Houston Astros Make Mark Appel Top Draft Pick - East Idaho News
Sports

Houston Astros Make Mark Appel Top Draft Pick

  Published at

MLB?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1370584591370Major League Baseball (SECAUCUS, N.J.) —  The Houston Astros drafted Stanford pitcher Mark  Appel with the top pick in the Major League Baseball draft on Thursday night.

“I talked to him and told him: ‘Welcome home,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “It’s a kid’s dream to go first in the country, first in the draft and to be taken by your hometown team. It just doesn’t get any better than that. It’s also really a great opportunity for us.”

Appel had the chance to be a top pick last year, but the Astros passed on the hometown kid.  He slid to the Pittsburgh Pirates with the eighth-overall pick, but chose to turn down the $3.8 million offer and return to Stanford for his senior season.

The hard-throwing righty went 10-4 with a 2.12 ERA for Stanford last season, and he is expected to earn about double the amount he passed up from the Pirates.

“No matter what happened in the draft, I knew I had done everything that was in my control to put myself in the best situation possible,” Appel Said.

It was the fourth time the Astros had the No. 1 overall pick in the draft.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION