The Link Posted: 10:08 a.m. Friday, May 9, 2014 Former Bear excelling in minors By Chris Dukes Austin Community Newspapers Staff In what I am 100-percent positive was a first occurrence in my sportswriting career, I spent a good portion of my Friday morning scouring live-game blogs and team press releases about a baseball game between the SeaWolves and the Flying Squirrels. The Eastern League rivalry between the two teams dates back to 1995, but had gone on relatively unnoticed by yours truly until former Bastrop Bear and current Erie SeaWolves’ closer Corey Knebel became a part of it in his most recent Double-A outing. Knebel was the No. 39 pick in the 2013 Major League Baseball Draft out of the University of Texas after finishing his Longhorn career as the team’s all-time leader in saves. He has made an immediate splash in the Detroit Tigers baseball organization, and could see big-league time before the end of the year. In the Seawolves’ most recent game on May 8, Knebel recorded his third win of the season by pitching 2 2/3 innings against the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Knebel had entered the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs and the bases loaded and struck out Mario Lisson to end the threat. He then worked around a one-out walk in the eighth inning to maintain Erie’s two-run lead. Richmond cut the lead to 6-5 in the ninth against Knebel when Tyler Graham drew a one-out walk, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Duffy. It was the second earned run allowed by Knebel this season and broke a streak of seven consecutive appearances without a run allowed. The win made Knebel 3-0 with a 1.20 ERA so far in Erie. That, coupled with his Fall League showing in 2013, has many Tiger fans buzzing in anticipation for his big-league debut. There’s little doubt left that he has the tools, but the Tigers don’t want to rush the maturation of the guy they believe is their closer of the future. “Knebel has thrown well for us,” Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski told MLive.com’s Chris Lott on May 7 in an email exchange. “It is good for him to continue his development. At this point, we have not discussed moving him, but that does not mean it cannot happen if we decide this is the best thing for him.” This means Knebel could see more battles with the Flying Squirrels, the Akron RubberDucks, the Portland Sea Dogs, the New Britain Rock Cats and the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. He may also get to spend some time as a Toledo Mud Hen (the Tigers’ Triple A affiliation and former home of Billy Bean, of “Moneyball” fame) striking out Lousiville Bats, Indianapolis Indians, Norfolk Tides, Lehigh Valley IronPigs and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Whether it is sooner or later, though, this former Bear seems destined to one day be a Tiger in Detroit. If his past is any indication, he’ll excel in that uniform as well.
