• Teams will have private workouts as things get a little closer, so they can get a longer look at a player. Case in point: Carlos Correa, currently ranked No. 5 on our Draft Top 100, worked out for the Minnesota Twins. The Twins pick at No. 2 overall. Keep in mind that doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a front-runner there, but they are taking a longer look at the talented shortstop from Puerto Rico.
•  The Braves are bringing in SoCal shortstop Tanner Rahier for a workout soon.
• There will be a lot of eyes on the Southern Section Div. II baseball playoffs in SoCal today. Lefty Max Fried (No. 7 on top 100) hasn’t pitched as well his last two starts and scouts will undoubtedly be watching closely to see if he can rebound. A strong outing could help solidify a place in the Top 10 picks for Fried.
• Potential first-rounder Lucas Sims (No. 20) threw well in his playoff game in the Georgia Class AAAAA high school playoffs. He pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on four hits and struck out eight. He was 91-92 mph. When he was on his breaking ball, it was good and he threw a pretty good changeup. He’s been pretty consistent all year.
• The bieggest matchup of the day (Thursday) is in Oklahoma State. Expect a lot of action as scouting directors and GMs can see two first-round arms go against each other: Oklahoma State’s Andrew Heaney vs. Texas A&M’s Michael Wacha.

Once again, I’m hoping to make this a weekly feature, a look at roster moves/transactions involving the top prospects in the game, focusing on the players on our Team Top 20s over on Prospect Watch. Here’s the week that was on the transaction wire:

• Kylin Turnbull, RHP (WAS, No. 17): Returned to Hagerstown from extended, first start since April 27. Went three innings on May 8 and struggled.
• Last week, I wrote that Jake Petricka and Nestor Molina were promoted in the White Sox system. Turns out it was a one-shot deal. Both are back down in Winston-Salem and Birmingham, respectively.
• Carlos Perez, LHP (ATL, No. 13): The lefty was sent down from Rome after struggling mightily in seven outings and a 12.79 ERA.
• Johermyn Chavez, OF (SEA, No. 17): On the DL with a broken hamate in his left hand.
• Yorman Rodriguez, OF (CIN, No. 12): After hitting .156 in 23 games, with 39 K’s in that span, Rodriguez was sent to extended to work things out.
• Alfredo Silverio, OF (LAD, No. 15): Silverio had been out initially because of a concussion, but that had cleared up. Then he hurt his elbow and needed Tommy John surgery, ending his season.
• Ben Wells, RHP (CHC, No. 13): Wells came off the DL on May 10 (blister) to pitch four innings in relief for Peoria.
• Zack Wheeler, RHP (NYM, No. 1): Wheeler came back from his fingernail problem to pitch 5 innings for Double-A Binghamton on May 10.
• Mycal Jones, OF (ATL, No. 16): Jones was sent down a level, from AA to Class A Advanced Lynchburg after hitting .141 with Mississippi.
• Shawn Tolleson, RHP (LAD, No. 9): The reliever got bumped up to Triple-A after posting a 1.38 ERA with 5 saves in Double-A.
• Matt Hoffman, LHP (DET, No. 14): The lefty came off the DL and pitched an inning in relief on May 9. Then he promptly returned to the DL (left shoulder strain).
• Jack Marder, C (SEA, No. 16): Marder came off the DL and picked up where he left off with the bat, going 5-for-15 in his first three games back for High Desert.
• A.J. Griffin, RHP (OAK, No. 13): Griffin continued his quiet ascent through the A’s system, getting bumped up to Triple-A after a 2.49 ERA in seven Double-A starts.
• Joe Ross, RHP (SD, No. 10): Ross was scratched from his last start and placed on the DL with shoulder soreness on Friday.
• Jace Peterson, SS (SD, No. 19): Placed on the DL with concussion symptoms after an on-field collision with a teammate.
• Danry Vazquez, OF (DET, No. 11): The teenager was sent to extended after hitting just .162 in 29 games for West Michigan.
• Kyle Parker, OF (COL, No. 11): Parker returned from a wrist injury that forced him out for the start of the season and he hit his first homer of the year for Modesto on May 12.
• Tommy Joseph, C (SF, NO. 5): Joseph was put on the DL due to a concussion.
• James Baldwin, OF (LAD, No. 10): Returned from a DL stint due to a strained oblique.
• David Adams, 2B (NYY, No. 19): The injury-prone infielder returned to Trenton following a stiff neck.

Obviously, we can’t update a player’s blurb with every DL move, saving it for the more serious injuries, big promotions, etc. We’ve been having a discussion about what to do with the information otherwise. There’s no clear place to put it, but it’s also good information we’d like to share with everyone. So, for the time being, I’m going to try and post it here whenever possible. Maybe it’ll be a weekly item (Transaction Tuesday — I always do like alliteration).  Here’s some of the most recent goings on with the top prospects in the game. I’m focusing on the Minor League ones, figuring most see when guys get called up to the big leagues.

Injuries

Nick Maronde, LHP, Angels — DL (strained lat). No. 6 on Angels’ Top 20
Khris Davis, OF, Brewers — DL (leg injury). No. 13 on Brewers’ Top 20

Promotions/Demotions

Jake Petricka, RHP, White Sox — Promoted from Winston-Salem (Class A Adv) to Birmingham (AA). No. 5 on White Sox’s Top 20
Nestor Molina, RHP, White Sox — Promoted from Birmingham (AA) to Charlotte (AAA). No. 2 on White Sox’s Top 20.
Stephen Pryor, RHP, Mariners — Promoted from Jackson (AA) to Tacoma (AAA). No. 9 on Mariners’ Top 20.
Joe Benson, OF, Twins — Demoted from Rochester (AAA) to New Britain (AA). No. 5 on Twins’ Top 20.

That’s just a smattering… Over the course of the week, there’s much more and I’ll start compiling them and providing more info… If people have ideas or suggestions for this, please fire away.

But what we have had are some graduations. The way we do things over at Prospect Watch, when a player on the list gets past rookie status — 130 at-bats for hitters, 50 innings pitched for pitchers or more than 45 days on the active roster for either — he has to come off.

So we had a little graduation ceremony today. Four players from the Top 100 came off:

Mike Trout, Angels
Jesus Montero, Mariners
Yonder Alonso, Padres
Randall Delgado, Braves

The first three surpassed the 130 AB mark between last year and this. Delgado did the sam with his innings threshold.

So, it’s time to welcome a new quartet to the back end of the top 100 (check them out on PW).

97. Eddie Rosario, 2B, Twins
98. Taylor Jungmann, RHP, Brewers
99. Robbie Erlin, LHP, Padres
100. Kolten Wong, 2B, Cardinals

That’s right, two second baseman added. I’m crazy like that. Also be sure to check out the team lists because we replaced the graduates on their respective Top 20s as well (not to mention the positional Top 10s… big shout out to colleague Jason Ratliff for getting it done once again!)

In case you missed it, 2012 Draft Central is up and running (and sponsored by CenturyLink). It’s going to be the place to go for Draft news and features leading up to the June 4-6 event.

So far, there are two newer stories up there, written by yours truly, to get the ball rolling. One is a general preview on how the new rules could change things, especially for teams with multiple early picks. The other is a look at what the new Top 100 looks like.

Oh, and yes, that means the Top 100 list is alive and well. Keep in mind, this is a list based on talent, not a projection. So while Byron Buxton is No. 1 on this list, that doesn’t mean that he’s necessarily going to be taken by the Houston Astros. More on this to come in a story on Friday about who the candidates to go No. 1 are (along with a story from the Astros by our intrepid beat writer Brian McTaggart), but most seem to think the Astros won’t take the high school outfielder from Georgia.

We will have much, much more — mock drafts, chats, you name it — in this month run-up to June 4. So check back early and often.

Yes, that does read like the beginning of a promotional piece. So lets promote:

In case you didn’t see it, we now have a Top 20 international amateur prospect list on Prospect Watch. Big shout out to my MLB.com colleague Jesse Sanchez (follow him on Twitter at @JesseSanchezMLB for doing the heavy lifting on that, not to mention a terrific story featuring No. 1 prospect Gustavo Cabrera.

We’ve also started a weekly Prospect Watch notebook. Edition No. 2 was posted today with stuff from myself and Mr. Sanchez on, in no particular order: DiDi Gregorius, Trevor Rosenthal, Kyle Skipworth, Evan Reed, Will Middlebrooks, Jonathan Singleton, Danny Hultzen, Jose Fernandez, Yasmani Grandal, Casey Kelly, Austin Hedges, Humberto Arteaga and much, much more! It’s about as jam-packed as a notebook can be with prospect info.

There are also a couple of new blogs that are definitely worth checking out. The Futurists is written by bloggers/fans/prospect geeks (that’s a complimentary term). It’s been a very active community writing and discussing all sorts of prospecty things.

Then there’s We the Prospects. That’s a blog written by prospects themselves about their experiences during the 2012 season. It’s just getting started with three players introducing themselves so far: the Brewers’ Nick Ramirez, the Diamondbacks’ Adam Eaton and the Reds’ Tucker Barnhart. Keep checking on that one for updates from that trio as well as other Minor Leaguers.

I leave you with this statistical tidbit:

To date, there are just two pitchers who qualify for an ERA title in the Minors who have an ERA of 0.00. They are Matt Barnes of the Red Sox and Felipe Rivero of the Rays. There are 15 pitchers who have yet to allow a hit in the Minor Leagues so far. None of them have thrown more than four innings, with one big exception: Orioles prospect Dylan Bundy, who has gone 13 hitless innings to start his professional career.

Oh, and keep an eye out for the 2012 Draft section to launch next week.

OK, maybe that’s overselling, but it always signifies to me that Draft season is really, truly upon us (Draft season really begins the day after the Draft ends in June, but you know what I mean).

Every year, the Draft brings with it a good number of story lines. But this year has the added intrigue of the new system as dictated by the new agreement that was collectively bargained. Just how will the bonus pools will impact how teams do business remains to be seen, with no one really knowing how it’s going to go.

There are the usual interesting tidbits about who is picking where, who has the most picks (Padres, Blue Jays, Cardinals have six in the first two rounds). But what about the teams that don’t have many picks at all. The Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, for example, will have a wait on their hands before they get to make their first selection.

The Tigers, who are likely getting used to not picking until late (), don’t go until pick No. 91, close to the end of the second round. But that might seem early to the Angels, who’s first turn  comes at pick No. 114, in the third round (thank you, Mr. Pujols and Mr. Wilson).

If you think that’s really late, maybe some kind of record, think again. The Angels would come in at No. 4 on the “latest initial pick” list. Here’s the top 16, thanks to the fine folks at the Commissioner’s Office.

1)      San Francisco – 132 in 2005
2)      Tampa Bay – 132 in 1998
3)      Seattle – 116 in 2000
4)     L.A. Angels — 114 in 2012
5)      Houston – 111 in 2007
6)      NY Yankees – 105 in 1988
7)      Arizona – 103 in 1998
8)      Boston – 102 in 1978
9)      St. Louis – 102 in 2002
10)    NY Yankees – 99 in 1980
11)     Baltimore – 99 in 1985
12)    Kansas City – 98 in 1990
13)    NY Yankees – 93 in 1983
14)    Seattle – 93 in 2004
15)    L.A. Dodgers – 91 in 1991
16)   Detroit – 91 in 2012

It was, by all accounts, a fairly lackluster Major League phase of the draft. Or, at the very least, it was a brief one, with just 12 players selected. There’s been talk about how the extra year teams now have (compared to the past) to decide whether to protect a player on the 40-man roster has made it much more difficult to find real hidden talent. Teams are doing a better and better job of making good decisions in that regard, so there were only a dozen guys taken this past year and the chance to find impact talent seems more unlikely.

But if you want to look at percentages (and this is baseball, so why wouldn’t we?), the 2011 Rule 5 Draft is looking like a really good one. Without looking — no peeking now — who can guess how many of the 12 players taken in December have been returned to their original teams? Keep in mind that it’s typically very difficult for a Rule 5 player to stick. Make your mental guesses now…

Did any of you guess 1? That’s it. Just 1 of the 12 is back with his original team and that was the No. 2 pick, Terry Doyle, who was sent by the Twins back to the White Sox. Doyle is now starting in Triple-A Charlotte. The other 11 players have stayed in some capacity. No. 11 pick Brett Lorin isn’t in the big leagues, but the Diamondbacks worked out a deal with the Pirates so they can keep him. He’s now pitching on a very deep Double-A Mobile staff. There are four guys on the disabled list, which enables teams longer to have to make a choice. And there are six on Major League rosters making contributions. Marwin Gonzalez is getting consistent playing time with the Astros. Here’s the complete list and what their status is, with the understanding that what happens the rest of the way, particularly with the injured guys, will go a long way toward determing just how successful this draft was.

The No. 1o overall prospect and No. 2 on the Orioles’ Top 20 has made just two appearances at three innings apiece. But it’s hard to find anyone else who’s begun a career in more exciting fashion than what Bundy has done with his first six professional innings.

Dylan Bundy has been perfect so far during his pro debut.

Bundy, the No. 4 pick in last year’s Draft (Matt Hobgood, btw, was the No. 5 pick overall, by the Orioles, in 2009) has faced 18 batters in those six innings and retired all 18. Not a hit, nary a baserunner to be found. Of those 18 outs, 12 have come by way of the strikeout. In total, he’s thrown only 14 pitches.

Ok, that last stat I made up. But come on, it’s hard not to be impressed, right? Yes, Bundy had a reputation of being an advanced high school guy, one who might move faster than  most prep arms. But you think Orioles fans were excited about him before the year started? If he keeps this up, they’ll become apoplectic. People ask if he’s good enough to make it to the big leagues this year. That’s not going to happen, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll stay too long in the South Atlantic League if this continues. The Orioles will — and should — be patient, but something tells me he’s going to push them pretty hard.

It got us thinking (us being myself and MLB.com colleague Jason Ratliff) about past high school phenoms coming out of the Draft. We had a theory that there were few, if any, high school pitchers who began their first full season of pro ball in as dominating a fashion as Bundy has. We couldn’t go all the way back — we don’t have game-by-game information in the Minors prior to 1999 (I was curious to see what Dwight Gooden did in his first 2 outings. In his first pro season, his only one in the Minors, he struck out 300. He also won 19 games while throwing 191 innings and completing 10 games — I guess monitoring pitch counts wasn’t such a big deal in 1983. Oh, he also walked 112). So starting with the 1999 Draft, here’s a partial list of high school pitchers taken in the top 10 of the Draft who got off to solid, if not quite Bundy-esque starts the following season. Archie Bradley, the fellow Oklahoman from last year’s Draft, is trying to keep up. Zack Greinke, who made his full-season debut in the Class A Advanced Carolina League, is the one who comes closest in my book.

1999 Draft

Josh Beckett (No. 2, Marlins): 9 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 12 K
Bobby Bradley (No. 8, Pirates): 11 IP, 8 H, 3 R (0 ER), 2 BB, 21 K

2000 Draft

Mike Stodolka (No. 4, Royals): 10 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

2002 Draft

Zack Greinke (No. 6, Royals): 11 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K (in Carolina League)

2003 Draft

John Danks (No. 9, Rangers): 6 1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 R (1 ER), 2 BB, 12 K

2006 Draft

Clayton Kershaw (No. 7, Dodgers): 7 1/3 IP, 3 H, 2 R (1 ER), 9 BB, 9 K

2007 Draft

Madison Bumgarner (No. 10, Giants): 8 IP, 11 H, 7 ER, 0 BB, 10 K

2010 Draft

Jameson Taillon (No. 2, Pirates): 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

2011 Draft

Archie Bradley (No. 7, Diamondbacks): 11 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 11 K

The 2012 season is upon us and there’s almost too much going on.  We’ve been busying updating all the blurbs on Prospect Watch to reflect assignments to teams, injuries, other news. We will try to be vigilant on keeping things updated and dynamic as the season progresses.

But there’s more than just Prospect Watch updates going on. There’s a new blog written by prospect-crazy fans/writers called The Futurists. I highly recommend you check it often. We have many contributors signed up, blogging about a wide spectrum of prospect-related issues. Read it and get involved — leave comments as we really want it to be an interactive experience.

Coming soon is another blog, one written by the prospects themselves. It’s called We the Prospects and we’re working on getting prospects across several levels and organizations to contributed. Stay tuned for when that one gets going full-tilt.

There’s a lot more in the works:

• International amateur Top 20 prospects
• 2012 Draft Top 100 prospects
• Weekly Prospect Watch notebook

I’ll be sure to update all when each is up and running. Trying the polls function out here, so please, weigh in on this week’s question:

Finally, I was looking at stuff I did during Spring Training and I realized I never posted my complete interview with Pirates prospect Josh Bell. It went with this story about him starting his first full season.