The Bigger, The Better – David Kubiak starts MLB career

Moving from the crisp spring playing days of New York to the scorching, sticky summer days of Florida wouldn’t excite too many people.

David Kubiak isn’t most people.

“Being able to say I am getting paid to play a game that I’ve loved for so long is pretty exciting,” Kubiak said.

Then again, Kubiak isn’t like most players either. He’s tall. Really tall.

In the MLB, the tall ones stick out. Pitchers like Jered Weaver (6’ 7”), CC Sabathia (6’ 7”), David Price (6’ 6”), Roy Halladay (6’ 6”), John Lackey (6’ 6”) have all made a name for themselves as long- and strong armed hurlers.

Next to add to that list might be David Kubiak.

Any knowledgeable fan of baseball can recognize most, if not, all of the names just mentioned before Kubiak.  All of these pitchers have been successful and each one of them can attribute some of their success to their large frame.

While Weaver (and Halladay to a lesser degree) is more of a precision pitcher, with success coming when he hits his spots effectively, Sabathia, Price, and Lackey are what you call (or in Lackey’s case called) power pitchers, using their size to add some extra ‘umpf’ to their pitches, particularly their fastball.

Each can throw a mid to high nineties fastball and their height also helps their breaking pitches, with an increase in the decline from hand to home plate.  Price, known for his at times un-hittable slider which starts in the strike zone, then disappears into the dirt, can attribute this downward momentum not just on spin and speed, but on the angle he creates with his arm and his height.

So, who is this Kubiak guy?

“Dave has the stuff every scout in the major leagues wants to see,” Kyle Crean, shortstop for the Great Danes, said. “He’s a huge kid that can throw all of his four pitches as strikes.”

That’s what caught the eye of the Tampa Bay Rays. So, on June 8, in the 36th round of the 2011 MLB draft, with the 1,109 pick, the Tampa Bay Rays selected David Kubiak, a 6’ 7” 245 pound pitcher from the University of Albany.

Kubiak finished 6-7 with a 4.72 ERA as a starter for the Great Danes this past season but he turned most scouts head’s for a different reason.

Draft picks are chosen either for their ability to make an instant impact or their ability to improve, in the sports world what we like to call potential – and with such a large frame, potential is what Kubiak is all about.  Add to that the fact that many of his teammates call him a competitor and a kid who knows how to battle, and it is easy to see the Rays rationale for choosing him.

“Not only does he have the stuff, he is a competitor and knows how to win,” Crean said. “When Dave is on the mound, everyone around the ball park knows we have a solid chance of winning.”

Other players gave similar accounts of Kubiak’s competitiveness and his versatility in pitching.  Kasceim Graham, a sophomore starter for the Great Danes during the 2011 campaign posting a 4-2 record with a 3.88 ERA, explained what he learned from watching and playing alongside Kubiak.

“One thing I can take away from him is his focus and concentration he showed when he pitched,” Graham said.  “When it was his day to pitch nothing could get into his head and distract him and he knew how to pitch.  He was a very smart pitcher and could throw any pitch he wanted at any time for a strike.  Every time he took the mound he put us in a position to win the game no matter if he had his best stuff or his worst stuff.  He knew how to battle with whatever he had on game day.”

Kubiak now enters a new chapter in his career.

Kubiak now finds himself pitching for the Rays in the Rookie Gulf Coast League.  With only one professional appearance under his belt thus far (one inning pitched, one hit, one walk, one strikeout, no earned runs), Kubiak is still in the early days of what he hopes is a long and successful career.

Constantly observing, listening, learning, and adjusting will consume Kubiak for the next few months as he experiences what it is like to be a professional ballplayer. Besides adjusting to the wooden bats, allowing a pitcher to come inside a little more often, Kubiak now finds himself in the enviable position of receiving a paycheck for his services, not just a pat on the back and the admiration of the UAlbany student body.

Kubiak recognizes it’s not all rainbows and butterflies though.

Working hard, training hard, and catching a bit of luck will determine how long this ride goes.  But, Kubiak is well aware of what lies ahead.  Paul Gibson, Kubiak’s personal pitching coach since he was 15, offered some advice Kubiak takes with him to work everyday.

“He just told me that now I have to work even harder at this game,” Kubiak said. “Because there is always someone out there trying to be better than you and take your spot.”

While Kubiak throws heat in the heat, the UAlbany baseball program finds itself in an unfamiliar spot following the draft, Kubiak being only the seventh player in the history of the program to be drafted.  Drafts not only take away players, but they create opportunities for exposure and interest from new players and recruits.

It also allows current players to get more looks from scouts, increasing their exposure as well.

Graham, a player who caught a lot of eyes this past season with solid performances, especially his last one, when he threw a complete game six hitter against the number one seeded and heavily favored Stony Brook Seawolves in the America East Conference tournament semifinals, sees the Kubiak drafting as an opportunity for himself and the entire UAlbany baseball program in the future.  With the drafting of Kubiak, he believes it helps players recognize that they too could be found by a MLB scout, no matter where they play.

“I think the drafting of Kubiak opened a lot of eyes to our program,” said Graham.  “I think more scouts will come to our games to see what we have to offer for the next year.  I think I performed very well this year and opened a lot eyes to a lot of scouts.  I might not be one of the biggest pitchers like Kubiak but I know how to battle every time I am on the mound.”

Getting drafted is often perceived as simply changing the life of the person involved and possibly, the organization who drafted the player.  But, as is the case here, the drafting of Kubiak had and will continue to have an impact on the UAlbany baseball program and the players who put on the Great Danes jersey each spring afternoon and night.

Feature image courtesy 1045theteam.com