Ya know, common sense has messed up plenty of good arguments.
Another way to look at it would be to ask oneself how effective Verlander would have been against short season A players during his last season in college.
Taking his 2003 season as being more representative he had a 7-6 record and a 2.40 ERA at Old Dominion. In his first season of pro ball he was 9-2 with a 1.67 ERA at the advanced A level then dominated AA even more before being promoted to the bigs.
Obviously he's an exceptional talent but it makes the point that the best don't always turn pro right after HS or play at the lower levels of pro ball out of college.
Generally speaking the best players out of our HS league go to college rather than turning pro out of HS although a few, not necessarily the most talented, do sign out of HS and our league produces some of the most talented players anywhere.
It might surprise some that the player who was probably the most talented in the league, Robert Stock, (went to college) was not the ace on his HS team and that he hit only about half the home runs that the league's leader, also a junior last season did. The ace went to college.