Skip to main content

IronPigs Notebook: Appel's season done, All-Stars announced


The Phillies announced on Wednesday that righty pitcher Mark Appel had undergone surgery to remove a bone spur from his throwing elbow. Appel had previously gone on the disabled list with shoulder soreness following his May 22nd start for Lehigh Valley.


Phillies director of player development Joe Jordan told me recently that Appel was throwing pain free and the team expected him to be back in action by July 15th.

IronPigs manager Dave Brundage stated that he suspected there was more to Appel's physical issues than just the sore shoulder.

"Something had to be bothering him, something had to be there, where his stuff had dropped off, you know, his last couple outings, had dropped off significantly," Brundage stated. "I had a hard time believing it was just out of the stretch. It was something more and obviously he was putting a lot of effort into his pitches there and it's a tough break for him, but obviously, you can get (the elbow) cleaned up and get him back on track."

In eight games this season, Appel tallied a 3-3 record with a 4.46 ERA and a .267 batting average against for Triple-A Lehigh Valley. In his last two appearances, he surrendered seven hits, six walks and seven earned runs in 6 1/3 total innings.

The procedure is expected to keep the 24-year-old out of action for four to six months, which will end his 2016 season.

Appel was acquired from Houston as part of the Ken Giles trade last off-season.

C Perkins
Cam Perkins, image- Jay Floyd
Also announced for the IronPigs on Wednesday was a trio of players being honored as International League All-Stars.

Reliever Edward Mujica, catcher Andrew Knapp and outfielder Cam Perkins will all represent the IronPigs in the exhibition, set to take place in Charlotte, NC on July 13th.

Mujica, who was a big league All-Star with St. Louis in 2013, posted a 0-3 record with a 4.09 ERA and 19 saves in 31 games out of the Lehigh Valley bullpen this season.

Knapp, the Phils' 2nd round pick out of Cal in 2013, sported a .262 average with seven homers and 29 RBI in 60 games this season.

Perkins, who was the Phillies' 6th round draft selection out of Purdue in 2012, was batting .292 with four home runs and 26 RBI through 63 games, entering action on Wednesday.

The righty batting 25-year-old spoke about the honor and representing the 'Pigs as an All-Star.

"I'm excited. I think every player wants to get it. We don't play for the individual awards and things like that, but they're nice to get every once in a while. I'm pretty excited about it," Perkins stated.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Crawford's Chronicles: JP Crawford talks Spring Training

JP Crawford, image- Jay Floyd Entering this year as the widely regarded top prospect in the Phillies organization, J.P. Crawford will be taking time each week to provide insight directly from inside spring training in Clearwater, FL, right here on PhilliesNation.com. Crawford, 20, was named the top positional prospect in two leagues (Class A South Atlantic League and Class A Advanced Florida State League) last year, when he combined, in 123 games, to post a .285 average, 11 homers, 48 RBI and 24 stolen bases. He also represented the Phils organization in the MLB All-Star Futures Game last season. As the 2015 campaign approaches, the six-foot-two 180-pound lefty batter is expected to reach the Double-A level and continue to prove why the Phillies selected him in the first round of the 2013 draft. In this initial installment of our weekly check-in with J.P., he shares thoughts on a variety of topics, including his exclusion from big league camp, which member of the big leagu...

Heroes- Fight of the Century

VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...

Phreestyle Battle & Notes

Unrelated to baseball, really...but it's fun and our Phils are off today. This new kid on the hip hop scene, Charles Hamilton , whose single Brooklyn Girl is ripping up radio and video count downs, was at PSU for a performance recently. A freestyle battle ensued, and as you'll see, the Penn State student held his own. Stay tuned for the ending. It's the best part. Here are some random Phillies-in-idle baseball thoughts and notes- Colbert Hamels is slated to make his Grapefruit League debut tomorrow vs. Team Canada. Shane Victorino is going to wear #50 on his jersey for Team USA, a nod to Hawaii Five-O. Brad Lidge is likely to not see game action till next week, after he throws some more bullpen sessions and works out the tightness in his forearm. Albert Pujols is declaring "respect for his country" as reasoning for sitting out of the Cardinals' exhibition this week against Team Dominican Republic. He told reporters, "I don’t want to play against them...