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"&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; Stanford pitcher Mark Appel will reportedly receive a $6.35 million bonus from the Astros. (AP Images)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No. 1 overall pick Mark Appel has reportedly reached a $6.35 million agreement with the Houston Astros.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The right-handed pitcher opted not to sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates last year after he was drafted No. 8 overall, turning down a $3.3 million deal.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Appel's $6.35 million is about $1.44 million less than the value assigned to the No. 1 pick. Still, he's projected to move up quickly\u00A0in the Astros' ranks and could surface early in the 2014 season.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This spring, Appel went 10-4 with a 2.12 ERA for Stanford, striking out 130 in 106 1/3 innings. He set the Cardinal's career record for strikeouts (372 in 377 2/3 innings) and earned Pacific-12 Conference baseball scholar-athlete of the year honors.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The bonus is the largest bonus ever given to a college senior.\u00A0The Astros are still working out details of the deal, and Appel is expected to sign early next week.\nhttps://twitter.com/jimcallisBA/status/346066819351715840&lt;/p&gt;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.si.com/si-wire/2013/06/16/astros-mark-appel-bonus>