Tom Brennan - Spotlight on St Lucie IF William Lugo

GUPPY REPORT

Everything is Baty, Mauricio, Alvarez, Vientos.  

YADA, YADA, YADA.

Lots of chatter about them, and some chit chat also about exciting young players like Alex Ramirez, Omar De Los Santos and Junior Tilien (a/k/a Bopper Junior).

But what about....

William Lugo? Another Lugo?

First of all, say "Lugo" and I think quality.  

So, for that matter, does Seth (whose quality was lacking last night at an in opportune time.

But this younger Lucie Lugo started out like crap in April for St Lucie, hitting .217 with an unsatisfactory 28 Ks in 16 games.

But then he turned it up.

May through July 3, the righty hitting Lugo has gone 49 for 173 in 48 games (.283, raising his season average to .266) with 26 walks and 27 RBIs.  That's a lot of walks, a lot of gittin’ on base, and a lot of RBIs, if you ask me.

He has, to be fair, zero steals this season, leaving him a mere 44 behind Omar, who has 44.  My guess is speed is not one of Lugo's gifts.  I'd ask Omar, but I couldn't catch up with him.

But the 6'3", 215 Lugo has played 19 games at SS with just 3 errors, 39 games at 3B with 6 errors, and 8 games at 1B with 1 error, which collectively is good fielding for a 20 year old who turns 21 in January.

I am heartened to see his hitting improve and his Ks drop dramatically after April.  

I think they think a lot of him, because at age 17, he skipped the DSL and played in the Gulf Coast League, and returned to the GCL last season.  He did hit just .158 at age 17 and .228 at age 19, but had a .328 OBP last year, which is decent.  

This May through July 3, his OBP is hovering around .380. That plays.

His big challenge will be Brooklyn once he is promoted.  I'd be OK with him finishing out the season at St Lucie and building on his success there, and then moving on to Brooklyn in 2023. 

But it seems WIlliam Lugo has real potential.  

He sure had a fine two first games in July (5 hits, 7 RBIs), so let's see where he goes from here.  

But it sure seems his career is in its ascendancy.  

"YOU GO, LUGO!"

And me?  If I were William, I'd change my baseball name to Willie Lugo.  Got a nice baseball ring to it.