BYU baseball: Jaycob Brugman will try to make most of second half with Oakland A’s

Former BYU baseball star Jaycob Brugman made it to The Show earlier this season. Now he’ll try to make the most of his second-half opportunities.

Jaycob Brugman was the 521st pick in the MLB Draft when he left BYU baseball in 2013. Players like that aren’t supposed to have careers in Major League Baseball.

Brugman will be trying to change that.

After making his MLB debut on June 9, Brugman slugged his first career home run on June 24. Entering the All-Star Break, he was hitting .239 with two homers and eight runs batted in.

He’s not setting the world on fire, but neither are the Oakland A’s.

The A’s are currently 39-50, 21 games back of the Houston Astros in the American League West standings.

So, for all intents and purposes, Oakland’s season is over. The team will likely move ace Sonny Gray at the trade deadline and enter full-on rebuild mode.

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That’s good news for Brugman.

With the A’s focused on getting young guys experience, Brugman will continue to have opportunities he might not have if Oakland was in a pennant race.

Another thing he’s got going for him is his defense. Even though he’s had limited opportunities, Brugman is performing well in the field.

His range factor is currently 2.08 when playing left field ,2.11 in center field and 3.00 in right field.

To put that into perspective, Rickey Henderson’s career RF is 2.34.

I’m not trying to compare Brugman and Henderson – there’s obviously no contest there. But, it is illustrative of how competent he is in the field.

Brugman and the Oakland A’s will head back to the diamond on Friday, to take on the Cleveland Indians. Hopefully Brugman will be able to keep swinging a hot bat, as he entered the break hitting .428 over his last six contests.