Compiled by Allan Simpson

PG Crosschecker is in the process of identifying the top major-league prospects in more than 20 summer college leagues around the country. In all, we’ll rank and provide scouting reports on more than 500 prospects.

The lists are revealing in terms of which players have the best chance to not only eventually be drafted and play professional baseball, but possibly reach the big leagues and even excel at that level. They do not necessarily reflect which players performed best on the field during the 2009 summer season. Our focus was more on players that had the best tools or best stuff, and project the highest upside (with a realistic chance of reaching their ceiling).

Obviously, not every player that performed at a high level this summer is viewed as a legitimate big-league prospect, and our concentration with this exercise is to identify the 25 college players who played the best, or assembled the best overall statistical profile. Members of Team USA's college national team are included.

Our No. 1-ranked player is power-hitting first baseman Kyle Roller, a rising senior at East Carolina. Roller’s status as a marginal prospect is underscored by his being a lowly 47^th-round draft pick of the Oakland A’s in this year’s draft, and his ranking as only the 64^th-best prospect this summer on the Cape Cod League’s ranking of the top 100 in that league.

But Roller clearly had a summer to remember as he nearly won the Cape League’s triple crown on his way to earning the league’s MVP award. His superior performance in the league playoffs not only resulted in the Bourne Braves winning their first-ever Cape Cod League title, but Roller also earning playoff MVP honors. On the summer, Roller hit a combined .356 with 11 home runs and 41 RBIs.

Several other players had breakout summers—some of whom are elite-level prospects, some of whom are marginal talents by professional standards.

Righthander Gerrit Cole, a rising UCLA sophomore and the projected top pick in the 2011 draft, was dominant in a starting role for Team USA, which clearly didn’t field one of its stronger teams this summer and played one of its more non-competitive schedules in years. Cole (4-0, 1.06) excelled with Team USA and is ranked No. 2.

Most noteworthy on the attached list of 25 players is three pitchers from the Coastal Plain League’s Forest City Owls, the nation’s No. 1-ranked summer college team. Between them, Owls starting righthanders Spencer Patton and Ryan Arrowood went 23-0, while closer Robbie Andrews saved 13 games and didn’t allow a run all season. Even more impressive, he didn’t walk his first batter on the summer until the post-season.

Here’s our take on the 25 best performers of the 2009 summer college league season, with players in more high-profile summer leagues given greater consideration: