Rickie Weeks, the 2nd overall pick in the 2003 draft, came to terms on a Major League contract on Tuesday afternoon. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it's been reported that the deal will be around $4 million dollars. Rickie is expected to report to Arizona to work out at the Brewers spring training complex in Maryvale before he reports to Beloit to play with the Snappers to close the season. The Brewers expect that Weeks should be with the Snappers when they travel to Miller Park on Thursday, August 14th to play the Wisconsin Timberrattlers.

Weeks was not drafted out of high school, and in fact received only 2 invitations from Division 1 programs to play baseball in college. He decided to join head coach Roger Cador at Southern University in Louisiana, and Weeks immediately burst onto the scene as a freshman batting .422, and in 3 years at Southern he hit an amazing 50 home runs, 31 triples & 41 doubles. In his final 2 years he was perfect in stolen base attempts in 41 tries. To finish his All-American Junior season, Weeks was named Baseball America's player of the year as well as being the recipient of heralded college awards including the Dick Howser Award, the Rotary Smith Award & the Golden Spikes Award as college baseball's best player. He also played for the Team USA National Team during the summers of 2001 & 2002.

Weeks has the best tools and is the purest hitter in college baseball of all of the 2003 draftees. His hands are so quick that he generates amazing bat speed and can turn around any inside fastball. With back-to-back .495 and .493 seasons he became only the second repeat batting champion in NCAA Division I history. His career .469 average is the best Division I mark ever. Though his quality of competition is suspect, scouts think Weeks will only have to develop a little more pitch recognition to mash as a pro. Besides hitting for average, Weeks also has plus power and speed. He played at shortstop and in the outfield earlier in his career at Southern before he settled in at second base. He's still a little raw there, but he has more than enough arm strength and athleticism to play there in the majors.