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Buckskin86
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PADRES: Luebke looking to make impression
Rookie left-hander battles for No. 5 starting position
By JOHN MAFFEI - [email protected] North County Times
The Californian
Posted: Sunday, March 13, 2011 1
Padres starting pitcher Cory Luebke throws to the plate against the Colorado Rockies last season. Luebke is trying to make the Padres starting rotation this spring. (Photo by Jack Dempsey - Associated Press)
PEORIA, Ariz. -- Left-handed pitcher Cory Luebke was on the outside looking in last spring.
He was in the Padres' major-league camp, but had no chance to make the ballclub.
After a highly successful 2010 season, however, that has changed drastically.
The first four spots in the starting rotation -- Mat Latos, Clayton Richard, Tim Stauffer and Aaron Harang -- are locked up. Luebke, however, is in a battle for the fifth spot with fellow lefty Wade LeBlanc and veteran right-hander Dustin Moseley.
LeBlanc, who was 8-12 with the Padres last season, is the favorite to nail down the last spot.
Moseley, who was 4-4 in 16 appearance -- nine starts -- with the Yankees last season, most likely will make the club as either a starter or long man out of the bullpen.
But Luebke is far from out of the running.
"I try to not get too caught up in decisions that are out of my hands," said the 26-year-old Luebke. "All I can do is get ready for each start, pitch well and see what happens."
What happened last season was that Luebke jumped to the front of the organization's pitching prospects.
A 5-1 start with a 2.40 ERA at Double-A San Antonio, earned him a promotion to Triple-A Portland where he was 5-0 with a 2.97 ERA.
That earned him a promotion to big leagues on Sept. 1.
He won his first big-league game in his second start, retiring 18 of the 21 Dodgers he faced in a six-inning stint.
He appeared in four games for the Padres, going 1-1 with a 4.02 ERA. More impressive was that in 17 2/3 innings, he walked just six and struck out 16.
And in 114 minor-league innings, he allowed just 83 hits, walked 29 and struck out 88.
"Cory pitched well last year, and he's pitching well this spring," said Padres manager Bud Black. "But where he is in his career, we're not sure if we want to drop him into the rotation at the start of the season.
"We could use him out of the bullpen. Toronto did that with Jimmy Key a while back, and that turned out pretty well.
"I don't know if that's something we'd do. Don't know if that would be the case here."
The Padres took Luebke out of Ohio State with a supplemental first-round pick in 2007. So while he's 26, he's still a baby as far as his professional development.
"I'm still kind of new, but I'm much more comfortable this year," Luebke said. "Buddy does a really good job making sure the young guys and the veterans mix.
"That took a lot of the anxiety away when I was called up last year because I knew a lot of the guys. And I wasn't in awe of anyone."
Cont..
http://www.nctimes.com/sports/baseb...cle_2a7e8a66-7b06-55b6-b7fa-812ef53eed4d.html
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Buckskin86
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Ten Questions with Cory Luebke
By Don Norcross, UNION-TRIBUNE
Monday, April 11, 2011
/ AP
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Cory Luebke throws to the plate against the Colorado Rockies during the second inning of a baseball game in Denver, Monday, Sept. 13, 2010. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
Q: As an Ohio State product, who?s your all-time favorite Buckeyes football player?
A: Archie Griffin. You always knew what you were going to get from him. And he?s the only two-time Heisman Trophy winner.
Q: Wait a minute. You?re 26. Archie won his Heismans in ?74 and ?75. You never saw him play. Modern day Buckeyes, who?s your favorite?
A: (Linebacker) A.J. Hawk. He always electrified the building.
Q: You were a three-sport football, basketball and baseball star at Marion Local High School. Which was your favorite?
A: Probably basketball. Compared to the other sports, you can control a lot more of what?s going on out there. In baseball, when things are going wrong, more effort doesn?t always equal greater success.
Cont...
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/11/ten-questions-cory-luebke/
http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/news...notebook_id=17652766&vkey=notebook_sd&c_id=sd
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Buckskin86
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Luebke learning lessons in bullpen
By Don Norcross, UNION-TRIBUNE
Originally published May 13, 2011
Sean M. Haffey / U-T
Padres pitcher Corey Luebke is getting used to pitching out of the bullpen.
DENVER ? Cory Luebke was raised in Maria Stein, Ohio, about 78 miles from Cincinnati. He grew up worshipping the Reds.
On April 12, he faced his hometown team. It was not pretty.
With the game tied 2-2 in the 11th, Luebke gave up one walk, one double, a home run, four singles and six earned runs, absorbing the loss in an 8-2 defeat.
A friend texted him after the game, saying, ?I know you used to like the Reds but you didn?t have to give ?em six. It could have been one or two.?
Of the experience, Luebke said, ?What doesn?t kill you makes you stronger.?
Going into Friday?s game against Colorado, since the Reds outing Luebke hadn?t permitted a run in 10 appearances, spanning 13 1/3 innings.
?He likes to play,? said manager Bud Black. ?He like?s getting after it. As far as total body of work, I?ve been impressed.?
Luebke started 74 of his 84 minor league games. Working from the bullpen this season has been a continued learning process, most prominently learning a new game-day routine.
He learned a significant lesson against Cincinnai: not to get down on himself after giving up a couple runs early in an inning.
?The players are too good in this league to be thinking about anything other than how to get the next guy out,? Luebke said.
Take away the Cincinnati game and Luebke would be 1-0 with a 0.96 ERA.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/13/luebke-learning-lessons-bullpen/
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Buckskin86
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Luebke sharp as Padres blank M's
By Bill Center, Reporter - Padres
Originally published July 2, 2011
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Cory Luebke throws against the Seattle Mariners in the second inning of a baseball game, Saturday, July 2, 2011, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) ? AP
SEATTLE ? Sometimes, less is more.
Case in point: the Padres? 1-0 win over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night at Safeco Field.
Clearly, the less on the pitching end was more.
Starter Cory Luebke, who has yet to allow a run over 11 innings in two starts, and relievers Chad Qualls, Mike Adams and Heath Bell combined on the Padres? second two-hitter and fourth shutout of the season.
Cont..
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/02/luebke-maybins-walk-lead-padres-1-0-win-over-marin/
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Buckskin86
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Luebke brings the heartland to the hill
By Chris Jenkins
July 21, 2011
Padres pitcher Cory Luebke has moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation. ? Sean M. Haffey / U-T
He was, as he humbly puts it, ?The Lucky Kid.?
Cory Luebke?s dad was a basketball coach at the only area high school serving six towns, Marion Local, so he had the key to the gymnasium. That's like the key to the universe to an young athlete growing up in the Midwest, often still snowbound and sub-freezing when baseball season rolls around.
?Either you went into the gym to throw,? said Luebke, ?or you?d bundle up and go outside and try not to lose your ball in the snow.?
There was something poetic in the way Luebke, the impressive Padres? rookie pitcher who?ll start Friday?s series opener at Philadelphia, described his blue-collar upbringing on the Ohio side of the Indiana border. In major leagues full of warm-weather products who grew up playing baseball year-round in California and Florida, Texas and Arizona, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, Luebke literally had to shovel and dig and literally work his way to The Show.
?Mostly farming,? said Luebke, asked about his stoplight-free hometown of Maria Stein, Ohio. ?I grew up working on a few different farms. I was pretty much cheap labor, lots of baling hay. My mom (Nancy) and dad (Jeff) sat me and my brother down at an early age and said, ?We?ve got to start saving up for college.? So we worked.
?During the summers, you?re up at 6:30 to go lift (weights) for football, then it?s off to work at 8:30, work all day, play a baseball game and go to open gym after the game. That?s every day, all summer. When I look back, I think, man, how?d I have the energy to do all that? But it was so enjoyable.?
Cont..
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/21/luebke-brings-heartland-hill/
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