A consensus front two of Appel/Gray has become a consensus front three of Appel/Gray/Bryant. The quality of draft rumors has improved in proportion to draft coverage, it seems. The big surprises that always seem to occur at the front of the draft don't necessarily mean the rumors were false, but rather that they were overruled at the last second. Houston deciding to spread its bonus allotment and take Correa caught a lot of folks off guard. Ditto for Appel dropping.

This year, the last-minute rumor has been Colin Moran's consideration as a below-slot pick for 1-1. This story has been broken by a few writers, and the gist of it seems to be that the Astros like the idea of a steady, NCAA positional bat, probably think Moran can play third, want to spread their bonus allotment around to rebuild the system in depth, and have a habit of doing that established last year. This final reason is where I think people have maybe gone too far in considering this. That the Astros did something last year, when they had a bunch of picks and clearly liked Correa as much as Buxton and saw some guys sliding due to signability (McCullers and Ruiz), doesn't mean they'll follow the same strategy this year.

Still, it's worth keeping in mind for a Twins fan because if somebody like Moran breaks up the big three, that means one of them falls to the Twins.

The interesting thing is that the Twins have been more firmly tied to an individual name than I can ever remember - Texas prep righthander Kohl Stewart.

Here's BA's writeup on Stewart:

"A premium football recruit as a quarterback, Stewart passed for 8,803 yards and 87 touchdowns in three high school seasons before committing to play two sports at Texas A&M. It's unlikely he'll ever play for the Aggies because he's the top high school pitcher in the draft. He may not get the No. 1 overall pick buzz of righthanders Jonathan Gray (Oklahoma) and Mark Appel (Stanford), but one scouting director said, "Stewart's pure stuff is as good as theirs, and he's more athletic than they are." Scouts love the 6-foot-3, 190-pounder's arsenal, athleticism and competitiveness. They say that he has better present stuff than Jameson Taillon did when the Pirates took the suburban Houston righthander No. 2 overall in 2010. Stewart has boosted his fastball from 88-93 mph last summer to 91-96 for much of the spring, though his velocity tails off at times in the later innings. His life and command with his heater make it even more dominating, but his best offering is a power mid-80s slider with tilt. He has improved his curveball and shows feel for his changeup, and he'll display four above-average big league pitches at times. He has a clean delivery and should get even better once he concentrates solely on baseball. Stewart has been limited at times this spring because of minor shoulder (a carryover from football), hamstring and thumb ailments, but none is a major concern. Neither is his signability, because he'll get picked early enough to be paid handsomely and teams don't believe he'll go to Texas A&M to sit behind reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel. Some clubs could shy away from Stewart because he's a Type 1 diabetic, though Brandon Morrow went fifth overall in 2006 with the same condition. Stewart should go in the same range this June."

His signability has been widely discussed, but mostly for the purpose of amateurs like me pretending to be smart. He's not turning down the #4 slot money to sit on the bench at A&M.

The Twins rather notoriously avoid prep arms early in the draft, but they like athletes and they know they need pitching. Drafting for need at #4 is never a good idea, but Stewart has probably a stronger argument for best player available than any other candidates *unless* the above situation with Moran occurs. Still, guys like Keith Law are reporting that the Twins are deep on Stewart, so a shakeup at the top might not affect them.

If that's the case, it might be more like the 2012 Astros than people are projecting the 2013 Astros to be. The Twins don't have a ton of picks, but there could be some interesting guys slide to the later rounds that could benefit the Twins if they saved some cash on Stewart.

Local, toolsy outfielder Ryan Boldt was considered a mid-first rounder until an injury ended his season and left scouts to speculate on the ability of a cold-weather prep player based on some early workouts. The Twins love local and toolsy.

There are also a bunch of interesting prep catchers available, and a better crop than usual of local arms.