There has been no lack of freshman stars through the first half of the 2009 college season. The compacted Division I schedule has meant that teams have had to go deeper into their pitching staffs for innings, and that means more opportunity for young pitchers. More young pitchers on the mound often equates to better hitting opportunities for young hitters.

Both sides have taken advantage of that dynamic, but the overall strength of the 2009 Freshman Class (effectively, the college draft class of 2011) appears to be in the quality and depth of pitching.

That shouldn’t be a surprise as there were a significant number of highly-regarded high-school pitching prospects in 2008 who decided to forego an immediate chance to play professional baseball in exchange for three years of development in college. Righthander Gerrit Cole is the most noteworthy such arm as he was a first-round pick of the New York Yankees but passed on that club’s offer in favor of attending UCLA. Righthanders Sonny Gray (Vanderbilt) and Alex Meyer (Kentucky) might also have been first-rounders last June if teams thought they had a chance of signing them.

Cole has been especially impressive at UCLA, despite a deceiving 2-3, 4.15 record on a UCLA team that is 13-19 overall. He has maintained the steady mid-90s velocity on his fastball that he showed last spring at a California high school, while showing both command of his pitches and maturity on the mound that scouts questioned a year ago.

PG Crosschecker is taking a mid-season look this week at the top players in each college class, and our focus today is on the freshman class. We will look at the top sophomores on Wednesday, the top juniors on Thursday and we’ll conclude the four-part series with an overview of the top seniors on Friday. Our primary consideration is simply identifying those players at each position that are performing the best to this point of the college season.

We’ve also identified, on the accompanying list, the top 10 performers overall in this year’s freshman class. Additionally, we’ve updated our take on the top 10 prospects in the freshman class—essentially the players we believe will be the top college draft picks in 2011.

In addition to Cole, Gray and Meyer, some of the other top pitching prospects coming into the 2009 season were lefthanders Danny Hultzen (Virginia), Nick Maronde (Florida) and Brett Mooneyham (Stanford), and righthanders Taylor Jungmann (Texas), Daniel Marrs (Wake Forest), Michael Palazzone (Georgia) and Cecil Tanner (Georgia). Most have thrown very well to start their college careers, and continue to build their resumes for the 2011 draft. Palazzone is age-eligible for the 2010 draft.

Three freshmen pitchers who did not have the substantial reputations of the 10 noted have made huge impacts this season on a trio of the nation’s top-ranked teams. It’s safe to say that Cal State Fullerton (No. 3 in the PG Crosschecker Top 50 rankings), Baylor (No. 7) and Florida State (No. 19) would still have formidable teams without righthanders Tyler Pill (Cal State Fullerton) and Logan Verrett (Baylor), and lefthander Sean Gilmartin (Florida State), but those three youngsters have combined to go 19-2 thus far this spring, and generally have outpitched some of the more highly-touted freshmen arms in the college ranks.

The wild-card in this year’s freshman pitching equation is Clemson lefthander Chris Dwyer, unique in that he is draft-eligible in June due to age. He turned 21 on April 10. The 6-foot-4 Dwyer has wowed scouts this spring with a low-90s fastball and one of the best curveballs in college baseball. How they approach his unprecedented signability situation remains to be seen.

Pitching aside, the two position players who have had perhaps the biggest impact this season among the nation’s elite freshmen are two infielders, Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon and Cal Poly second baseman Matt Jensen.

Neither was a stranger to the scouting community as Jensen was an 11^th-round pick of the Seattle Mariners last June, while the Atlanta Braves made a very strong run at signing Rendon, their 27^th-round pick, at the Aug. 15 signing deadline. Both players have shown impressive power for middle infielders and have led their teams to high national rankings. Like Jensen, Rendon may actually be more naturally-suited to playing in the middle infield in the long run, but is playing third base this season because of a need on the Rice roster.

Here’s our take on the Top 10 players overall in the freshman class at the mid-season point of the 2009 season: