Minor League Ball Gameday, July 15

Good afternoon prospect watchers. As you know, the big news this week is the 2013 MLB All Star Game. I will have a roster origin review for you tomorrow. My other main project for the week is finishing the Top 60 Prospect Update list. I will also have Prospect Retros for Eric Stultz and Marco Scutaro, per request.

***Yesterday's Minor League Ball Gameday thread.

***Yesterday's Futures Game discussion thread.

***Houston Astros prospect Mark Appel threw four shutout innings for Low-A Quad Cities yesterday, fanning three, walking one, and allowing two hits. So far he has a 9/1 K/BB in nine innings of work between QC and a couple of New York-Penn League outings. At this point the idea is to just get him used to pro ball but so far all reports are quite positive.

***Another Astros prospect, right-hander Zach Morton, threw six hitless innings for Tri-City in the NY-P yesterday. He was a 32nd round pick this year out of Northwestern, where he posted a 2.86 ERA with a 46/22 K/BB in 85 innings this spring as a college senior. He is an organization-type arm, throwing strikes with a sinker.

***Miami Marlins prospect Adam Conley threw a seven-inning complete game shutout yesterday for Double-A Jacksonville in the Southern League, giving him a 3.66 ERA with an 87/25 K/BB ratio in 93 innings with 84 hits allowed. A second-round pick in 2011 out of Washington State University, he is still working to refine the slider to off-set his fastball and changeup. This will determine if he starts or relieves at the major league level.

***On a pitch count after being used in the Orioles major league bullpen for a bit, Kevin Gausman made a start for Triple-A Norfolk yesterday, going four innings, allowing five hits and one run, fanning six and walking nobody. Between Double-A, Triple-A, and the majors he has an 85/15 K/BB ratio in 89.2 innings this spring and early summer.

***The Oakland Athletics promoted first base prospect Max Muncy to Double-A Midland; he went 1-for-4 with a double in his Texas League debut yesterday. He'd hit .285/.400/.507 with 21 homers in 351 at-bats for High-A Stockton before moving up. Drafted in the fifth round last year out of Baylor, Muncy was supposed to be a plate discipline/moderate power/good defense type at first base, but showed more home run thump than expected. We'll have to see if he keeps that outside the California League, but he definitely earned the promotion.

***Jason Hunt takes a look at New York Mets prospect Wilmer Flores.

***David Laurila at Fangraphs has a good Q&A with Astros prospect Tony Kemp, drafted out of Vanderbilt in the fifth round this past June.