirates and forgo his Longhorn career. Besides outfielder Everett Williams, who is still unsigned, Cain stood since the major league draft as the most likely Texas commit to turn pro, especially considering Pittsburgh's strong desire to continue rebuilding their farm system. Cain will become the second Longhorn commit to sign with the Pirates after Robbie Grossman signed in a similar situation last year after receiving a well-above slot bonus. As a Pirates fan in my early years, seeing the demise of the franchise has been frustrating and the Dave Littlefield years saw numerous terrible decisions, but it's equally frustrating for me as a Longhorn fan to see the Pirates stealing players who could contribute to a national championship at Texas. Speaking of which, Cain would have filled major needs for the Longhorns as a potential candidate to replace Brandon Belt, who hasn't signed with the Giants yet but probably will, and as a left-hander out of the bullpen to help replace Austin Wood. Will losing Cain keep the Longhorns from winning a national championship? Probably not, but he certainly could have helped. (h/t Bucs Dugout) [Update]It's official now, Cain is reportedly $1.15 million richer. Good luck to him in the Pirates system, though it certainly hurts.

The first three rounds (plus compensation picks) are now complete and only one Longhorn or Longhorn commit was drafted: McCallum's Everett Williams at no. 52 by the Padres. As mentioned earlier today, Williams was projected by several sites as a first-round pick, but lasted until the third pick of the second round -- he might not get as much money as he expected, which may help the Longhorns, but it's hard to believe that he will ever step onto UFCUDFF. The good news, however, is neither Colton Cain, Jonathan Walsh, nor potential junior-college transfer Jacob Cowan were drafted. All will probably go on the second day.