MLB Draft

■ The MLB Amatuer Draft begins Tuesday, June 19, at 5PM CT, Live on MLB Network. If you don't have access to the MLB Network, there will undoubtedly be coverage on various college baseball message boards, including CollegeBaseball.Rivals.com. After the 1st round, live coverage moves to MLB.com Draft Central

■ Crystal ball: Projecting the first round: MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo updated his 1st round projections on Thursday:

4. Pittsburgh Pirates: Aaron Crow, RHP, Fort Worth Cats.
The Pirates would love it if the Mariners and Padres passed on Ackley and he dropped to them, something that now sounds to be at least a remote possibility. The other choices are the same, with Grant Green potentially in the mix if they want a bat and Ackley's gone. Other college pitchers in the mix could be Alex White or Kyle Gibson, though that seems unlikely now, and there might be a high school pitcher or two who could sneak up here.

12. Kansas City Royals: Kyle Gibson, RHP, University of Missouri.
Normally, the Royals would probably be ecstatic for Gibson to be available here and not just because it'd be a "backyard" pick. But Gibson had two straight starts of dropped velocity, throwing a reported 82-87 mph in his regional win last weekend. He was quoted as saying that it was just some forearm tightness caused by the long season. The alarm bells you're hearing are that baseball folk will make a quick leap from "forearm tightness" to an elbow problem. If he can get the medical question answered, this is a good spot for him. If not, he could keep sliding. As a backup, there was word that North Carolina high schooler Wil Myers had impressed recently in a workout.