Your asking why I am posting then the smart ass buh bye. If I misunderstand what you're saying, I'll apologize. I've read your takes on Astros baseball for years and always thought you were knowledgeable. Just thought that you were attacking Appel for his faith and that should probably be taken to another place. If you weren't then I'll apologize for that also. Your opinion is that he's a pu&&y and I'll just have to say that is unsubstantiated. If you want to know who I am I'll give you my number and we can meet for a cold beer and watch a ball game.
So how about those future Astros? Surprised to see Moran out. He's been hot since coming back from injury.
Fair enough. I'm not attacking his faith, but I do find it offputting to hear him blame his lack of performance on God. And his crying and wanting to quit once things started going sour makes him sound like a wuss. And a 23 y/o millionaire damaging somebody else's property then being offended by a $500 quote for repairs also provides a little look behind the scenes into his character in my opinion. Again, all just my opinions. I understand that all might not agree with em. I'm not gonna tell them they are out of line and to go post somewhere else though.
He spent $100, but that included tools, which a professional would already have. You are talking maybe $50 in material cost, and less than an hour in labor (most professionals will charge a 1 hour minimum). I had a similar wall put up in my rental house where my hot water heater was. I wasn't charged anything for it. He said don't worry about it (he was there for something else).
Look.... When I read the first half of his "letter" I thought he sounded at best naive or at worst egotistical. However I thought he explained himself better in the second half. While he blames God for failure, he also praised God for success. He views the world very different than most people. He didn't refuse to pay $500. He asked if he could do it himself if the trainer was satisfied with his work. His personality has worked for some athletes.... Andy Pettite, Evander Holifield, Orel Hershiser.
In Astros minor league news.... Johnny Sewald with another big game. He is now hitting .309, with a .431 OPB. He also has 15 Steals and has yet to be caught. He apparently profiles as an outstanding CF defensively. No power whatsoever, but he could become an interesting leadoff prospect. Small sample though.
He made sure to point out in his article that he thought $500 was "too steep". He could have easily left that out and just mentioned that he asked if he could do the repairs himself, but he didn't. He made it known that he was in disagreement with their quote, and that's the reason that he wanted to repair it himself. The notion that you could be a 24-year old multi-millionaire, intentionally destroy somebody else's property, then, have the gall to say their asking price of $500 to replace the damage was "too steep" - blows my mind. Remorse and the desire to maintain a good impression with the organization should be of foremost importance to him, and $500 should have been snapped out of his wallet, no questions asked. Worrying that it may be too high of a quote, and that he should be able to save a couple hundred bucks shows misplaced priorities, at minimum, and in my eyes, it gives a peek behind the curtain and exposes character flaws. Maybe I read too far into things, but I think it's significant and says a lot about the guy.
Sorry man but I think you are reading too much into it.... If he flat out refused to pay it or said he would repair it and never did, I would be concerned. Sounds to me like he just comes from a really frugal family. Obviously he isn't the most mentally tough guy or he wouldn't have talked about quitting or wanting a promotion when his era was 8... but he strikes me as sheltered and still fairly young, hopefully he learned from it. Maybe the Astros can send Nolan Ryan to Fresno to toughen him up... Let Nolan pull him by his jock strap into the middle of the locker room and beat him mercilessly while Robin Ventura listen and cries on speaker phone... I would pay to see that.
Wow that article really provides a painful look into what Appel is made of, scary. Reading that article and watching his body language in a bunch of his professional starts still leads me to believe the dude is incredibly soft.
Interesting that we have Hoes and Presley up instead of Santana. Luhnow trying to find something, anything, to jump start the offense I guess.
Now that Rasmus and Marisnick are back, I don't see a big need for Presley. Hoes I don't mind. I don't think Hoes has been given a long enough look, I think he has a chance to be a pretty good contact/OBP player. At AAA so far he's posted a .309/.392 career combo. He was terrible in his chance last season, but his BABIP was a paltry .198. Not that I think Hoes is the next big thing, I just think our lineup could use a contact guy to change it up, at least until Springer gets back. Maybe he shows us something.
Dan Straily allowed 2 runs on 7 hits, walked 1, and struck out 9 in Fresno's 8-2 win over El Paso last night.
Could also be Luhnow wanting to improve trade value, though that could always backfire. I remember a report that some team (can't remember which?) was interested in our AAA OF.. namely Hoes, IIRC.
