SUMMER 10

Green Top Summer Performer

Most of the college players being touted for the first round of the 2009 draft are spending the summer with USA Baseball’s college national team, which recently ran its record to 14-0 after defeating Cuba’s Olympic team twice, including 4-1 in the championship game, on its way to a perfect mark at Holland’s Haarlem Baseball Week.

The notable exception is Southern California shortstop Grant Green, who is spending his second straight summer in the Cape Cod League. Green’s batting average has hovered around the .400 mark most of the summer, and he continued to lead the Cape League in runs (24) and hits (41).

Of all the non-Team USA players, Green has done more to solidify his stock as a first-rounder this summer and appropriately ranks atop PG Crosschecker’s Summer 10—a weekly ranking of the top performers (not necessarily prospects) in the nation’s leading college summer leagues. Every second week, we skip the talent on Team USA and concentrate only on players in summer-league competition.

Catcher Carlos Ramirez, who will transfer from Chandler-Gilbert (Ariz.) JC to Arizona State in the fall, continues to put up impressive numbers in the Northwoods League, topping that league in average and homers.

Here’s this week’s Summer 10 (all players are eligible for the 2009 draft):

Rank Player Position 2009 School Summer Team League '08 Summer Stats
1. Grant Green SS Southern California Chatham Cape Cod .398-3-10, 24 R, 41 H
2. Carlos Ramirez C Arizona State Mankato Northwoods .356-9-35
3. A.J. Pollock OF Notre Dame Falmouth Cape Cod .384-2-11, 22 R
4. Steve Ames RHP Gonzaga Wenatchee West Coast 5-0, 0.50, 36 IP/12 H/7 BB/40 SO
5. Adam Liberatore LHP Tennessee Tech Waynesboro Valley 5-0, 0.81, 45 IP/24 H/10 BB/44 SO
6. Nick Liles 3B-OF Western Carolina Yarmouth-Dennis Cape Cod .400-0-18, 10 SB
7. Derek McCallum 2B Minnesota St. Cloud Northwoods .355-3-33, 54 H
8. Kevin Mahoney 3B Canisius Forest City Coastal Plain .331-10-45
9. Carson Andrew RHP Jacksonville Santa Barbara Cal Collegiate 3-0, 0.68, 40 IP/21 H/8 BB/40 SO
10. Christian Bergman RHP UC Irvine Anchorage Bucs Alaska 3-1, 0.99, 46 IP/36 SO/3 BB/27 SO

--COMPILED BY ALLAN SIMPSON