11:42:21 CST, 6/15/2013: Do a Google search for: Mark Appel.
11:42:23 CST, 6/15/2013: Note top result is a column called “Astros Close To Signing Top Pick Mark Appel.”
11:42:25 CST, 6/15/2013: Think to self, huh, must be some news. Click on link.
11:42:28, 6/15/2013: Read duration of short internet post by Matt Snyder, Baseball Writer, CBS Sports dot com.
11:44:01, 6/15/2013: Re-read column, certain I’ve mis-read something. Extra careful this time, taking almost four minutes to read.
11:47:51 CST, 6/15/2013: Still rolling over in my head the last two paragraphs:
“I’m hopeful we can move quickly once we start (the) dialogue, but there is no time frame yet,” (Astros General Manager Jeff) Luhnow told MLB.com (with a link over “told MLB.com”)
News of Appel being close to a deal was first reported by Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports. (with a link over “Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports).
It seems Matt Snyder, Baseball Writer wrote a bullshit headline that contradicts the Luhnow quote and that there is zero information, just speculation, with a blog post title passed off as news: Appel. Astros. Close. But fuck it, I’ll bite.
The Rays are off to an abysmal start, having scored less than 3 runs per game in their first 12 outings of 2013. They were just swept by the Red Sox in a four-game series that was shortened by weather to three, losing 2-1, 5-0, and 3-2.
Per 
Loshe got 3 years and $33 million total.
I started a series counting down prospects back in the fall. I wrote a list in late July, started writing the posts at the same time starting from the bottom up, doing one post every few days, then holding on to publish them all in a row. Halfway through the writing, I disliked it, and had already started posting them. Almost two months after making the list my opinions were changing. For a MLB player with a 15-year career, two months is not much time. For a prospect who might spend 15-18 months tops in full-season minor league ball, 2 months is a big chunk of their publicly-displayed minor league development.
Major League Baseball has 
According to 
This from 
Over at Baseball Prospectus yesterday 
Criteria: Received 15 or less points in the MVP voting in 2012. Received less than 10 points in Cy Young Award voting in 2012. (The first two reflect BBWAA underrating the player.) Did not start in the 2012 All-Star Game. (That one reflects fans underrating the player to an extent.) Was generally under-discussed by fans and media in 2012. (That’s just kind of subjective.) Was awesome in 2012. (That one is not so subjective.)
