Astros, No. 1 pick Appel agree to deal worth more than $6 million

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/jon-heyman/22430071/no-1-pick-appel-and-astros-have-a-deal

The Astros have a deal with No. 1 overall pick Mark Appel, the Stanford righthander, sources said.

The Appel deal is expected to amount to somewhere north of $6 million -- probably between $6 million and $6.5 million, though the exact amount couldn't be confirmed.

Appel turned down a $3.3 million offer from the Pirates after being the No. 8 overall selection a year ago, gambling that he could improve his stock. The Pirates may have been willing to go to $3.8 million, but they were limited by their total bonus allotment.

Appel, a native of Houston, wanted to go there. "I'm coming home, I'm coming home! tell the world, I'm coming home," Appel tweeted on June 6, the day he was picked No. 1 by the Astros, leaving little doubt he was thrilled to go to the Astros.

Some expect him to be in the majors within a year or so.

If Appel's deal comes in the $6 million to $6.5 million range, as expected, it will leave the Astros some rooom in their bonus allotment since slot for the No. 1 pick is $7.79 million.

Appel improved his stock by going 10-4 with a 2.12 ERA for Stanford as a senior, garnering 130 strikeouts in 80 innings.

Speaking of the first overall pick. We were back on track to catch the Marlins for the first pick in 2014 next year.
But we exploded for six runs in the top of the ninth to win that game against the Mariners, avoiding seven losses in a row.
Now we've won two games in a row after the win over the White Sox last night. I wish we had lost 8 games in a row instead. LOL



Astros are 24-44
Marlins are 20-46

Still reachable. Only two games back in the loss column. We need another six-game losing streak starting tonight.
The first pick in next year's draft will only help us be really good by 2015 or 2016.

The Marlins are 4-2 in their last 6 games and slugging right fielder Giancarlo Stanton is back hitting third in their lineup so they should win a lot of games.

Houston may call up first baseman Jonathan Singleton, center fielder George Springer or pitcher Jarred Cosart soon. Mark Appel is a possibility for a call up this year also, but I wouldn't rush any of our top prospects up. I'd rather see Houston tank the rest of this season and secure the first overall pick in 2014.

We got this! The first pick is ours in 2014. I want to add a third straight number one overall pick to add with Carlos Correa and Mark Appel.
Speaking of Carlos Correa, he's on track to be our opening day shortstop in 2015. This kid is going to be special.

LOL, Astros beat the White Sox again. Ugh, three wins in a row. Plus the Marlins lost.

I think we're going to end up with the second pick in next year's draft. We get close to Miami and then start to win again.

The Astros are aiming for a four-game sweep over the White Sox tonight and five wins in a row.
And every win against the White Sox was a one run game. We could have easily lost those games.

Every time we play our way back into the 2014 first pick race with the Marlins we blow it and start a winning streak. Nice catch by the fan. The Astros need to wear those rainbow unis every game. I still think we can easily lose 10 games in a row while the Marlins reel off 5 or 6 wins in a row. So we're not out of it just yet.



But to be honest, the second pick in next year's draft wouldn't be bad. I expect the Astros to flirt with a .500 record next year. Since May 2nd of this year, they've been very competitive and have the second best ERA in baseball. Good pitching is what turns a bad ball club around. A few of their top prospects, Jonathan Singleton and George Springer, may be called up before this season is over.

I also can't wait until Mark Appel and Jarred Cosart are a nice 1-2 punch at the top of our rotation. I'd expect both of them to compete for a job in spring training. Wouldn't make sense to rush them up this year. Especially when starting pitching hasn't been our problem for the past two months.

Even the bullpen has done a better job lately. That's been their main problem all year long, along with inconsistent hitting of course.
The hitting is going to come around though. The Astros have some exciting young bats on the way up from the minor leagues very soon.



This post was edited by Madmartigan on Jun 17 2013 02:42am

2-0 Astros in the bottom of the 3rd. Let's go Bud Norris. Try to finish this four-game seep over the White Sox and 5 wins in a row.

Jordan Lyles was supposed to become our 5th starter but he's really pitching well.
Another good performance yesterday. He's now 4-1 with a 3.22 ERA over 10 starts.

The entire staff has been pretty good and consistent for about two months now.
Mark Appel and Jarred Cosart will have to earn a spot when they're ready for the call up.

I still expect our starting five rotation to eventually be Appel, Cosart, Norris, Harrell and Lyles.
Maybe not in that order but looking ahead to 2014 we'lll have a solid staff.

Cosart is 23, Lyles is 22 and Appel is 21. We could ride those three young arms for the next decade.
The last time we had three talented homegrown arms were Roy Oswalt, Wade Miller and Tim Redding.
Oswalt had a great career, Miller was good before his injuries and Redding was talented but sort of a bust.

I wouldn't even be against trading Bud Norris to the Giants at the trading deadline.
But only if they yield us a good prospect, aka a young starter in return (19-23 years old).

This post was edited by Madmartigan on Jun 19 2013 11:01am

Another nice starting pitching performance last night. This time by Erik Bedard, who had a 1-0 lead going into the top of the 8th
But Hector Ambriz couldn't hold the lead in relief and Rickie Weeks hits a two-run homer off him. The Brewers win 3-1.
I don't expect the veteran Bedard to be back next season. We may trade him next month. I think he has some value but not a lot.

The Astros plan for Mark Appel to make at least five or six starts in the minor leagues. He may be called up some time this year. There really isn't a pressing need to rush him through the system too fast though. I'd prefer to see him be a September call up and make three or four starts. And he can still go into 2014 as a classified rookie.

Except they will lose them to Free Agency before the decacde hits..