The PG Crosschecker Top 100 College Teams list was posted yesterday and team previews for each of the 100 teams will be posted over the next week. Allan Simpson, who is peerless in collecting and organizing information, did exactly that for the Top 100 list, while his son, Jeff, and yours truly wrote the vast majority of the Team Previews based on the information that Allan collected.

I was happy when Allan judged LSU and Texas A&M to be the top two teams in the country, especially since he couldn’t have been faulted for placing a very talented North Carolina team in the top two, especially since the UNC campus is literally just down the road from Allan’s home (Duke is actually closer).

The reason that I thought it was fitting was that after looking closely at all the teams from across the country, I thought it was obvious that LSU had, by a large margin, the best everyday starting lineup in college baseball in 2009.

Similarly, I thought that Texas A&M had the best pitching staff, from top to bottom, in the country by a healthy margin. And it’s appropriate that the top hitting/defensive line up and the top pitching staff occupy the two top slots in the pre-season.

Here’s a look at each of these two team’s strengths

Texas A&M Pitching Staff

The Aggies return pitchers who started 58 of the team’s 65 games in 2008 (46-19 record). The two pitchers who don’t return had ERA’s of 5.70 and 8.37.

Draft eligible sophomore LHP Brooks Raley enters the season as the Friday starter after going 7-2, 4.76 as a freshman. Contributing to his Friday role is the fact that the highly athletic Raley will also start in the A&M outfield and his arm will be at its best on Fridays.

Fellow sophomore Barrett Loux (6-2, 4.18, team high 81 K’s) may be the top prospect on the staff, with a heavy 92-95 mph fastball. He’ll join Raley in the weekend rotation.

The third weekend starter didn’t even pitch in 2008 but is well known to both scouts and college baseball fans: RHP Alex Wilson. Wilson is recovering from Tommy John surgery but was back to his former 93-96 mph velocity in the Cape last summer. Wilson went 13-3 and led the country in strikeouts as a freshman at Winthrop in 2006 and could easily be a first rounder this June.

That leaves juniors RHP Clayton Ehlert (6-2, 3.41) and LHP Scott Migl (3-3, 4.26) as the mid-week starters. Not only are they experienced (23 starts between them in 2008) and talented, they are the type of strike throwers that excel in out of league contests.

The sixth starter, if there is such a thing, would be freshman LHP Ross Hales, who would be a weekend starter for the vast majority of the programs in the country but will be a long reliever for the Aggies unless they decide to red-shirt him.

How about the bullpen? Well, the Aggies return two veteran RHP’s in senior Kyle Thebeau and junior Travis Starling who combined to go 14-7 with 12 saves in 125 (!) combined innings last year. Both can go multiple innings and both can finish games. RHP Shane Minks fills the long relief role (if that’s ever needed with the quality of the starters) after going 4-1, 3.27 last year, as can RHP Hank Robertson (1-0, 3.75).

That’s a ten deep pitching staff of experienced Division I pitchers, many of whom project as upper round draft picks. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Note to North Carolina fans: Your pitching staff is pretty close to A&M level in terms of talent and depth.

Louisiana State Lineup

The Tigers had 13 players start at least 11 games during their 49-19 season that saw them advance to the College World Series. Of those 13 players, 11 of them return to the new Alex Box Stadium in 2009. Only 1B Matt Clark (a big loss after a .344-28-64 season) and IF Michael Hollander (.297-6-45) don’t return.

It’s not just the number of returning starters, though. It’s the quality and the fact that so many of them are high ceiling players who should still be improving.

The LSU outfield is peerless in college baseball on defense and could be among the best offensively if performance meets potential. Junior RF Blake Dean is one of the most recognizable names in college baseball after his .353-20-73 season last spring. He came to Baton Rouge as a highly regarded pitching prospect and has an outstanding right field arm.

Anyone watching LSU’s playoff run last year saw freshman CF Leon Landry’s defensive excellence. Based on his summer season and the comments of the LSU coaching staff, there is LSU player who has improved offensively than Landry (.271-5-26) during the off-season.

If Landry is the nation’s top defensive centerfielder, which is a possibility, the second best might play left field for LSU, junior Jared Mitchell. Mitchell doubles as a wide receiver on the LSU football team, which might delay his offensive development (.297-6-29) but doesn’t effect his superior athletic ability and speed/range.

How about the middle infield? Junior 2B Ryan Schimpf isn’t a toolsy scout’s player, but .320-12-54 and only 3 errors in 65 starts speaks for itself. Draft eligible sophomore SS D.J. LeMahieu (.337-6-44) was an Aflac All-American and a potential first rounder, especially if he starts realizing his power potential.

Strength up the middle is a standard in baseball. Aside from having two true centerfielders and the Schimpf/LeMahieu middle infield, LSU will start the Team USA catcher behind the plate in sophomore Micah Gibbs (.322-2-35). The LSU coaching staff thinks enough of Gibbs offensive potential that they plan on batting him clean up.

Junior 1B/C Sean Owchinko (.272-4-21) and senior 3B Derek Helenihi (.295-3-43) will start at the corner infield positions. The DH spot will be spread around many players, notably freshman top prospect Mikie Mahtook and sophomore OF Chad Jones, a top football talent like Mitchell.

That lineup has just about everything you can ask for except for power on the corner infield positions. The outstanding defense, even more than the offensive potential, will be a big help to the Tigers sophomore dominated pitching staff.