Appel had it with expectations and returned to baseball after a four-year break with a promise to have fun. He's doing just that, and thriving as a reliever.
JOSE F. MORENO / Staff PhotographerALLENTOWN — Mark Appel knows people think he’s crazy. The right-handed pitcher was the first overall pick of a draft that produced Aaron Judge, Cody Bellinger, and Kris Bryant. That draft was nine years ago. Judge is a three-time All-Star. Bellinger was the 2019 National League MVP. Bryant helped bring the Cubs’ 108-year World Series drought to an end. And Appel, who turns 31 on July 15, has yet to throw a big-league pitch.
Appel’s career can be looked at in three chapters. He quickly established himself as one of the best collegiate pitchers — if notbest — in the country while he was at Stanford, posting a 2.57 ERA over 339⅔ innings with 346 strikeouts. Linares, who is now a third-base coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, said he doesn’t recall this conversation taking place, but added that Appel could have talked to the team’s pitching coach. He said the Astros did made adjustments for Appel, but Appel didn’t buy into their program.
Which brings us to chapter three, the current chapter. Since June 2021, Appel has been pitching for Lehigh Valley. And in 2022, as he nears age 31, he’s having a career season. His fastball velocity has risen to the upper 90s. His slider has more sweep to it. In April, he had a 2.38 ERA with seven strikeouts in six games. In May, he had a 1.04 ERA with 10 strikeouts in six games.
But perhaps most importantly, Appel is pitching with a new purpose. When he left the game in 2017, he decided to do everything he wasn’t able to do before. He went backpacking in Colorado, fishing in Oregon, kayaking in North Carolina. He went to his brother’s wedding, and had dinner with his family in Houston every Sunday. He stopped missing out on those little moments, and in the process, discovered who he was without a baseball in his hand.
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