With the non-waiver trade deadline officially in the past the next important date on the baseball calendar is the Aug. 17 deadline to sign draft picks. 2009 is the second year that teams have faced an August deadline to sign draft picks, but the date was pushed back from Aug. 15 to Aug. 17 because of the 15th falling on a weekend.  With that deadline just  two weeks from today, I thought we’d look at the remaining unsigned players with Kentucky ties.  (Contract status is according to Baseball America’s draft database)

ADDED: JON HEDGES, JAMES JONES, TIM DUNN 8/5/09

UK Players and Signees

• LHP James Paxton — 1st Supp. (37) Toronto Blue Jays
• RHP Stephen Inch — 6th Round Philadelphia Phillies — Vauxhall Academy, Edmonton
• RHP Jordan Cooper — 17th Round Pittsburgh Pirates — Central HS, Shelbyville, Tenn.
• LHP Taylor Rogers — 37th Round Baltimore Orioles — Chatfield HS, Littleton, Colo.
• RHP Sam Kidd — 39th Round Philadelphia Phillies — Ohio County High School, Hartford, Ky.
• C Luke Maile — 43rd Round Boston Red Sox — Covington Catholic HS, Park Hills, Ky.
• OF Brian Adams  (Football)– 45th Round Cincinnati Reds — South Forysth HS, Cumming, Ga.

UofL Players and Signees

• SS Jason Thompson — 11th Round Boston Red Sox — Germantown (Tenn.) HS
• 1b Andrew Clark — 31st Round Chicago Cubs
• RHP Matt Koch — 37th Round Boston Red Sox — Washington HS, Cherokee, Iowa

WKU Players and Signees

• RHP Matt Ridings — 25th Round Washington Nationals

Other Kentucky Natives

• RHP Tyler Blandford — Davies County High School; Oklahoma State — 5th round Seattle Mariners
• RHP Daniel Webb — Heath High School, Paducah, Ky.; Northwest Florida State JC — 18th round Toronto Blue Jays
• RHP Patrick Cooper — Boyle County, Ky.; Des Moines Area CC — 34th round Arizona Diamondbacks
• 1b Jon Hedges — Owensboro, Ky., Olney Central College — 43rd round Minnesota Twins
• RHP James Jones — Ballard County High School, John A Logan College — 45th round Cleveland Indians
• RHP Tim Dunn — Carlisle County High School, Tevecca Nazarene University — 46th Round Cincinatti Reds

Kentucky pitcher James Paxton is the only one of the listed players who is almost certain to sign, and Davies County product Tyler Blandford was said to have second-round talent so the Mariners might offerr him over slot money to not return to Oklahoma State.  The Phillies and Red Sox will likely make a late push to sign UK recruit Stephen Inch and UofL recruit Jason Thompson, their sixth and 11th round picks respectively.  You can probably feel safe counting on the rest of these players to end up on campus in the fall, but that won’t make sleeping any easier for the state’s college coaches over the next two weeks.