San Diego, CA
UCSD ace, USD slugger among San Diego’s top prospects in this year’s baseball draft
For more than a decade, San Diego-area baseball players were the talk of the MLB Draft.
From 2011 to 2022, 19 players with ties to San Diego were taken in the first round.
The list included future major leaguers and current top prospects Joe Musgrove, Kris Bryant, Bradley Zimmer, Alex Jackson, Connor Joe, Kevin Newman, Tyler Nevin, Mickey Moniak, Korey Lee, and Alika Williams as well as top prospect Marcelo Mayer, Carson Williams and Spencer Jones.
Now, there’s a question if there will be a San Diego player taken on the first day of the MLB Draft when it starts Sunday.
Ryan Forcucci, a right-handed pitcher from UC San Diego who played at San Marcos High School, and power-hitting USD outfielder Jakob Christian, who played at St. Augustine High School, are San Diego’s top prospects.
For the third straight year, there figures to be no players taken directly out of a San Diego high school.
Forcucci and Christian both come with questions.
Forcucci, who wasn’t a prospect coming out of high school, was off to a great start this season, going 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA.
With a fastball that hits 96-97 mph, a sound delivery and a budding slider, he had 37 strikeouts in 25 innings and just six walks in five starts.
An arm injury ended his season early.
Still, MLB.com has him ranked as the 86th-best prospect in the draft; Baseball America has him at No. 88.
Christian wasn’t a prospect in high school, either.
As a senior at St. Augustine, he hit. 333 with three homers, 13 doubles and 26 RBIs.
He has since blossomed into one of the top power hitters in college baseball.
As a sophomore at Point Loma Nazarene, Christian hit 28 home runs and drove in 70.
Wanting to prove himself at a higher level, he transferred to USD and hit 26 homers and drove in 67 this season.
MLB.com has him rated as the 216th-best prospect in the draft. Baseball America has him at 457.
“What are the scouts seeing that I’m not?” USD coach Brock Ungricht asked.
”All the guy does is produce. It’s not like he’s 5-foot-9. He’s 6-5. He can run. He plays great outfield defense. And he’s a great teammate.
“Scouts tell me he should be drafted at the bottom of the first round or the top of the second. Yet he gets no respect in the player rankings.”
What scouts don’t like is that Christian didn’t hit with power in wood-bat college summer leagues, knocking just two homers in 26 games in the Northwoods League and one homer in 19 games with Yarmouth Dennis last summer in the prestigious Cape Cod League.
While scouts like Chrisitian’s raw power, they say he has a loopy swing, question that his power won’t translate from aluminum to wood and wonder about the level of the competition.
“Say what you want about our competition, but look at what he did in the NCAA Regional, look at what he did against USC, Cal State Fullerton, Michigan and Dallas Baptist,” Ungricht said.
“That should tell you something.”
Christian went 5-for-12 with three homers and seven RBIs in three Regional games against Oregon, Fresno State and UC Santa Barbara. He was 4-for-13 with three homers and five RBIs in four games vs. Michigan. One of those homers was in Dodger Stadium.
He was 3-for-9 with three RBIs vs. Dallas Baptist and 4-for-11 with two homers and four RBIs in games vs. USC and Cal State Fullerton.
The only other San Diego players ranked among the top-500 prospects are UCLA second baseman Duce Gourson, who played at Point Loma High School; Texas A&M shortstop Ali Camarillo, who played at Otay Ranch; and Long Beach State closer Mike Villani, who played at El Camino.
Gourson is ranked No. 158 by MLB.com and No. 231 by Baseball America.
Camarillo is No. 180 by Baseball America and No. 246 by MLB.com.
Villani checks in at No. 453 by Baseball America.
Santa Fe Christian outfielder Jack Haferkamp is the only San Diego high school player in the Top 500, checking in at No. 274 on Baseball America’s list.
Hard-throwing right-hander Will Sanford drew a lot of attention from scouts.
Baseball America calls this draft “among the weakest ever for high schoolers.”Haferkamp and Sanford, however, both indicated they are likely headed to college — Haferkamp to UC Santa Barbara and Sanford to Oregon.
“I’ve got a great college option,” Haferkamp said. “After talking to coaches, my adviser and people we trust, college looks like the best thing right now.
“UCSB is a great program, so I can’t go wrong either way.”
Sanford echoed Haferkamp’s comments.“Pro ball is the ultimate goal,” Sanford said. “But it might not happen immediately. I’ll get a good education, play great baseball and grow up some at Oregon.
“So we’ll see what happens.”
San Diego has a number of other outstanding high school players, including right-handers Stunner Gonzalez and Cooper Walls and catcher Kalen Applefield of La Costa Canyon, left-hander Brady Dockan of Rancho Bernardo and catcher Jack Giordano of Patrick Henry.
All, however, appear to be headed to college.
MLB Draft facts
When: First 74 of 615 picks Sunday, starting at 1 p.m. on the MLB Network Tuesday is Rounds 3-10. Wednesday is Rounds 11-20.
San Diegans most likely to be selected in MLB Draft
Name, Position, School, Comment, Projected roundRyan Forcucci, RHP, San Marcos HS/UC San Diego, Injured after 5 starts, but has fastball that touches 96-97 mph, 2-3
Jakob Christian, OF, St. Augustine HS/USD, Big power with 67 college HRs, 2-10
Duce Gourson, 2B, Point Loma HS/UCLA, Lefty swinger and slick fielder, 3-5
Ali Camarillo, SS, Otay Ranch HS/Texas A&M, Skilled defender with CWS experience, 5-10
Peyton Schulze, 1B, Rancho Bernardo HS/Cal, Good power gap hitter, 7-15
Josh Randall, RHP, USD, Fastball sits at 95-96 MPH, 10-15
Austin Machado, C, La Costa Canyon HS/Hawaii, Superb defender with power, 10-15
Mike Villani, RHP, El Camino HS/Long Beach State, Could profile as a reliever, 12-20
Matt Halbach, 3B, UC San Diego, Injured after 19 games, but hit .408 with speed, 12-20
Ryan Fenn, IF, Granite Hills HS/Cal Poly SLO, Gap hitter with speed, 12-20
Ariel Armas, C, St. Augustine HS/USD, Gold Glove winner, 12-20
Austin Smith, LHP/OF, Granite Hills HS/USD, Was 7-0 and hit 7 HR, 12-20
Makana Olaso, C, Palomar College, Big kid with 20 HRs, 16 doubles, 12-20
Justin DeCriscio, SS, USD, Slick fielder, gap hitter, 12-20
Jake Entrekin, C, Steele Canyon HS/ Point Loma Nazarene, Catchers are coveted, 15-20
Other college players
Randy Abshier, LHP, Otay Ranch HS/Hawaii, Lefty with good stuff, Senior sign
Scott Anderson, IF, Sage Creek HS/Point Loma Nazarene, Has power, drives in runs, Senior sign
Mac Bingham, OF, Torrey Pines HS/LSU, Solid player with speed, Senior sign
Ray Cebluski, LHP, Eastlake HS/Point Loma Nazarene, Veteran just wins, Senior sign
Jack Costello, 3B/OF, USD, Has power, drives in runs, Senior sign
Alec Jones, C, Rancho Bernardo HS/Cincinnati, Teams value catching, Senior sign
Izaak Martinez, LHP, UC San Diego, Close. Pitched well in the Cape, Senior sign
Dylan Miller, RHP, Coronado HS/Point Loma Nazarene, Innings-eater workhorse, Senior sign
Ivran Romero, RHP, Poway HS/USD, Fastball sits at 95, Senior sign
James Sashin, LHP, Point Loma Nazarene, Tall closer with 18 saves, Senior sign
Calvin Schapira, LHP, USD, Fastball sits 94-95, Senior sign
Eric Smelko, OF, Helix/Point Loma Nazarene, Older veteran who just hits, Senior sign
Ricky Tibbett, RHP, Eastlake HS/UC Irvine, Veteran with good stuff, Senior sign
High school players
Kalen Applefield, C, La Costa Canyon HS, Strong lefty hitter, Committed to Cal
Brady Dockan, RHP, Rancho Bernardo HS, Big man who teams like, Committed to Cal State Fullerton
Jack Giordano, C, Patrick Henry HS, Teams covet catchers, Committed to USD
Stunner Gonzalez, RHP, La Costa Canyon HS, Big man, Committed to LSU
Jack Haferkamp, OF, Santa Fe Christian HS, Rare combo of power and speed, Committed to UC Santa Barbara
Will Sanford, RHP, Point Loma HS, Hard thrower with great stats, Committed to Oregon
Cooper Walls, RHP, La Costa Canyon HS, Hard thrower who was hurt late, Committed to Hawaii
San Diego, CA
San Diego’s cost-of-living committee led big policy fights in 2025. The City Council is ending it.
A year after creating a special committee on cost-of-living, the San Diego City Council is shutting it down.
Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who chaired the committee, said he was content to let it die as the council had plenty of work to do completing policy initiatives that started there.
The committee took on some of the most high profile and divisive issues that the city considered last year, such as the successful effort to increase the minimum wage for tourism workers to $25 starting in July 2026.
But it also operated just as city officials passed new and increased fees that added to residents’ cost of living. The city’s new monthly trash fee, hikes to parking rates around town and increased charges for using city facilities all hit residents’ bottom lines this year.
Elo-Rivera stood by approving those fees with one hand while trying to combat costs with the other.
“The cuts on the table that those fee increases mitigated or avoided — library, recreation center and park hours services — were things the community said they didn’t want cut,” he said. “The fees we established were the most fiscally responsible way to avoid those cuts.”
Elo-Rivera is still pushing two other cost-of-living initiatives that could pass in 2026. One is a joint effort with the county to ban landlords from charging hidden fees tacked on to rent. The other is a potential June ballot measure to impose a $5,000 per-bedroom tax on vacation rentals or second homes.
“I completely understand why someone would say, ‘If you want to fix the cost of living, don’t raise these other costs,’” Elo-Rivera said. “We proposed a vacation home tax for the specific purpose of having the things that city residents want and deserve, without the cost of that resource falling on the backs of middle class and working class San Diegans.”
San Diego this year also became the first city in the country to ban grocery stores from offering digital-only deals, another initiative that started at the committee.
Elo-Rivera said the fees the city passed this year “only made it more important to have urgency to address cost-of-living increases driven by corporate greed, those that are disproportionately felt by everyday people.”
Councilmembers Henry Foster III and Marni von Wilpert also served on the select committee. Elo-Rivera credited them for stepping up.
“Everyone wants to talk about affordability, but nobody wants to own it,” he said. “There’s a tension there, but those two weren’t afraid to stand next to this issue and wrestle it.”
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A local mother is raising awareness about holiday theft after her children’s Christmas presents were stolen from their family home.
Meanwhile, San Diego police are warning people to be wary of scammers and thieves this time of year when the department sees a rise in these types of crimes.
“All the gifts that were hidden from my children were all gone,” said Kristin Lyons.
Plans for a Christmas surprise are now a loss for her two boys. Just before 3 a.m. Friday, a holiday grinch was caught on camera walking up the family’s University Heights driveway.
“It was a male. Jeans, gray sweatshirt, black backpack, a brown Padres hat and he came in on a bike,” said Lyons.
The alleged thief used a flashlight to search their carport before leaving with arms full.
“It was a big bin full of like 30 or 40 gifts wrapped,” according to Lyons. She explained the gifts included a scooter, shoes, clothes, and toys for her 3 and 4-year-old sons.
“They may not be very expensive items, they were very sentimental and personalized for the kids,” said Lyons.
Her neighborhood is located off Park Blvd. and Adams Ave. “We’ve had a lot of foot traffic, which has increased a lot of the crime as well.”
She said she and her neighbors rely on security cameras for safety, but hope police increase patrols after filing a report.
“There’s crimes of opportunity,” said SDPS Lt. Cesar Jimenez. He added that typically thieves look for easy targets.
“They’re looking for homes that are empty. They’re also looking into windows, and if people have all their presents, they have their Christmas tree by a window with all the presents underneath, then that’s a big temptation,” said Lt. Jimenez.
He advised residents to avoid placing their Christmas tree right by a window and to make sure packages are secured and out of sight.
Meanwhile, Lyons said she wants others to learn from her experience and isn’t letting this bring her and her family down.
She added that a neighbor found a partially wrapped gift dumped in the area and returned it to her after they saw her Nextdoor post. She’d like others who may stumble upon more gifts to also post about it on the Nextdoor app in the University Heights area, and she will keep an eye out.
The Husker football program announced its second hire to the coaching staff on the morning of Dec. 19.
Though it was first reported on Dec. 11, the university took to social media Friday morning to make it official that former San Diego State edges coach Roy Manning would be following defensive coordinator Rob Aurich to Lincoln. Per his coaching bio on the Huskers.com website, Manning will be in the same assistant role at Nebraska for the 2026 season.
The news marks the first defensive assistant hire for Aurich as a Husker and comes roughly a week and a half after the dismissal of Terry Bradden as defensive line coach. While Manning is not a 1:1 replacement for Bradden, he is expected to oversee a smaller position group as the Huskers look to overhaul their defensive scheme under its new leader.
With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about Nebraska football’s newest defensive hire.
Manning arrives in Lincoln with a dozen years of defensive coaching experience at the Division I level, spanning multiple power conferences included the Big Ten and Big 12. He has coached at three of the 10 winningest programs in college football history, including Michigan, USC, and now, Nebraska. Most recently, Manning worked under Aurich at San Diego State, where the two were instrumental in engineering one of the nation’s most dramatic defensive turnarounds in 2025.
At San Diego State, Manning coached the Aztecs’ defensive edge players as SDSU produced one of the best defensive seasons in program history. The Aztecs led the nation with three shutouts and ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 12.6 points per game. San Diego State also finished seventh nationally in total defense and first in the country in red zone defense, something the Huskers finished 2025 second-to-last in. He helped oversee a unit that made a 17-point improvement in scoring defense from the previous season.
Prior to his time at San Diego State, Manning spent two seasons at USC as the Trojans’ assistant head coach for defense and outside linebackers coach. Before USC, Manning coached cornerbacks at Oklahoma from 2019 to 2021, helping the Sooners win two Big 12 titles and reach the College Football Playoff. His defensive backs were a major factor in Oklahoma’s ability to generate turnovers and limit explosive passing plays, with multiple All-Big 12 selections and an NFL Draft pick emerging from his position group.
Manning’s coaching career also includes stops at UCLA, Washington State, Michigan, and Cincinnati, giving him experience coaching nearly every defensive position group, along with special teams and even offensive roles early in his career. A former Michigan linebacker and NFL veteran, Manning has been part of championship programs as both a player and a coach, contributing to conference titles in the Big Ten and Big 12 and appearances in multiple conference championship games. His winning pedigree now carries over to Nebraska as he joins Rhule’s staff, tasked with returning the Huskers to a top defensive unit in the country.
Rhule emphasized that Manning’s addition to the staff is about adding a coach who understands defense holistically. “Roy has experience coaching defense from front to back,” Rhule said. The versatility was a key factor in the hire, allowing Nebraska to add a coach who can connect the front seven with the back end of the defense with more seamlessness as Aurich invokes his new scheme.
Continuity was another major theme in Rhule’s comments, as Manning joins Aurich after the two brough whole sale improvements to the Aztecs this fall. “Along with Coach Aurich, he was a key part of the defensive transformation at San Diego State this past season,” Rhule said. Nebraska’s head coach highlighted the trust built between the two coaches and the value of bringing in staff members who have already proven they can work together at a high level, particularly when installing a new system and expectations from day one.
For Manning, the move to Nebraska represents both an opportunity and a responsibility tied to the program’s history. “Nebraska Football is one of the most storied and respected programs in the entire country,” Manning said, expressing gratitude to Rhule and excitement about joining the Huskers staff. Manning added that he’s eager to begin building relationships within the program and help spark the same improvements the Aztecs did in 2025 in his new defensive room.
With Manning’s hire now official, Nebraska appears to be adding a coach with a proven track record of defensive success. In 2025 alone, the duo of Manning and Aurich helped San Diego State record 32 sacks in 12 regular-season games. For context, Nebraska finished the 2025 season with just 19 of its own.
No matter how it’s framed, Manning arrives in Lincoln with the pedigree and experience to match. With 15 of Nebraska’s 18 listed defensive linemen currently underclassmen, Manning will have the opportunity to develop a young corps with the same traits that defined his most recent defensive stops.
While Nebraska is still expected to continue its search for a true defensive line coach, Manning’s addition gives the Huskers another proven developer with lengthy Power Four experience. The reunion of former San Diego State coaches Aurich and Manning brings immediate credibility to Nebraska’s defensive rebuild. For Manning, it represents a return to Power Four football. For Nebraska, it’s a hire that appears positioned to accelerate the program’s defensive progress up front.
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