For St. Louis native Kuebel, signing with Cards was a dream come true
ST. LOUIS -- Sasha Kuebel tried his best not to think about it.
Even though the lefty pitcher was tipped off by his agent that the hometown St. Louis Cardinals would likely be selecting him at some point during the three days of the MLB Draft, it was difficult not to let the thought overwhelm him.
So Kuebel, who starred at Saint Louis University High School before playing three seasons at the University of Iowa, did what he's done for more than a decade in St. Louis. He went to work at Westborough Country Club.
"I was caddying," he said. "I was trying to keep my mind off of everything."
Whatever happens, happens, he told himself. That it's out of his control.
But when it actually did happen, when the Cardinals selected him in the 38th round with pick No. 1,155, it was a dream come true.
"Once I found that out, I was super-pumped. I was stoked," he said. "Being from St. Louis, it doesn't get much better than being a part of this organization."
Though it still made for a difficult decision for the 6-foot, 200-pound southpaw, who had a year of eligibility remaining at Iowa.
Kuebel, who was picked by the Oakland Athletics in the 31st round (No. 947 overall) in the 2011 MLB Draft when he was a high school senior, had a key role as a three-year starter in the Iowa rotation -- he went 14-13 with a 4.09 ERA in 44 career appearances (39 starts) -- and would have done so again as a senior in 2015.
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"It was difficult," he said. "Obviously, I loved the Hawkeye community. I loved every minute I spent in Iowa City. They obviously helped me progress as a pitcher, helped me with my fundamentals, become more evolved as a pitcher. In the back of my mind I'm about to be 22 years old and in this game that's starting to become old for your first year in pro ball. There are guys here that are 17, 18 years old. If I went next year I would have been almost 23 and I would have felt like a grandpa. That played a role."
But so did the organization that selected him, the one he's been a fan of his entire life.
"The whole Cardinals organization, the Cardinal way, there's no better organization in Major League Baseball than St. Louis," he said. "The people that are here, I just knew right off the bat that they are classy people and act in a professional manner at all times."
That was reinforced to him right away.
Pitcher Tyrell Jenkins, a first-round pick in 2010, sent Kuebel a text message the night he made his decision, welcoming the lefty to the organization.
"It just goes to show that the type of people here are here for your best interests and they want you to become better and they want you to achieve everything that you want to," he said.
Kuebel's professional baseball life begins with the rookie-level Palm Beach Cardinals of the Gulf Coast League. The GCL Cardinals open their season Thursday night.
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It's the first step toward Kuebel's lifelong dream of one day pitching for the Cardinals in his hometown at Busch Stadium.
"Being a member of the Cardinals has always been my absolute dream growing up, obviously, in St. Louis," Kuebel said. "And now that it's become reality, it's time for me to work as hard as possible and to take each day as its own little blessing and to utilize the personnel and everything for my benefit to become the pitcher that I can be.
"Being a part of the Cardinals organization is going to help me do that, and I can't thank them enough for this opportunity. I'm not going to let them down."
You can follow Nate Latsch on Twitter at @NateLatsch or email him at natelatsch@gmail.com.
