Astros prospect Mark Appel had seemingly gotten on track after a rough, injury plagued start to his second pro season, putting together a decent stretch of games at Single-A, but the No. 1 pick in the 2013 draft got knocked around in a big way last night.
Appel failed to make it out of the fifth inning while allowing seven runs on 13 hits and his season totals at high Single-A now include a 9.57 ERA in 10 starts with a .376 opponents’ batting average and 1.030 OPS against.
Appel has just 75 career innings under his belt since being drafted out of Stanford, but he turns 23 years old next week and almost everyone figured he’d be at least knocking on the door to the majors by now. Instead he’s struggling--and that’s probably putting it very kindly--at high Single-A.