By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

The list of names of eligible Canadians for the June draft, has a new name on top.

OF Dasan Brown (Oakville, Ont.) of the Ontario Blue Jays had been atop the Canadian Baseball Network list since the Canadian Junior National Team made its tour of Florida earlier this month.

The newcomer is not a new off-the-wall name, it’s Auburn Tigers INF Edouard Julien.

Julien (Quebec City, Que.) is listed as a sophomore and originally Major League Baseball said he was not eligible for the draft until 2020. A couple of weeks ago the decision was changed and Julien was able to jump into the same pool as the 2019 draftees.

He graduated high school after grade 11 in Quebec, attended Cegep for one year and this is his second year at Auburn.

Julien is in the exact same position as INF Charles Leblanc (Laval, Que.) who went to the Texas Rangers from the Pitt Panthers in the fourth round of the 2016 -- his sophomore year. Last season he hit .274 for class-A Down East with 10 homers and 72 RBIs.

In his sophomore/junior/draft year, Julien is hitting .295 with six doubles, five homers and 26 RBIs. He has a .976 OPS through the first 24 games of the spring.

As the DH at Auburn last year, Julien broke Frank Thomas’ 32-year-old school freshman RBI record of 69 RBIs and were the most in the SEC as well as the most among freshmen nationally. He hit 17 home runs were tied for second among freshmen nationally and the most by an Auburn player

Julien earned Canadian Baseball Network’s 19th annual college Player of the Year honour. He had first-place votes on 43 of 52 ballots (82.7%), finishing ahead of 2B Elliott Curtis (Waterloo, Ont.) of the Columbia State Chargers with 39 first-place votes and LHP J.P. Stevenson (New Glasgow, PEI) a Canisius Golden Griffins with 35 top spots. It is the third straight year the winner as the two previous winners were OF Christopher Acosta-Tapia (Laval, Que.) of the Oklahoma Wesleyan Eagles and LHP Guillaume Blanchette (St-Constant, Que.) of the Lubbock Christian Chaparrals;

He also was named all SEC All-Freshman Team, Second Team ABCA All-South Region Honors, as well as being named a Freshman All-American by Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, D1 Baseball, NCBWA and Perfect Game/Rawlings. He was also named to the SEC All-Tournament Team, the Raleigh Regional All-Tournament Team.

Julien played for Les Diamants de Québec and coach Dominik Walsh, as well as the Academy Baseball Canada for coach Robbie Fatal.

Alex Agostino (St-Bruno, Que.) of the Philadephia Phillies selected Julien in the 37th round in 2017.

Auburn head coach Butch Thompson had recruited OF Jacob Robson (Windsor, Ont.) and INF Kyle Hann (Oakville, Ont.) to Mississippi State in 2013.

Julien arrived on the Auburn campus with 22,999 other undergraduates two years ago. He was in a crowd of anonymous students. Baseball people and Auburn fans know who he is now. He has earned the nickname Canadian Crusher.

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Dasan Brown had a great trip with the Canadian Junior National Team. Especially against the Blue Jays. The game wasn’t televised like most of the Jays games this spring, but at-bat by at-bat, Brown

_ Led off by lining out to centre fielder Billy McKinney off Jays reliever Danny Barnes, who pitched in 47 games for Toronto last season.

_ Singled to left field in the third against Andrew Sopko, who pitched in 26 games last year at double-A Tulsa and class-A Rancho Cucamonga.

_ Hit a 2-2 pitch to left centre for a two-run homer in the sixth against Joey Murray, who pitched at class-A Vancouver last season.

_ Beat out an infield single to shortstop Jordan Groshans facing Josh Hiatt, who was selected in the 18th round last year.

He also charged in to make a diving grab and roamed into the gap for another catch in front of 30 scouts.