The summer showcase season is over and other than a few major fall high school events and some college fall ball, most of the year's amateur baseball activity is behind us. It's a solid class for pitchers who throw hard, with a lot of exciting high school arms and a handful of quality college starters, but is light on position players, especially at catcher and shortstop.

Here's our first ranking of the players for next year's draft, focused just on player quality with no consideration of where they might be drafted.

1. Carlos Rodon, LHP | N.C. State

Owner of perhaps the best amateur's slider in recent memory, Rodon is a power lefty with present stuff and a strong track record of missing bats (184 strikeouts in 132 innings last spring). He brings ace potential to a draft that lacks much of that kind of impact.