Mark Appel's gone 6 innings and has allowed 1 other hit to go with the solo homer he served up in the 3rd. He has 8 Ks and has thrown 77 pitches (53 strikes).
Mark Appel's final line: 7 IP, 3 H (solo homer), ER, 10 K, 91 pitches (64 strikes) Fresno leads Albuquerque 4-1 in the 7th.
Can't have enough power arms out of that bullpen! I think Appel probably gets that callup in September and then we'll see what he's got.
Probably Appel's best start of his professional career. 3 baserunners and 10 K's is dominance. I don't see any way Appel makes it to Houston this year, he is a starter. Plus given the less than spectacular mental toughness he has seemed to show, I don't think I want him in late game situations in a pennant chase. Finish strong, build that confidence (and trade value). Highly likely he is in somebody's rotation very early next season.
It would have been idiotic to give up on Appel. Talk about selling low. The young prospect might be no better than those who have written him off say, but he has an arsenol that makes others drool. I still think his floor is going to be an elite number 3 guy in the championship calibur rotation, or an ace on an average to below average team. I am glad he was not traded.
i wouldn't have "sold low", but if they were to have gotten some value for him, and passed on the risk, i wouldn't have thought that was a bad idea at all.
It kind of sounds that an Appel trade for anybody of quality was going to need a lot of sweetening the pot. It was not going to be a straight up trade. So we were looking at 2 or 3 top prospects plus quite an array of more depth for a guy like Chapman or even Cole Hammel. Teams were going to try and fleece the Astros trying to dangle the guy who' push them over the top.
I have to disagree with the mental toughness argument. What you see as a weakness could be what has kept him from falling completely out of baseball. Prospects come and go for many reasons. I believe his career path has gone a completely different route than he anticipated and he has started to come around. Just looking at it from a different angle.
Talk about two prospects a lot of people were ready to write off last season and earlier this season. I am sure their trade value was very low but each absolutely needed to be included to make a deal work. Moran and Appel may end up with other organizations when all is said and done. But I think they are going to be building up their value by leaps and bounds. Just like Phillips was an after thought after the 2013 season, he netted the Astros a pretty nice trade haul for the next couple of years. But I think that Phillips will be a star for years to come; but it is the cost of going for the championship this and next season.
