Compiled by Allan Simpson

Team USA’s college national team has hardly been challenged to date in compiling an early 11-0 record—certainly not by playing Canada’s national junior team (5-0) and the Guatemala national team (4-0). In their first nine games to officially kick off their 2009 summer season, the Americans outscored their outmatched opponents, 124-18.

By past standards, the talent on this year’s college national team is not considered vintage—certainly not to the level of the star-studded 2008 squad, which featured righthander Stephen Strasburg and several other first-rounders in this year’s draft. But Mississippi lefthander Drew Pomeranz and Cal State Fullerton shortstop Christian Colon are obvious first-round candidates for 2010, and as expected they have been dominant for Team USA—soft schedule, or not.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pound Pomeranz has been thoroughly dominant in winning both his starts for Team USA, striking out 27 in 10 innings, while the 6-foot, 180-pound Colon has showed his vast array of skills and tools on both offense and defense, while leading Team USA with 26 RBIs and stealing 11 consecutive bases.

While Team USA has more than its share of top college prospects for the next two drafts, a number of other top candidates for the 2010 draft turned down an opportunity to play for the U.S. national team and are playing in the nation’s top summer college leagues—notably the Cape Cod League. Few of the leading candidates to be early-round picks in the 2010 draft have performed to a high level to date on the Cape mainly because they were late arrivals, but the obvious exception has been 6-foot-5 Yarmouth-Dennis lefthander Chris Sale (Florida Gulf Coast), who leads the Cape in strikeouts after four starts.

We’ll have plenty of opportunity to identify all the top prospects in all the nation’s recognized summer college leagues at the end of the 2009 season, but for now our focus is on the top performers to date.