Jose Lugo, LHRP.  Click to enlarge.  Courtesy of Lonnie @ Mariner Central

You may as well call this guy Jose LOOGY, because he’s got the makings of a great left-handed specialist.  As you can see, the Rule 5er throws dead sidearm and appears to crossfire from the first base side of the mound.

Lugo is off to a fast start this spring.  Management is already using him situationally (just pretend that’s a word) as he’s pitched to just 5 batters over his 3 games, retiring everyone he’s faced.

Dave Cameron at USS Mariner has deemed him “a left-handed Roy Corcoran with more velocity,” which seems like a great comparison.  Armed with a heavy sinking fastball and not a lot else, Lugo has caused hitters to chop the ball into the ground nearly 60% of the time.

I don’t there is going to be much of a competition for the two lefty spots in Seattle’s bullpen.  As a Rule 5 selection, Lugo is going to have to have a horrible Spring Training to not make this team as a low leverage reliever (he hasn’t played above A-ball, after all).

The lefty setup man spot will almost certainly go to Ryan Rowland-Smith assuming Jarrod Washburn starts the regular season with the team.  Jason Vargas, Justin Thomas and Chris Seddon– who are all off to good starts– will likely have to start the season in AAA waiting for an injury, trade or implosion in order to reestablish themselves as major leaguers.  Garrett Olson, too.

There isn’t much point to this.  I just wanted an excuse to post Lonnie’s very cool sequence.  I can’t wait to see this kid in action.

Also, if you notice the “Inverted W” in Lugo’s motion all by yourself then I have done my job in bringing additional attention to the mechanical flaw.  In Lugo’s case it is hardly worth pointing out as he’s a low cost reliever who will pitch in short enough bursts that he should be able to avoid injury for the most part throughout his career.