Bregman No. 1 on midseason Top 100 Prospects list

A great year keeps getting better and better for Astros rookie Alex Bregman.

The No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 Draft opened the season at Double-A Corpus Christi, where he hit .297 with 14 homers in 62 games, and was leading the Texas League in on-base percentage (.415) and slugging (.559) before he was promoted to Triple-A Fresno in late June. He homered five times in his first eight Triple-A games before taking a weekend off to go collect three hits — two for extra bases — at the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game.

Bregman returned to Triple-A and ran his numbers to .333/.373/.641 in 18 games before getting the call to Houston on Monday, making him the first position player and the third member from last year’s Draft class to advance to the Majors. He made his big league debut Monday night, going 0-for-4 against the Yankees.

And now, Bregman ascends to the No. 1 spot on MLBPipeline.com’s Top 100 Prospects list. Sure, that may not mean as much as playing in his first Major League game, but it’s still an honor to follow in the footsteps of past top prospects such as Joe Mauer, David Price, Mike Trout and Corey Seager.

ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES To be eligible for a list, a player must have rookie eligibility. To qualify for rookie status, a player must not have exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues, or accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the 25-player limit period, excluding time on the disabled list or in military service. The rankings follow the guidelines laid out by the new Collective Bargaining Agreement in terms of who falls under the international pool money rules: Players who are at least 23 years old and played in leagues deemed to be professional (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Cuba) are not eligible.

Bregman, a natural shortstop who needs a new position because the Astros already have Carlos Correa, headlines a Top 100 that’s dominated by middle infielders at the very peak. Red Sox second baseman Yoan Moncada (No. 2), Phillies shortstop J.P. Crawford (No. 3) and Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson (No. 5) also rated highly, with Nationals right-hander Lucas Giolito (No. 4) the only non-infielder to crash the top five.

The other players all ranked in the top 10 in our preseason Top 100, but Bregman has jumped from No. 22 to No. 1. His ascension is just one of many significant developments in the first four months of the 2016 season, which is why we’ve totally revamped our ranking of the game’s best prospects and all of our team Top 30 lists after consulting with front-office officials and scouts. For the first time, we’re including players from the 2016 Draft and the 2016-17 international signing period.

Top farm systems

Which teams have the best farm system? One way to measure that — it’s more quick than scientific — is our Prospect Points system. Assign 100 points to the No. 1 prospect (Bregman), 99 to the No. 2 (Moncada) and so on down the line to one point for the No. 100 prospect (Cardinals outfielder Harrison Bader).

The Pirates lead all organizations with 383 Prospect Points, largely the result of having the highest-rated foursome …

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