This appeared yesterday in Baseball America. The league has done well with players coming from around the country. I think the next step is filling the seats. That is the only weakness of the league so far...attendance
Summer College Leagues: Top 10 Prospects
Compiled by Aaron Fitt and John Manuel
Back in the 1990s, Baseball America's summer college prospect lists were limited to the Cape Cod League and the Alaska League, the two oldest and most established summer leagues. Our lists went to 10 and had a line of skinny with each player. The Alaska list was still tough to do because the league used metal bats, while the Cape used wood.
There were a couple of new leagues--the Northwoods popped up in the upper Midwest in the early '90s, and the Coastal Plain and New England Collegiate leagues followed later in the decade--but the roster of leagues and teams remained mostly unchanged.
Now, the summer leagues are on steroids, in a manner of speaking. New leagues seem to pop up every year, so that every nook and cranny of the country has a well-organized, wood-bat summer college league. And BA's coverage has expanded to keep up with the times, as we've started doing more and more prospect lists for summer leagues.
So this year, with the help of league officials, league coaches and various scouts, we ranked the top 10 prospects in 17 leagues other than the Cape Cod League, which got its usual Top 30. We present these lists in lieu of the summer All-America team, which we believe was redundant and not as useful to our readers as these prospect lists.
The Cape remains the nation's top summer league in terms of talent, a status that is unlikely to change in the near future. As to which league is next-best, though, that answer seems to vary from year to year. In 2006, we broke it down this way, with the understanding that the Cape has no true peer in this regard:
First Tier
Not the Cape, but that's OK.
Northwoods League Marked by depth of talent both with hard throwers and athletic position players.
Texas Collegiate Newish league keeps most of the top talent in the state.
Second Tier
Just a break or two away from moving up--or down--the talent meter.
Alaska League Just a down year for venerable circuit.
Central Illinois Freshmen dominate league top 10.
Coastal Plain Drawing talent from further afield as league's reputation grows.
Florida Collegiate Starting to keep top Florida talent home more often.
Great Lakes Has survived hibernation of former top franchise (Northern Ohio)
Jayhawk About as old-school as it gets, but that's not such a bad thing.
New England Collegiate Excels at giving small-school talent a stage.
Valley Miami influence means talent keeps coming to the Shenandoah.
Third Tier
There's talent, but more of a breeding ground for good college players.
Atlantic Collegiate
Cal Ripken Sr.
Clark Griffith
Mountain Collegiate
New York Collegiate
Southern Collegiate
West Coast Collegiate
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