Buckel has been one of many surprises for Crawdads this season

One of the pleasant surprises of the 2011 season has been the emergence of pitcher Cody Buckel (pronounced byoo-KELL).  

Buckel will make his final regular season start Thursday night with the Hickory Crawdads against the Greenville (S.C.) Drive as the two teams close out the 2011 campaign with a five-game series at L.P. Frans Stadium.  First pitch at tonight’s game is at 7:00 p.m. 

Called up in May, the 19-year old has become a mainstay in the Hickory Crawdads rotation and may well be a key component in the South Atlantic League Playoffs, which will begin Sept. 7 at Greensboro or Kannapolis. The start Thursday will put Buckel in line to be the starter in game one of the playoffs

This would be quite heady stuff for most players of Buckel’s age in their first full professional season. However, Buckel has already experience much of what the baseball world has to offer—the term world here is meant literally.

A native of Simi Valley, Calif., Buckel has been a member of two Team USA rosters.  In 2008, Buckel was a member of the 16-and-under team that won the gold medal in the Youth Pan American Championship. In that tournament, Buckel was 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA, which included a one-hit, eight-strikeout outing against Panama in the first game.

The next season, Buckel was a member of the 18-and-under USA team that won the Pan American AAA tournament in Venezuela, striking out 12 batters in six innings over two starts.

While many players at the class low-A struggle with the adjustment of life in the pro ranks, Buckel says that his experience with Team USA more than prepared him for life in the minors on the bus.

“Playing with team USA, we had a couple of eight hour bus rides,” said Buckel. “It’s just getting used to the atmosphere on the bus, being really close to everybody for a long period of time. I think I adjusted to that pretty quick. I don’t really mind it at all.”

His high school career with Royal High School in Simi Valley, which included a near perfect game during his senior year, had pro scouts drooling over a kid that had command of three pitches, including a low 90 mph fastball. 

Buckel, who had signed a letter of commitment with Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., was drafted in the second round in June by the Texas Rangers.

His decision to sign with the Rangers or to go to Pepperdine took most of the summer before he finally decided to sign with the Rangers with whom he made a brief pro debut in the Arizona Summer League.

“I think having professional coaching was a big thing for me versus college coaching,” Buckel said. “The coaches here are more along the lines of developing a professional athlete and I wanted to have pro coaching at a younger age as well.”

He stayed with the Rangers for extended spring training before joining the Crawdads on April29.  After making five relief appearances, Buckel made his first start on May 22. Limited to no more than six innings per start to conserve wear on his arm, he has taken to the pro game quite well. In his 16 starts, he is 7-2 with a 2.43 ERA with 96 strikeouts in 77 2/3 innings.  Included was a key start on June 17 against Charleston (S.C.) in which he allowed one run on five hits during a 10-2 win by the Crawdads over the RiverDogs during the final week of the first-half title run.

“(He’s) got a good idea on how to handle the pressure,” said pitching coach Storm Davis after that start. “Most of these kids have pitched in huge tournaments. They’ve been around this stuff before; it’s just a different type of thing being in pro ball.”

What has stood out for many observers has been the maturity of Buckel on the mound. While others may have better raw talent on the mound, Buckel and his 3.9 GPA in high school bring a cerebral approach to pitching. 

“We had one last year in Robbie Erlin that studies every outing and studies every pitch and makes adjustments before the next start,” said Crawdads manager Bill Richardson. “For his development, that is tremendous. It’s not a lot of players that can do that. He can almost do it pitch-to-pitch now and that’s the same thing that Erlin could.” 

Buckel credits his maturity to things he learned on the world stage as well as his high school coach. 

“As far as maturity team USA helped a lot and treated us as more of a professional team. Plus the traveling was similar to pro ball as well as with throwing and workout routines. 

My high school coach Dan Maye was incredible with baseball knowledge and coaching ability he had a huge impact with my career.”