No. 1 pick Appel to pitch for Quad Cities Sunday

The Houston Astros announced Tuesday that pitcher Mark Appel has been promoted from Tri-City of the Rookie-level New York-Penn League to Quad Cities of the Midwest League. Appel is expected to pitch Sunday for the River Bandits in their home game against the Dayton Dragons.

That'll make back-to-back No. 1 overall draft picks on the same team, a first in minor league baseball, as no club ever has had consecutive top picks on its roster at the same time. Quad Cities also features shortstop Carlos Correa, taken first overall last summer, though he won't be with Quad Cities on Sunday because he will be participating in Major League Baseball's Futures Game in New York.

Four minor league clubs have had two No. 1 overall draft picks, the others being Triple-A Tidewater in 1970 (Steven Chilcott/Tim Foli), Triple-A Hawaii in 1975 (Dave Roberts/Bill Almon) and Double-A Lynn in 1981 (Al Chambers/Mike Moore).

Appel pitched at Stanford for four seasons and made two starts for Tri-City after signing with Houston June 19.

Guess Quad Cities knew what it was doing when it signed a Player Development Contract last offseason with the Astros.