re: DAT 5/29: YFPHA vs. Chicago White Sox @ 7:10

Speaking of Appel I listend to the CC hooks game last night to get a sense of what's wrong with appel and what I got from listening to the commentators is his biggest problem now is really his control and command. Something that was his strong suit coming out of college. I know that's obvious looking at his BB rate but he also gets in a lot of hitters counts and leaves the ball over the middle of the plate too much. He throws his change up more than his slider which surprised me since he was supposed to have a above average slider. He didn't pitch as bad as the stats show because he gave up about 3-4 infield singles that the infielder just couldn't get to fast enough which is good because that means he didn't get hit hard. He didn't give up 1 extra base hit which is really positive and he even got out of a bases loaded no outs jam without giving up any runs.

After listening to the game I have a little bit more confidence in him and I think once he reaches the bigs and gets a little better coaching he will fix some of his control problems and be able to pitch well in the back end of our rotation. That's not what we hoped when he was drafted but it's better than what most are expecting.