Mark Appel Could Pitch in the Majors This Year

In Commentary And Analysis, News And Rumors by GW11 Comments

Keith Law, ESPN super-scout, has been talking 2013 draft lately. I happened to hear him on two podcasts today; he spent a few moments talking specifically about Mark Appel (at approximately the 40′ mark). Appel has been discussed around here of late. If I had to bet on who the Cubs will end up with at #2, he would be atop the list.

Mark Appel

Law thinks that Appel and University of Oklahoma righty Jonathan Gray make up the clear top tier in the draft. Interestingly, Law thinks that Appel could start in AA and be a September callup this season, finding his way into the regular rotation in 2014 after service time shenanigans are exhausted.

I think he’s pretty close to ready… He’s got the fastball, he’s shown that slider that was just kind of good last year, is now really an out pitch for him. He’s been much more aggressive. In fact, the biggest criticism I’ve heard of him so far is that he’s much much better pitching in the comforts of home, at Stanford, than he is on the road. To me, if that’s the worst thing you can say about a pitcher, than he’s probably pretty good. With the experience level and the command and the entire repertoire, I don’t think he needs a lot of time in the minors at all.

In discussing other candidates for the top of the first round in an interview with Law, Kiley McDaniel said he thinks the consensus top tier includes Clint Frazier (CF, HS), Sean Manaea (LHP, Indiana State), and Kris Bryant (3B, San Diego). That tier is closely followed by Colin Moran (3B, North Carolina) and Austin Meadows (CF, HS). The two of them agreed that it was a weak draft for college positional players as well as high school pitchers.

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  3. Author
    GW

    @ josh:

    true, and stras was a better prospect. two things, though:

    1) stras signed after his junior year of college. appel is a senior.

    2) the signing deadline for players has been moved up significantly, allowing players to get more time in the minors prior to september

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  4. dmick89

    @ josh:
    It wasn’t because he lacked the talent fwiw. He was ridiculously good in AA and AAA and MLB the following year. The Nats just took it easy on him, which is the same thing the Cubs would do. I’d say that if the Cubs do draft Appel, and I think there’s a very good chance of that, that he’ll pitch very little this season and begin next year in High A or AA. Wouldn’t even be surprised if they didn’t allow Appel to pitch after being drafted. At least not in live games anyway.

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  5. Author
    GW

    @ dmick89:

    law also said that he “hasn’t been worked as hard” this year. stanford’s page seems to back that up: he’s thrown only 63 2/3 innings this year, he threw 123 in 2012 and 104 in 2011, though I’m not sure how far they are through the season.

    I think the Cubs would pitch him this season, but probably he wouldn’t see the majors until late next year. (the point of the article, of course, is that scouts feel that developmentally he’s pretty close).

    The timeframe for pitchers is different than for hitters, as they don’t seem to have the same career arc as hitters, so I’m less surprised when they get called up early. I think a lot of teams look at young pitchers with more of a “there are only so many bullets in a given arm” point of view and promote accordingly.

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  7. Author
    GW

    also, it seems like his numbers have improved this year, which is encouraging (with a small pile of salt)

    63.7 IP, 78 K, 10 BB, 1 HR, 1.41 ERA

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