Major League Baseball

Appel ready to thrive with Astros whenever they ask him

Published Jun. 23, 2015 12:53 a.m. ET

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Buzz circulated around the web on Monday that the Houston Astros are considering promoting prospect Mark Appel to Triple-A, which would bring him one step closer to making his debut with the big league club.

That does seem to be a legitimate theory, considering his recent stretch of hot pitching at the Double-A level. As Brian McTaggart of MLB.com summed up, Appel has allowed just seven earned runs and eight walks in his last five starts (spread across 29 innings), which translates to a 2.14 ERA during that span. 

With Lance McCullers and Vincent Velasquez currently pitching regularly with the Astros and position player phenoms Preston Tucker, Carlos Correa and Domingo Santana peppering the lineup as well, Appel's time must be coming soon - and he knows it. 

As he told McTaggart, he fully understands the Astros' perspective and their willingness to take chances with heralded rookies: "I think just the circumstance the whole organization is in, with a lot of success all the way through, especially at the big league level, shows that the Astros are not scared to bring up their best players. And so, Lance and Vince were pitching great. I'm very close friends with both of them and text them all the time and just so excited to see them do their thing. I want to be alongside them. I believe I can. I know I will at some point."

While Houston may want Appel to really focus on fine-tuning his repertoire of pitches before giving him the call-up to the major leagues, he's confident that he's ready and willing to contribute - and thrive - whenever they make the call: 

Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle, meanwhile, indicated in a new piece on Monday that Appel's next start could very well be at the Triple-A level, which would obviously put his call-up to the major leagues that much closer. 

(h/t MLB.com, Houston Chronicle)

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