Milb.com is reporting that Mark Appel, the Astros top pitching prospect, will report to big league spring training for the second year in a row. He wasn’t able to pitch much last spring, after recovering from an appendectomy in January. He’ll be joined by fellow top prospect Carlos Correa, who’s coming off an injury-shortened 2014.
The power right hander started slowly when he finally got on the mound in April. He got hit pretty hard with Advanced-A Lancaster, but his strikeout rate was still solid. As he regained his form and was promoted to Double-A Corpus Christi, he showed promise in his six starts. One of those starts was a masterful 8 inning, 10 strikeout performance, only allowing two hits and one walk.
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The end of the 2014 regular season helped the Stanford-product create momentum towards the Arizona Fall League, where he had seven strong starts, leading the league in Whip (0.84), and finishing second in strikeouts (24). By the end of October, he looked like a pitcher that was ready for the Majors.
Aquiring Evan Gattis makes the Astros a team on the verge of being able to compete. Their offense is just solid enough with big bats like George Springer, Chris Carter, and Jose Altuve. I think that if they want to battle for the division, they are going to need help from their young studs. Correa’s timeline is more set for 2016 given his age and injury last season, but Appel should be able to compete for a rotation spot in 2015.
The 23-year old could put up big spring training numbers and beat out Brett Oberholtzer or Anthony Bass. More realistically, he’ll start the season in the Minors and get called up following an injury or ineffectiveness. The 2016 season holds bigger promise for Houston, but with the right mix of young players, they could be fun to watch in 2015.