agreed. On paper, he shouldn't have been promoted to AA in the first place. However, considering that Corpus is not some pitcher's nightmare like Lancaster, and that Appel does need to be in a situation to not just pitch "well" but to start dominating to have a real chance of becoming the stellar pitcher everyone expects him to be, perhaps repeating AA would be the best thing for him right now.
That's my point. He doesn't pitch on paper. We do not see him pitch every day, side sessions too, like the coaches do. We have no idea what he's working on, what his goals for each start are, what pitches he's working on,etc....
Agreed. Doesn't mean we can't prognosticate about his next step. Hell, everything we discuss here is partly based on paper, partly based on personal opinion, and partly based on bull****.
My guess is that if he is lights out in spring training and there is a starting spot available, he makes the opening day roster. Otherwise, I think he'll start at OKC.
My best guess is that Appel will start next season in AA. AA is the proving ground for prospects. Appel will need to dominate consistently in AA for a half season or so, before he gets the AAA promotion. Given Appel's tack record this year, I would not be surprised to see Appel repeat AA the following year. And I do not think Luhnow promotes Appel to The Bigs until he is ready to be successful. Why would Luhnow start Appel's clock before then?
94 pitches in 6 innings while only giving up 1 walk? Seems like Appel always racks up a pretty high pitch count. Labors through his outings which leads me to believe that pitches sometimes tend to find too much of the strikezone which is why he gets lit up sometimes. Need him to be more efficient with his pitches. Even with 10 groundballs to 1 flyball, I would have expected him to put up 85 pitches in 6 innings given those numbers. And he threw strikes too! 67k/27bb ratio that game. Maybe a lot of foul balls? That's a lot of strikes to have only 2 strikeouts. Maybe this team was just very patient and got to a lot of 2 strike situations and made contact. If that's the case, Appel needs to work on striking guys out, which was his main critique in his junior year of college.
You're making an issue of 1.5 pitches per inning more than your 'ideal' pitch count in a single game? After he throws one of his few solid games? Appel ain't gonna get any slack here is he.
I have a hard time predicting what promotion track they'll go with for Appel. He's got the pedigree and pure stuff to put it all together at any time. So if come March, all the talent evaluators say the light came on, then I could easily see him getting a prolonged look in ST and then starting at OKC. (Or even the remote chance of grabbing the 5th spot in the rotation). I don't buy into the whole 'he needs to prove himself' argument, even despite his minor league performance. He's already dominated at a level I consider equivalent to A+/AA ball (top flight NCAA). There's also not one pitching prospect in the system that should block a quick ascent, much less the BOR types like White, Wojo, Trope, or Buch.
From a #1 pick OVERALL...shoudl he get any slack? I'm just speaking from what I see in the numbers here, but 94 pitches in 6 innings is a lot, especially given the fact that he had a 10:1 groundout to airout ratio. Based on these numbers, it seems like he's getting deep into counts and not putting batters away efficiently. The more efficient he is with his pitches, the more innings he can pitch, the less taxing it is on the bullpen. If he learns how to strike guys out at a better clip, it gives hitters less of a chance of making contact and squeaking one through with 2 strikes, especially if they're going to be hitting the ball on the ground so often.
http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=31715421&sid=milb 2 strikeout home run on a fastball by Appel. Really needs to learn how to put away hitters.
I think if Appel has another good start that you would consider sitting him out the rest of the year. He is shaky, and I feel that he needs an offseason of confidence before he is ready to play like a number one overall pick.
Joe Musgrove @ Staten Island: 6 IP, H, 4 K D.J. Fisher hit his first home run as a pro in Tri-City's 6-1 win.
Wow, Musgrove has been dominating. Definitely wanna see him in QC Hoping this is the beginning of Fisher tapping into his power like Brett Phillips has.
Musgrove with 10 groundouts and 2 flyouts. He sure does get a lot of groundouts and limit walks. Really starting to like him
Moran 3-3, sac fly, 2RBI's, all vs. left handers. Love how he's handled AA. I think he starts at AAA next year and gets called up sometime next year depending on what we do with Dominguez. He can hit
