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Monday, December 14, 2015

2011 Topps USA Baseball #USA-1 Mark Appel (pre-RC)

The most intriguing player returned to the Phillies from the Astros in the Ken Giles trade is 2013 #1 overall pick Mark Appel.

2011 Topps USA Baseball #USA1 Mark Appel

Mark Appel has been unable to match the off-field hype during a professional career that now stands at 250+ innings with a cringeworthy 5.12 ERA. That is not a small sample size although Appel did show modest improvement posting a 4.37 ERA across two levels in 2015.

2011 Topps USA Baseball
Topps USA is a61 card set with a couple of players that have already emerged. Notable Pre-RCss other than Appel in the set are Michael Wacha, Addison Russell, Joey Gallo, and Kevin Gausman.

In 2010 Topps produced a similar set that included Gerrit Cole and others.

2011 Topps USA Baseball #USA1 Mark Appel (b-side)

Mark Appel got card #1 in the set because he is listed first among Collegiate National Team players alphabetically, not because he was the #1 draft pick or #1 prospect. Text on the back of the card mentions Appel's accomplishments at Stanford and Team USA.


2015 WAR Projection

Last season I tried to project the WAR of the 2015 Phils and came up with an incredibly optimisting 70+ Wins -  but I think that was dependent on a deluded idea that Chase Utley was returning to form and that Cliff Lee had a shot to be healthy.

I will attempt to do the same this off-season. I see Mark Appel will appear in the Major leagues late in 2015 but his contributions will be minor. +0.0 WAR is my projection for his first Phillies foray.

As more WAR Projections get posted I will Index and total them similar to the 2015 list.

Sources and Links
2016 Phillies WAR projections Index
Baseball-ref

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