It's All About Talent

Allan Simpson

The 2009 Division I college baseball season finally began Friday. PG Crosschecker got ready for the season with its preview of the nation’s Top 100 teams, along with in-depth profiles on each team from more of an unconventional scouting approach. We’ve followed up that coverage by providing our take on the nation’s top 100 prospects in each of the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes. Those lists are available to PG Crosschecker Insider-level subscribers only, but we’ve provided a sneak preview of the top 10 prospects in each class in the accompanying charts. It’s no coincidence when comparing the lists of the top teams and top players that there are a lot of similarities between teams in our pre-season top 100 and teams that are most heavily represented in our four-fold top prospect lists. After all, winning is almost always about talent. Louisiana State, our No. 1-ranked college team, is represented by 10 different players on our class-by-class lists of the nation’s top prospects. No. 2 Texas A&M has nine players, No. 3 North Carolina has 10 and No. 4 Texas has 11. The only other schools with as much depth of high-end talent are No. 6 Cal State Fullerton (9), No. 12 Arizona State (9), No. 14 Oregon State (10) and No. 21 Clemson (10). There are numerous pre-season polls or rankings that have sprung up in recent years to coincide with the growing popularity of college baseball and all the technological advances in society that have occurred, but it’s apparent that no other rankings place more of a premium on the quality and depth of draftable talent than what PG Crosschecker’s rankings do. All the lists of top teams that we compile reflect that approach, and the same principle will hold when we unveil our ranking of the nation’s top 100 high-school teams early next week. We recognize, at the same time, that the lists are not infallible, and there are certainly other factors that must be considered, but the bottom line is talent—and the best teams have the best talent. From a draft perspective, here’s how we see the best talent in each of the four college classes (click here for PG Crosschecker subscription information, in order to access the full top 100 lists in each class—and much more): TOP 10 FRESHMEN (Draft Class of 2011) Rank Player Pos. B-T HT WT College Hometown Previously Drafted 1. Gerrit Cole RHP R-R 6-3 215 UCLA Santa Ana, Calif. Yankees ’08 (1) 2. Sonny Gray RHP R-R 5-11 180 Vanderbilt Smyrna, Tenn. Cubs ’08 (27) 3. *Zack Cox 3B/RHP L-R 6-0 215 Arkansas Louisville, Ky. Dodgers ’08 (20) 4. Taylor Jungmann RHP R-R 6-6 195 Texas Georgetown, Texas Angels ’08 (24) 5. Danny Hultzen LHP/1B L-L 6-2 185 Virginia Bethesda, Md. D’backs ’08 (10) 6. Jason Esposito SS R-R 6-3 190 Vanderbilt Amity, Conn. Royals ’08 (7) 7. Alex Meyer RHP R-R 6-8 205 Kentucky Greensburg, Ind. Red Sox ’08 (20) 8. Brett Mooneyham LHP L-L 6-5 220 Stanford Atwater, Calif. Padres ’08 (15) 9. Ricky Oropesa 3B/1B L-R 6-2 215 Southern California Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. Red Sox ’08 (24) 10. Nick Maronde LHP B-L 6-3 195 Florida Lexington, Ky. Athletics ’08 (43) *Draft-eligible in 2010 TOP 10 SOPHOMORES (Draft Class of 2010) Rank Player Pos. B-T HT WT College Hometown Previously Drafted 1. Matt Harvey RHP R-R 6-4 210 North Carolina Mistic, Conn. Angels ’07 (3) 2. *Kentrail Davis OF L-R 5-9 200 Tennessee Thoedore, Ala. Rockies ’07 (14) 3. Brandon Workman RHP R-R 6-5 220 Texas Bowie, Texas Phillies ’07 (3) 4. Drew Pomeranz LHP L-L 6-5 230 Mississippi Collierville, Tenn. Rangers ’07 (12) 5. Derek Dietrich SS/3B L-R 6-1 195 Georgia Tech Parma, Ohio Astros ’07 (3) 6. Hunter Morris 1B/OF L-R 6-2 220 Auburn Huntsville, Ala. Red Sox ’07 (2) 7. Kevin Patterson 1B L-R 6-4 225 Auburn Birmingham, Ala. White Sox ’07 (24) 8. Kyle Blair RHP R-R 6-4 200 San Diego Monte Sereno, Calif. Dodgers ’07 (5) 9. Chris Hernandez LHP L-L 6-1 195 Miami Pembroke Pines, Fla. Tigers ’07 (14) 10. Kevin Keyes OF R-R 6-4 225 Texas Austin, Texas Rangers ’07 (26) *Draft-eligible in 2009 TOP 10 JUNIORS (Draft Class of 2009) Rank Player Pos. B-T HT WT College Hometown Previously Drafted 1. Stephen Strasburg RHP R-R 6-5 225 San Diego State San Diego Never drafted 2. Grant Green SS R-R 6-3 180 Southern California Anaheim Hills, Calif. Padres ’06 (14) 3. Alex White RHP R-R 6-3 195 North Carolina Greenville, N.C. Dodgers ’06 (14) 4. Dustin Ackley OF/1B L-R 6-1 185 North Carolina Walnut Cove, N.C. Never drafted 5. Kyle Gibson RHP R-R 6-6 200 Missouri Greenfield, Ind. Phillies ’06 (36) 6. Andrew Oliver LHP L-L 6-4 210 Oklahoma State Vermillion, Ohio Twins ’06 (17) 7. Mike Minor LHP L-L 6-4 195 Vanderbilt Lewisburg, Tenn. Devil Rays ’06 (13) 8. Kendal Volz RHP R-R 6-5 225 Baylor Bulverde, Texas D’backs ’06 (50) 9. Blake Smith RHP/1B L-R 6-2 220 California Modesto, Calif. Never drafted 10. Jason Stoffel RHP R-R 6-2 215 Arizona Agoura, Calif. Never drafted TOP 10 SENIORS (Draft Class of 2009) Rank Player Pos. B-T HT WT College Hometown Previously Drafted 1. Scott Bittle RHP R-R 6-2 195 Mississippi Texarkana, Texas Yankees ’08 (2) 2. Nate Freiman 1B/C R-R 6-8 240 Duke Wellesley, Mass. Rangers ’08 (28) 3. Preston Guilmet RHP R-R 6-2 200 Arizona Oakmont, Calif. Athletics ’08 (22) 4. Chris Rusin LHP L-L 6-2 185 Kentucky Canton, Mich. Athletics ’08 (23) 5. Kyle Thebeau RHP R-R 6-1 195 Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas Padres ’08 (9) 6. Trevor Holder RHP R-R 6-3 195 Georgia Birmingham, Ala. Marlins ’08 (10) 7. Andrew Carraway RHP R-R 6-2 200 Virginia Marietta, Ga. Never drafted 8. Louis Coleman RHP B-R 6-3 185 Louisiana State Schlater, Miss. Nationals ’08 (14) 9. Brett Milleville 1B/C R-R 6-4 240 Stanford Wichita, Kan. Angels ’05 (39) 10. Ryan Wood RHP/2B R-R 6-5 185 East Carolina Woodbridge, Va. Brewers ’08 (42)

11/13/2009 - Yankees Dynasty 11/4/2009 - All-Time Greats on Display