Arizona State has produced more picks in the baseball draft’s 45-year history than any other college, and also holds the single-season record, with 15 selections in 2008.

Though the Sun Devils have legitimate College World Series aspirations this year and should easily be the best club among 12 Division I schools in the five-state region comprising the Southwest, their impact on the 2010 draft is expected to be marginal—at least by ASU’s lofty standards.

The Sun Devils have no players projected to go in the first two rounds in June. Their best prospect, crafty Australian senior lefthander Josh Spence, is expected to be selected in about the same spot (third round) as he was a year ago, when he elected not to sign with the Los Angeles Angels. Righthander Seth Blair is also expected to be drafted in the same area, and between Spence and Blair, they should be one of the nation’s most effective 1-2 starting combos.

Overall, it should be a particularly sparse year for D-I talent throughout the Southwest. ASU’s strength, from a draft standpoint, is in its sophomore and freshman classes, while its chief in-state rival, Arizona, is expected to be a minimal force as well as the Wildcats are in the midst of a significant rebuilding job. Three of the best college talents in Arizona this year are draft-eligible sophomores.

Still, both those traditional national powers dominate the accompanying list of the 10 best college prospects in the Southwest for this year’s draft as there are few, if any, noteworthy prospects at the four-year level in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

Despite the gloomy outlook, it’s still expected to be a noteworthy year for talent in the area as the junior-college ranks are brimming with prospects.

In fact, the early favorite to go No. 1 overall in this year’s draft is celebrated College of Southern Nevada freshman catcher Bryce Harper. The 17-year-old phenom accelerated his draft eligibility by a full year when he left a Las Vegas high school after his sophomore year, and subsequently earned his GED while enrolling in junior college.

While Harper will draw a flood of scouts to all his games this spring, he won’t be the only CSN player attracting widespread interest on a deep, talented team that PG Crosschecker will rank No. 1 in its pre-season junior-college top 50 rankings (scheduled to be unveiled on Wednesday).

Several of Harper’s teammates—notably mid-90s righthanders Joe Robinson and Tyler Hanks—are also expected to be early-round selections. In all, the Coyotes could have 8-10 players drafted—possibly more than any college program in the Southwest.

But Southern Nevada hardly holds a monopoly on all the junior-college talent in the area. Its chief in-state rival, Western Nevada, has its share of draftable players, and the rich Arizona junior-college ranks will be a significant force again in this year’s draft.

PG Crosschecker will unveil its list of the top 200 prospects in the junior-college ranks on Thursday, and it should have a heavy Southwest flavor. In fact, there are more juco players (12) from the five-state area projected to be drafted in the first 10 rounds this year than four-year college players (11), according to PG Crosschecker.

With that as a backdrop, here’s an overview of how we see the talent stacking up in the Southwest college ranks (excluding the junior colleges) in 2010.