With its huge population and a climate that is conducive to playing baseball year-round, California has produced more high-school draft picks than any state in every year since the draft’s inception in 1965.

Nothing will change in the 2009 draft as the Golden State is considered deep in high school talent—no matter what the standard, even its own. PG Crosschecker projects that the state’s prep ranks will produce 17 picks in the first three rounds of next June’s draft, and 41 in the top 10 rounds.

Our recently-revised list of the nation’s top 1,400 prospects in the 2009 high school class has 10 California prospects in the top 32 positions, and 24 in the first 100. The California-based ABD Bulldogs, featuring a roster that included seven of the state’s top 15 prospects, recently won the 80-team World Wood Bat Association fall championship in Jupiter, Fla.

The NCAA’s early-signing period is scheduled to begin Wednesday, and California players will be prevalent as major college teams move to sign the cream of the crop in the 2009 high school class to letters-of-intent. Players have one week to sign and a vast number of the nation’s top high-school prospects are expected to.

In most cases, it will just be a matter of making official verbal commitments that have been in place for weeks—and more than a year in some cases. PG Crosschecker has college commitments for almost all of the nation’s top high school players, including 44 of the top 47-ranked prospects in California.

Of the 47, seven have committed to UCLA, six to Cal State Fullerton, five to Southern California and four to San Diego. Out-of-state schools have always tapped into California’s plentiful talent pool, and Arizona State and Oregon have commitments from three players apiece.

We’ll continue to update our lists as the signings become official and we learn of additional signings. For now, here’s how we see the top 10 prospects in California and the player’s unofficial college commitment: