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Mark Appel

Burgh Sports Rule

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Pittsburgh Pirates 2012 1st Rd. Pk. Mark Appel was Rocked tonight against Florida St. in the NCAA Super Regionals.

3 Innings of great pitching & then an absolutely awful 4th inning.

Appel gave up 7 runs ( 5 earned ) on 5 hits with 4 walks & 3K.

Appel threw a wild pitch as well. Stanford lost Gm 1 of the best of 3 series, 17 - 1.

I know that this is only 1 start. Yet, it does not exactly leave me with a warm & fuzzy feeling, being that we take this kid with our 1st rd. pk Monday night. He is believed to have high bonus demands. Boras is his agent & Appel did not seem to be entirely happy to be drafted by the Pirates, not giving a conference call to the local Pittsburgh media.

Being that these college playoff series gms are some of the biggest that Appel will pitch in in his college career, tonight's start was worrisome to me.

Does anyone else have concerns about this pk?

Burgh

PS

Tonight, was the 1st time I saw Appel pitch.
 
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Tonight's game doesn't concern me in the least. Pitchers have bad outings. Good pitchers have fewer. Appel doesn't have many, he just had one of them tonight.

Something he likely hasn't learned yet is how to be effective when you don't have your best stuff. College pitchers with high ceilings don't develop this trait well, though, because usually their stuff at its worst is still good enough, but FSU has been a top tier team this year, so they were able to take advantage of it.

He has a lot to learn, and mostly he needs to learn how to pitch, but that doesn't make his talent any less.

Even so, I'm not as high on him as I am on Cole, Taillon, and Heredia, but even so, he was the best talent available.
 

thecrow124

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So one bad outing is going to negate an entire season of good to great pitching? Calm down, remember AJ Burnett had a horrible start earlier this year, but there aren't 20 other pitchers in major league baseball i would rather have right now.
Conversely, that could work out to be a bonus if Stanford loses one of the next 2 games. Appel won't ever be subjected to throwing 48 pitches in one inning ever again.
As long as he gets signed and throws 20 innings or so for us this year, then i am sure everyone will forget about this start.
 

sychmd

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his recent outing is an unknown.
we need to have context.
when was his last couple outings.
was he tired from the recent subregional.
how good is his catcher at calling games.
how good is fsu.
is fsu the best team he has faced.
how does appel handle adversity in the past.
was he able to get his good luck meal before the game and is he superstitious.

my hopes are one of the possible 2 scenarios:
1. He rebounds like a stud, sweeps through the regional and CWS and this lift vaults him into the bigs in 2014 right behind cole and taillon.
2. his team is ousted, he signs cheap and he is dying to get back out there and throw for us this year another 60 to 90 innings like he would if he were in the alaskan or cape summer league cranking up his ability and draft value.

whether this last outing is the real appel seems unlikely, but i would not go over slot by more than 5% to sign him and i would make the bonus contingent on him pitching for us this summer. every week he waits, he loses 10% of the signing bonus. we will invest in someone who bleeds baseball and is a gamer. if he wants ace money, show us you have the mind of an ace, can toe the slab, charge the hill, bow his neck, command the bump, and be the man. we dont want to pay that money for someone who has the attitude of a 4-5 starter. we can get those anywhere at a lot less bonus than 3 mill.

my 2 cents.
 

magnumo

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I'm not concerned about the pick because of one bad outing..... although I'd feel better about Appel had he pitched better.

Despite Appel's pre-draft hype, despite his and Boras's published asking price..... I'm with sychmd. Offer him slot. IMO, the Pirates should not even consider forfeiting future draft picks, nor should they consider losing much of the rest of the current draft class, just to make Appel and Boras happy.
 

Burgh Sports Rule

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I agree Mags & Parrot, I just wanted thoughts of posters on whether or not they had concerns about him.

I would like to get the kid signed & would like to add him to this stable of pitchers.

However, I want the Pirates to stick to slot. I would not even offer the 5% extra that we are allowed to.

If Appel does not want to take slot, good luck to him. He can go back to Stanford & see his stock either stay flat or possibly drop, in what is supposed to be a better & deeper draft class next yr.

If, Appel does not sign, we will have 2 1st Rd. Pks to use next yr in a deeper draft.

Appel, has very little leverage here and no amount of Boras posturing will change that.

Even if Boras forces Huntington & the Pirates to wait until the mid July deadline.

Burgh
 

magnumo

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We may find out a whole lot more during the next few weeks about what kind of man Appel is.

We KNOW that Boras will want him to hold out until the very last minute. And we know Appel must be disappointed to have fallen to the 8th overall pick, losing several millions of slot dollars in the process. But at this point, I see very little to be gained by him holding out until the deadline. In fact, since I see virtually no chance that the Pirates will consider forfeiting future draft picks, it seems likely that Appel might LOSE by holding out (in the sense that the Pirates could use much of their slot allowance in signing other draftees, and thus have less to offer Appel).

Seems to me that it's likely to be better for him in the long run to sign and get his professional career started, despite Boras's intentions or advice. Appel's stock will go way up in my book if he goes ahead and signs.
 

thecrow124

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Keith Law today suggested that Appel and/or his father could ask the Pirates to give him a side letter or something to that effect stating that he would be in the major leagues this season. That could get him on the 40 man roster immediately, and a September call-up. He also stated that this type of thing is illegal, but happens. Just another way to circumvent that new CBA. That guy is kind of a feindish little tool.
 

Illinest

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That's just dumb speculation by Law. The Pirates don't need to offer anything of the sort, and if Appel refuses a fair offer near his slot value then he deserves whatever happens to him in his senior year in college.
 

element1286

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That's just dumb speculation by Law. The Pirates don't need to offer anything of the sort, and if Appel refuses a fair offer near his slot value then he deserves whatever happens to him in his senior year in college.

Agree, if he turns down a fair offer, the Pirates can have a clear conscience, but I believe the scenario Law described has happened in recent years...I remember a Padre draftee asking for a similar requirement to sign in the past 5 years, and Padres obliged, and put him on the ML roster for a few days.

I thing it is very possible Appel gets on the 40-man immediately either way.
 

fordman84

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Agree, if he turns down a fair offer, the Pirates can have a clear conscience, but I believe the scenario Law described has happened in recent years...I remember a Padre draftee asking for a similar requirement to sign in the past 5 years, and Padres obliged, and put him on the ML roster for a few days.

I thing it is very possible Appel gets on the 40-man immediately either way.

Pretty sure that Porcello for DET had this requirement. I remember hearing that is why the Rangers passed on him one time through the draft.
 
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I hope they play hardball with Boras.


Keep the offer at slot till the last day, Then up it 100k so Boras can say he got overslot, and say take it or leave it.
 

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Burgh Sports Rule

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Pirates Prospects is reporting, that Appel's draft slot number for his contract was around 7.79M

Pirates Prospects is also reporting, that Appel signed a contract in the 6 - 6.5M range, well under slot.

Is that not nearly the same types of numbers the Astros offered Appel last yr, in their negotiations with him prior to draft night? Which he turned down from them.

If so, than Appel really gained nothing on his contract with the Astros this yr & he wasted a yr of his MLB development.

I guess the guy really did'nt want to pitch for the Pirates at all. Which, in fairness, we kind of knew from Appel's reaction on draft night last yr, when the Pirates selected him.

It's ok though, I am very happy to have snapped up Austin Meadows & Reese McGuire in Rd. 1 this yr.

Burgh

PS This is the fastest that I have ever seen a Scott Boras client sign a contract with an MLB club.

Very surprising, to say the least.
 
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thecrow124

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Appel was never going to sign with us, no matter what we offered. He had other committments that he felt were more important than playing major league baseball. He is happy with his decisions and regardless of his signing bonus, he is excited to be playing for his hometown team.
 
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