BATON ROUGE, La. – Former LSU pitcher Alex Lange was called up Saturday to the Major League roster of the Detroit Tigers. Lange is the 20th LSU player coached by Paul Mainieri to reach the big leagues.
Lange, a native of Lee’s Summit, Mo., was the 2017 first-round draft selection of the Chicago Cubs and finished his three-year career (2015-17) at LSU with a 30-9 record, becoming the 10th LSU pitcher to record 30 wins.
Lange compiled 406 career strikeouts, the second-highest total in LSU history, trailing only Scott Schultz, who had 409 Ks from 1992-95.
He earned first-team All-America and All-SEC honors during his LSU career, and he was named the 2015 National Freshman Pitcher of the Year.
“He’s a got a sprinter’s mentality as a pitcher,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said of Lange. “If the breaking ball command and control can improve, then he’s the classic guy that comes in and has wipeout stuff with effective velocity up in the zone and we’ve found something interesting for our pen.”
The other Mainieri-coached LSU players to reach the major leagues are infielder Alex Bregman, pitcher Aaron Nola, infielder DJ LeMahieu, infielder Austin Nola, pitcher Kevin Gausman, pitcher Nick Goody, outfielder Andrew Stevenson, pitcher Ryan Eades, infielder JaCoby Jones, infielder Ryan Schimpf, outfielder Mikie Mahtook, pitcher Nick Rumbelow, pitcher Louis Coleman, pitcher Charlie Furbush, pitcher Ryan Verdugo, pitcher Anthony Ranaudo, infielder Matt Clark, outfielder Jake Fraley and pitcher Riley Smith.
LSU has had at least one former player make his MLB debut in 28 of the past 31 seasons. The Tigers have produced a total of 78 Major Leaguers during their illustrious baseball history.
(Release via LSU Athletics)