Astros promote Mark Appel to AA, earn ire of some anonymous players

The Houston Astros have promoted 2013 first overall pick Mark Appel to AA Corpus Christi. Big deal, right? The first overall pick, who had three years of college under his belt should be progressing at this rate, if not faster.

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Not if you have a 2-5 record with a 9.74 ERA and 1.92 WHIP. Those should be his K/9 ratio and ERA, respectively.

I know the California League is notorious for being a hitter-friendly league, but those numbers are awful, to put in nicely.

This has led some Astros players to claim that he is getting preferential treatment.

You know what? That sometimes happens with number one overall picks. They get the benefit of the doubt a lot more because of the money invested in them by the franchise. You can’t hardly blame a team for trying to aid their top pick. It is nothing more than protecting their investment.

What really ruffled the feathers of the Astros players was that Appel threw a bullpen session for the Astros’ brass at Minute Maid Park before reporting to Corpus Christi.

Apparently these young guys don’t feel that he deserved to be there.

Since when has the MLB park been off-limits to minor leaguers? It could just be that the Astros wanted him to focus on getting there.

At any rate, several “anonymous” players expressed anger over him visiting Minute Maid Park.

Let's just put it this way, folks, the fact that Appel was brought here has upset more than a few players.
— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) July 27, 2014

I know that baseball is a sport that is big on players paying their dues, and I get it. But promoting the top pick to AA seems like it should be the least of their worries as major league players. It’s not like Appel will be promoted to Houston tomorrow resulting in someone getting optioned.

Is this just the frustration of losing manifesting in young players, or is it something worse? We will have to wait and see.

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