Lou Helmig

Lou Martin Helmig

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 5", Weight 194 lb.

• Born May 1, 2003

Biographical Information

Lou Helmig debuted for the German national team at age 18. He is part of one of Germany's top baseball families. His grandfather Claus Helmig and great-uncle Jürgen Helmig were the first two players born and raised in Germany to sign with a major league organization. His father Martin Helmig followed them to stardom; all three made the German Baseball Hall of Fame. Additionally, cousin Rex Helmig has also played in the Bundesliga.

Helmig debuted in the Bundesliga in 2020; the 17-year-old allowed 3 walks and no hits or runs in 1 1/3 IP for the Heidenheim Heideköpfe. With Heidenheim in the 2021 European Champions Cup, he hit .417/.533/.750 with 4 runs in 4 games, fielding .857 as a corner infielder. He scored three runs versus the Rouen Huskies and homered off Boris Bokaj of the Arrows Ostrava. In the regular season, he barely played, going 1 for 6 and having a 1-0, 7.11 record. He sure picked it up in the playoffs at .344/.364/.563 as Heidenheim won the Bundesliga title. While he played a nice role in their championship, it was a player 28 years older, Enorbel Márquez, who was the finals MVP.

Lou batted .214/.200/.286 in the 2021 U-18 European Championship, playing 1B and the outfield for Germany. He also represented Germany in that year's U-23 European Championship, where he fared better at .313/.353/.625 with five runs in five games. Despite having only one regular-season Bundesliga hit to his credit, he made Germany's squad for the 2021 European Championship, based off his playoff performance and his strong turn in the U-23 European Championship. Not only that, but he wound up as their main left fielder. In their opener, he pinch-hit for Danilo Weber and flew out against Croatia's Jose Diaz in his first at-bat. After starting 0 for 4, he got going with a double off Spain's Andrés Pérez. The next day, he belted homers off Ukraine's Yevhenii Tkachenko and Andrii Boiko as part of a 3-run game. He followed with three hits to beat France, 3 runs and 2 RBI in a win over Sweden and 2 hits in a win over Russia in the 9th/10th place game. He finished at .455/.455/.864 with 3 doubles, 2 homers, 3 steals (not caught), 7 runs and 5 RBI in 5 games while handling six chances error-free. Pretty swell for a teenager! He led Germany in runs (one ahead of Alex Schmidt), hits (10, one ahead of Schmidt), doubles (tied with Vincent Ahrens), homers, average (.017 ahead of Elias von Garßen), total bases (19, 8 ahead of Eric Brenk), slugging (.007 ahead of Ahrens) and steals (one ahead of Schmidt and Brenk). For the Euros as a whole, he tied for 5th in hits, tied for 8th in doubles, tied for 5th in home runs, was 6th in total bases, tied Aaron Singh for 9th in average, was 7th in slugging (between Gabriel Lino and Assaf Lowengart), was 10th in OPS (between Lino and Mitch Glasser) and tied for 4th in steals. It appears highly likely he was the first three-generation player on the German national team.

He played his fourth different tournament for Germany that year when he was in the 2021 U-23 Baseball World Cup. As a 1B/DH, he hit .214/.267/.321, with a dinger off the Dominicans' Abrahan Hiraldo.