RHP Mark Appel, the top overall pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft, was promoted to AA Corpus Christi from Lancaster yesterday and will get his first start in the Texas League Wednesday.
A cause for celebration. Certainly champagne corks popped amid congratulatory pats on the back as another step toward the big leagues was taken.
Or, maybe not.
News of the promotion apparently irked some players on the major league club, especially after Appel showed up at MinuteMaid Park to throw a bullpen on his way to Corpus Christi. But then, Astros team leaders Jason Castro and Chad Qualls did damage control, indicating that there was no problem with Appel being promoted or being at MMP, and that things had been “blown out of proportion.”
Look at those two linked articles side-by-side and they don’t match up. Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle’s Ultimate Astros blog provided anonymous quotes in real time on twitter. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com had the Castro/Qualls rebuttal. While Ortiz used anonymous quotes, it is hard to imagine he made them up or took them the wrong way.
Appel’s had a difficult season, starting with an off-season appendectomy, and the promotion comes despite a horrific struggle at hiA Lancaster. The California League is notoriously hitter-friendly, with The Hangar in Lancaster being a wind-aided launching pad. But some of Appel’s numbers were far worse than the league norm: 12 G, 44 1/3 IP, 74 H, 48 ER, 9.74 ERA, .372 batting average against.
Congratulations kid, you’re moving up.
There was a trip back to extended Spring Training, a 1.2 IP/10 ER outing, back-to-back 7 ER outings and then, finally, this:
Last Thursday at Stockton Appel went six innings, allowing five hits and two earned runs with no walks while striking out seven. It improved his record to 2-5 and dropped his ERA below 10.00.
Clearly, Appel’s performance didn’t earn him the trip to Corpus Christi. He’s the Astros’ #2 organizational prospect and the #46 prospect in all of baseball according to MLB.com. And he got knocked around in the California League more than most pitchers, which is saying something.
Appel’s struggles have caused the Astros a huge dilemma. It got that way before they were unable to sign this year’s top overall pick, Brady Aiken. And before SS Carlos Correa was lost for the season with a leg injury. What should the organization do with a prospect this highly touted and this expensive, who performs as badly as Appel has this year?
I don’t know that the players on the 43-63 Astros are the ones to determine that. He was on his way to Corpus Christi, and the big league club wanted to see him throw. I would hope they would want to see him throw. I would hope they would have some observations and some pointers to give their prized prospect who is struggling so badly.
This sounds like old-time baseball nonsense. The Book. The Code. Cole Hammels throwing at Bryce Harper for no reason whatsoever. That type of thing.
There was a time when players would get upset if one of their teammates was on first base and he was socializing with the first-baseman, or vice-versa. “Don’t talk to him, he’s the enemy!” Free agency blew that up, but somehow the game goes on.
Appel’s got enough problems. Getting him out of the California League isn’t a bad idea with a few weeks to go in the minor league season. Should he have gone down instead of up? I don’t know, the Astros tried that already. Maybe they have a plan that has something to do with him being closer to the major league club. Maybe the plan is, if this doesn’t work, they start over next season, or over the winter, or whatever.
But the current Astros probably don’t know what that plan is and they have their hands full with their own business. Good for Castro and Qualls to recognize how bad they look and for pledging their support. Castro and Appel are connected as Stanford alums, but stepping up was bigger than that.
Whoever said the inflammatory quotes needs to concentrate on getting competitive in the A.L. west and leave the business of Mark Appel’s development to the front office and coaching staff. Looking over the roster, I wonder how many of these guys will be around when Appel makes the club.
