General Sports Water Cooler

28 year old reliever from Boston's system. Has had decent K rates in his career.

1. Dylan Bundy

The Scoop: If you want to quibble, you can make an argument that a pitcher who throws six innings in two starts shouldn't lead the first Prospect Hot Sheet of the season. We believe the teen righthander's absolute dominance to this point has to be acknowledged.

Throwing three innings per start on six days of rest, the fourth overall pick in last year's draft has been able to air it out on every pitch knowing he's not going to be around long enough to worry about fatigue. And if Bundy had given up a hit, or a baserunner, or thrown one pitch from the stretch in his first two outings, we might be inclined to agree. Besides, it's not Bundy's fault that the Orioles are exercising such caution. Unofficially, he's thrown 76 pitches in his first two starts—a normal night's work for many pitchers. Just six of the 18 batters he's faced have put the ball in play.

Bundy's already making the case that he's too good for low Class A. Scouts heading into last year's draft described him as a college pitcher on a high school team. Scouts who saw him in spring training this year said he was as sure a bet to succeed as any young pitcher you will see. With a fastball that has touched 100 mph, a plus curveball and an already developed changeup, Bundy pitches beyond his 19 years. Expect to see him on the Hot Sheet again (and again).

11. Manny Machado

The Scoop: If you look hard, you can find prospects who put up better numbers than Machado did during the first week of the season. But you can't find a teenage shortstop in Double-A who did any better.
The youngest player in the Eastern League, and the third youngest player in Double-A (behind Jurickson Profar and Taijuan Walker), Machado already is showing he not only belongs in the Eastern League, he's likely to be one of the circuit's best players.
The Orioles system doesn't have much depth when it comes to prospects, but with Bundy and Machado at the top of the system's rankings, it does have ample star power on its way.

Sean (Tempe): What's your take on how ARI and BAL are handling Bundy and Bradley? It seems like ARI is letting Bradley do his thing while Bundy is being handled with kid gloves.

J.J. Cooper: John Manuel and I talked about this in the podcast this week and I'll have a story for later today after talking to Bundy's pitching coach about the Orioles' approach. Baltimore wants keep Bundy's innings down, but they also want to see him pitch the entire season, so that's led them to severely limit his innings early this season before stretching him out more (remember they are on a six-man rotation as well). Arizona is letting Bradley pitch what is clearly a more normal approach. John and I are both proponents of letting young pitchers work into at least the middle innings of games if they are being efficient enough to do it without piling up massive pitch counts, so I think you could say that we're both in favor of what the Diamondbacks are doing with Bradley, but at the same time holding Bundy to three innings a start in April 2012 is unlikely to harm his development, especially if he's allowed to work in to the seventh in June.

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Shoshana (Boston): As an Oriole fan I guess I would prefer Bundy gets most of his innings at a more appropriate level, I'm just not sure I get starting him at low-A

J.J. Cooper: We talked about this on the podcast. Low Class A is a pretty aggressive starting assignment for a high school pitcher. If he shows he's too good for the level (as he is showing) then you can easily move him up. It's also good from a development level as far as fitting in with teammates and all to start him with players his own age. Bundy isn't pitching in Baltimore this year, so there's no real reason to worry about whether he gets some starts in low A.

Is Schrader a legit prospect? His K numbers have always been ridiculous. Is he in the top 30 prospects for us?

#12 on BA's list.

"I said I wouldn't be surprised if he was in the big leagues before the end of the year,'' Palmer said. "That's only because of what I saw in his ability. I think he's going to work his way right to the big leagues, but there are other circumstances that may change that. I also said I wasn't the general manager, but stuffwise, commandwise, wind-up-wise, preparationwise, I wouldn't think he would have a problem pitching in the major leagues."

Art Stewart, a long-time scout, said he's the best high school pitcher he's seen since Dwight Gooden.

(I realize Strasburg was a college pitcher)

Gabriel Lino 4-5 today with a double and 2 HRs.

Matt Antonelli - .182/.500/.318

Lol 4 hits and 13 BBs

I knew that the A's gave him away because of the K's...but d@mn this is ridiculous.

Depends on Miller's defense.