Trending
There has never been one position Luke Williams has been able to call home before playing pro ball. He was also bouncing around during high school and travel ball season.
Now he has a home: third base. It wasn’t one of the ones he was used to playing during his high school career, but it’s the one he’s at now.
The 2015 third-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies played 38 games at third base for the Gulf Coast League Phillies last summer and he’s starting to feel real comfortable.
“It was a pretty big culture shock because I had never played third base before,” Williams said during the Williamsport Crosscutters’ media day earlier this week. “It was new experiencing it. It was a big shock, but I think I’ve dealt with it pretty well.”
Williams was drafted last year as a shortstop, one of four drafted by the Phillies a year ago. But none have stuck at shortstop. Cornelius Randolph is now a left fielder. Dylan Bosheers, a 2015 Williamsport Crosscutter, was released by the Phillies this spring. And Beau Brundage never signed with the team last year.
Williams was always destined to play anywhere but shortstop. The speedster who set career and single-season stolen base records at Dana Hills High School in California was a catcher during his junior season, a center fielder during travel ball, and a shortstop during his senior year of high school.
Scouts thought he may be a center fielder because of his speed. But with the Phillies, he’s stuck at third base. He made four errors in 38 games a year ago in the GCL finishing with a .955 fielding percentage.
“I actually like bouncing around. It keeps me on my toes,” Williams said. “But I like staying at one position and being able to focus on one position.”
For much of last summer, minor league roving infield instructor Chris Truby would talk about Williams as an athletic third baseman who picked up on the position quickly. Truby, a former Crosscutters manager, said Williams was a player to keep an eye on moving forward.
Now he’ll take the next step of his career, likely as the everyday third baseman for the Crosscutters.
“As each day goes by, I feel more comfortable with it,” Williams said. “I know I just have to keep working. It’s a process. The more I work at it the more comfortable I’ll get.”
“He’s a very gritty player. He comes to play everyday and doesn’t take a play off,” Cutters manager Pat Borders said. “You would think that would be really common. But with it being such a long season with such hard work, that really stands out to me. He doesn’t take plays off for having a bad at-bat or making a tough error. He comes to play every single day and that’s a very good player in my eyes.”
He’s not your prototypical third baseman. At 6-foot-1, 180 pounds he’s not the hulk of a man with ridiculous power you’d expect out of a corner infielder. He provides a solid bat at the hot corner with speed to make things happen on the bases.
His bat is probably behind his glove at this point as he learns to patient with a strikezone which is smaller than what he saw in high school. But his first season in pro ball was a positive sign as he posted a .400 on-base percentage, driven by 21 walks, to go with his .288 batting average.
“I think the biggest thing for me is being more patient,” Williams said. “For me it’s about the approach and making sure I’m swinging at good pitches and letting the bad pitches go. That’s a skill that many people don’t have. But it’s something I think I’ve had throughout my whole baseball life.”
—
HARRIS ADDED TO ROSTER
Prior to Friday’s season opener, relief pitcher Scott Harris was added to the Williamsport Crosscutters’ roster. Harris has pitched in just two games for Lakewood this year because of injury.
A 27th-round draft pick in 2014 out of Buena Vista University, the 23-year old pitched in 12 games in the 2014 season for the Crosscutters, posting a 3.65 ERA and striking out 9.5 batter per nine innings.
The Crosscutters have just 24 players on their roster for the first weekend of the season, but are expected to add more players over the weekend with players selected in last week’s Major League Baseball draft.