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Archive for the 'Netherlands' Category

Netherlands Season Gets Underway

Saturday, April 13th, 2013

The Netherlands got their baseball season started yesterday. Traditional powers L&D Amsterdam, who won championships in 2008 and 2011 and DOOR Neptunus, who won back to back championships in 2009 and 2010 had easy victories in the two Netherland openers.

L&D beat ADO lakers 12-1 while DOOR walloped the Mampaey The Hawks 17-0. The Hawks were making their debut with the big clubs. Many of the European teams treat baseball like their soccor leagues. The teams who finished at the bottom of the standings get sent down, while at the lower levels the teams that finish at the top of the league often get promoted to the top leagues.

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Major Leagues Global Game

Monday, April 1st, 2013

Major league baseball announced that of the 856 players on major league 25 man rosters (106 of which are on the disabled or restricted list) 241 of those players were born outside the 50 United States. That is 28.2 percent of all players, the fourth highest mark. The year 2005 had the highest percentage with 29.2, followed by 2007 (29) and 2012 (28.4).

The countries and territories outside the 50 United States that make up this list include:

Dominican Republic (89, a drop from the 95 they had last year), Venezuela (63, a drop from the 66 they had last year), Canada (17), Cuba (15, their highest total), Mexico (14), Puerto Rico (13), Japan (11), Colombia (4), Panama (4), Curacao (3), Australia (2), South Korea (2), Nicaragua (2), Netherlands (1) and Taiwan (1).

The Milwaukee Brewers lead all teams with 14 foreign born players, followed by the Texas Rangers with 13.

You can read the press release here: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130401&content_id=43618468&vkey=pr_mlb&c_id=mlb

Does this mean the fact they include Puerto Rico in this list that if a player L.J. Hoes makes a major league opening day roster he would be placed on this list since he was born in Washington, D.C., which is not considered one of the 50 states? Myworld is not aware of any current players born in Washington, D.C. currently on a major league opening day roster.

Posted in Australia, Cuba, Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama, Korea, Nicaragua, Taiwan, Mexico, Colombia | No Comments »

Dominicans Roll to Final

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

Another rematch with Puerto Rico is on the horizon for the Dominican Republic. It almost looks like the 2009 WBC when Korea duked it out with Japan for a number of games until Japan beat them in the final. Puerto Rico has yet to beat the Dominican Republic in any of the games they have played them this year, but it only takes one.

The Netherland bats were very quiet. The only run they scored in the 4-1 loss was in the first inning courtesy of the wildness of Edinson Volquez, who walked the first two hitters he faced. A couple of groundouts allowed Andrelton Simmons to cross the plate with the first run.

Diegomar Markwell shut the vaunted Dominican Republic bats out for the first four innings. Those bats are difficult to fool after they have seen you at least once in the lineup. Carlos Santana got the Dominican train rolling with a double. Moises Alou followed with a double, tying the score at 1-1. A Jose Reyes single gave the Dominicans a 2-1 lead and a Miguel Tejeda single ended the day for Markwell. The Netherlands brought in Tom Stuifbergen. He could not stop the bleeding, throwing a wild pitch to allow Jose Reyes to cross the plate and giving up an RBI single to Edwin Encarnacion. It would be the only inning in which the Dominican bats saw any life.

Edinson Volquez settled down after the first inning and pitched through the fifth, retiring 11 hitters in a row at one point. With a 4-1 lead the Dominicans went to their bullpen to start the sixth, Kelvin Herrera, Pedro Strop and Fernando Rodney leading the charge. They limited the Netherlands to two hits and one walk, not enough to overcome a 4-1 deficit.

It was a good run by the Netherlands. They have a young club that will gain four years of major league experience when the 2017 WBC arrives. Instead of one veteran from Curacao in Andrew Jones, they will have four strong bats in Andrelton Simmons, Jurickson Profar, Didi Gregorius (who didn’t play in this event because of injury) and Jonathan Schoop and an Aruban in Xander Bogaerts. A championship is on the horizon.

The Dominican Republic is undefeated. They will try to finish 8-0 and take a championship back to Dominican.

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Japan and Netherlands Win Exhibition Games

Friday, March 15th, 2013

Both Japan and the Netherlands won exhibition games in their tuneup to the World Baseball Classic semifinals in San Francisco. Japan beat the Giants 6-3 and the Netherlands bombed the Padres 9-3.

Japan started Masahiro Tanaka in their game against the Giants. He worked two innings and gave up one run. Takashi Toritani was the big bat from the leadoff spot for Japan, stroking two hits, scoring twice and driving in two runs. The Giants started Yusmeiro Petit, who was banged around for four runs on six hits.

Japan was in control the whole game after their three run outburst in the third. Sho Nagata also scored twice with his three hits for Japan. The Japanese bullpen after Tanaka gave up only two hits against the Giants, including a solo homerun from Gary Brown in the ninth. Kazuhisa Makita gave up the other hit, but also struck out the side. The Samurai gave one run in the sixth courtesy of a couple errors.

The Netherlands got a homerun from Andruw Jones in beating the Padres 9-3.

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Japan Wins the Seed Game

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

Both teams will be going to San Francisco, Japan as the number one seed after their 10-6 win over the Netherlands. It looked like another slaughter after Japan erupted for eight runs in the second inning off Dave Bergman. Shinnosuke Abe slugged two homeruns in the inning, a solo shot leading off the second and a 3-run homer to end the eight run scoring outburst.

Hisayoshi Chono drove in five runs for Japan with a 3-run double in the second and a 2-run single in the eighth. Nobuhiro Matsuda drove in the other run for Japan with a single in the second.

Kenji Otonari started for Japan and after giving a leadoff homer to Andrelton Simmons settled down and shut out the Dutch for the next three innings, striking out six. Japanese pitchers struck out 13 Dutch for the game.

The Netherlands did score five runs in the sixth and seventh innings to pull to within two, but the Chono 2-run single in the bottom frame.

There were still 30,000 to show up to see Japan play a meaningless game. It is too bad they can’t do something about that last game to make it mean something more than seeding. Whether it is the Dominican Republic or the United States seeded one or two from the other pool, both will be tough games. Even Puerto Rico or Italy will be tough if they can make it beyond the second round.

The top hitters for Japan:

Hirokazu Ibata - .571 with five walks and two whiffs and leads the team in runs scored with six

Shinnosuke Abe - .316, 2, 7 tied for the team RBI lead

Yoshio Itoi - .316, 1, 7, with five walks and one whiff

Nobuhiro Matsuda - .389 and second to Ibata in slugging with 1.117

Top Pitchers

Kenta Maeda - 0.00 ERA in 10 innings of work with 15 whiffs in 10 innings. Who said he had arm problems?

Masahiro Tanaka - 2.57, giving up 10 hits in 7 innings, but he has struck out 12.

Top Hitters for Netherlands

Adrelton Simmons - .370, 2, 6 tied for team lead in RBIs despite hitting from the leadoff and leads in runs scored with nine.

Curt Smith - .375, 1, 4

Jonathan Schoop - .250, 2, 6

Top Pitchers

Deigo Markwell - 0.90 ERA and won both his starts

Posted in Netherlands, Japan, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »

Netherlands Rallies to Bounce Cuba From WBC

Monday, March 11th, 2013

Andrelton Simmons clubbed a 2-run homer in the eighth and a Yulieski Gourriel error in the ninth allowed Andrew Jones to get on base to score the winning run as the Netherlands eliminated Cuba from the WBC 7-6 and advance to the final four. They still must play Japan to determine who is the first seed. A disappointing 7,600 fans showed up to watch the exciting game.

The Netherlands seemed to have control of the game at the start, jumping to a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a Andrew Jones sacrifice fly and a Curt Smith single. Cuba tied it in the fourth with Yulieski Gourriel leading off the inning with a double and scoring on a Jose Fernandez single. Frederich Cepeda grounded into a double play, which proved critical when Jose Abreu hit a solo shot to tie the game at 2-2.

Randolph Oduber had a big game for the Netherlands. Andrelton Simmons hit a sacrifice fly to give the Netherlands the lead again. Oduber stole third and a poor throw by the catcher allowed the Netherlands to score their first run courtesy of the error.

Cuba came back in the fifth to tie the game on a Yulieski Gourriel 2-run double. Cuba took the lead for the first time in the eighth scoring two runs to make it 6-4. Yasmany Thomas had an RBI single and Eriel Sanchez a sacrifice fly.

Norberto Gonzalez was working his fifth inning for Cuba. He had not allowed a run in the first four. He walked Kalian Sams in the eighth to lead off the inning. After two strikeouts Andrelton Simmons took Gonzalez deep for a game tying 2-run homer.

Yander Guevara relieved Gonzalez after one out in the ninth to face Andrew Jones. Jones reached on an error by Gourriel. Curt Smith and Xander Boegarts followed with back to back singles. Diosdany Castillo relieved Guevara and the infield and outfield moved in. Kalian Sams hit a ball deep enough to center to score Jones.

Cuba had an opportunity to take the lead in the top of the ninth with runners on first and third and one out. Loek Van Mil struck out Frederich Cepeda and then Jose Abreu flew out to end the threat.

Oduber stole three bases for the Netherlands. The Netherlands advances to the final four for the first time in their history.

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Posted in Cuba, Netherlands, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »

Japanese Bats Explode Against Netherlands

Sunday, March 10th, 2013

The Japanese bats have been quiet for most of the exhibition season and the WBC tournament, but the Team Samurai bats woke up like Mount Fuji against Netherlands this morning with a 16-4 drubbing. Rob Cordemans had perhaps his worst outing of his career, giving up three homeruns and six runs in less than one inning of work.

It started innocently enough when Takashi Toritani led the game off with a homerun. That was the only run that was scored and after one inning Japan led 1-0. They scored five in the second after Nobuhiro Matsuda hit a 2-run shot and shortly after that Seiichi Uchikawa added a 3-run blast and it was 6-0 after two. The rout had begun.

Team Samurai was not through with the long balls. The team noted more for their bunts slugged three more homeruns. Atsunori Inaba added a solo shot in the third, Yoshio Itoi blasted a 3-run homer in the fourth and Hayato Sakamoto continued the barrage with a grand slam in the seventh. The grand slam was enough to end the game when the Netherlands could not score a run in the bottom of the seventh to get the game within ten.

The usually bunt crazy Japanese drove in 14 of their 16 runs via the long ball. Normally Asian teams advance runners via the bunt, hit and run or making an out to advance the runner. They were a different team today.

Kenta Maeda pitched another excellent game, working five innings and only allowing one hit, dispelling any concern over an arm injury. He struck out nine. The Netherlands got to reliever Tetsuya Utsumi in the sixth for all four of their runs. Wladimir Balentien, the NPB homerun champ last year got the big hit with a 3-run double. That made the score 12-4 a lead still too insurmountable for the Netherlands to overcome.

Japan advances to the finals in San Francisco to defend their two time championship. They will play the winner of the Cuban/Netherlands match to determine the first seed. In 2009 Japan was the first seed and had to open with a game against the United States. They disposed of them easily 9-4 while their Asian counterparts blasted Venezuela 10-4. This year the West representatives should be the United States and Dominican Repbulic, though the way the WBC is twisting and turning with the results expect the unexpected.

What would really be fun is a Netherlands/Dominican Republic rematch. It was the Netherlands that bounced the Dominican Republic out of the WBC in 2009 with two shocking victories. The Dominican Republic would like some retribution.

Posted in Netherlands, Japan, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »

Schoop Leads Dutch Over Cuba

Friday, March 8th, 2013

You can no longer call it a shock when the Netherlands beats Cuba. If you follow the international game they do it quite regularly now and with players from major league teams they may actually be better than the Cuban lineups, despite what Victor Mesa the manager of Cuba may think. Jonathan Schoop proved that by collecting three hits, including a big 3-run homer in the sixth to give the Netherlands a 6-2 win over Cuba.

Curt Smith got things started for the Netherlands in the second with a leadoff homerun. Kalian Sams doubled and was driven in by a Andrelton Simmons single to give Netherlands a 2-0 lead. The MVP of the first round in Japan Alfredo Despaigne responded with a leadoff homerun in the bottom of the second to close the gap to one.

Diegomar Markwell, who shut out Korea for four innings in his first start had another brilliant outing in this start, scattering nine hits in his six innings of work but allowing none of them to cross the plate except for the Despaigne blast. He walked one and struck out none, but was aided by Cuba hitting into four double plays in the first four innings. They grounded into a fifth double play in the sixth inning.

The Schoop homerun gave the Netherlands a huge 5-1 lead. Schoop was also responsible for turning or starting four of the five double plays. He also drove in the last run in the eighth on an RBI double, sucking out any attempt by Cuba to gain momentum. Yulieski Gourriel had slugged a solo homerun in the bottom of the seventh to give Cuban fans hope.

The Cubans bowed out meekly with Leon Boyd retiring them in order in the eighth in his second inning of work and Loek Van Mil disposing of them in order in the ninth.

Both teams combined for 26 hits with the Netherlands rapping out 14 of them. Ismel Jimenez, the best pitcher Cuba could throw with a winning percentage of over .700 in the Cuba Nacional Series took the loss in this one giving up five hits in less than two innings. The Netherlands had the opportunity to score many more runs, stranding 14 men on base.

You can see a box score from the game here: http://web.worldbaseballclassic.com/wbc/2013/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_03_08_nedint_cubint_1&mode=box

Posted in Cuba, Netherlands, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »

Myworld WBC Second Round Predictions

Thursday, March 7th, 2013

The second round will open in the Asian Series on March 8 with two big opening round games, the Netherlands versus Cuba and Japan versus Taiwan. The winner of those games will probably advance past the second round.

Myworld predicts the pitching of Netherlands and Japan will allow them to advance, with Japan being the pool winner. The Netherlands shut out Cuba 5-0 in an exhibition game this year and they beat them when they played in the World Cup. Cuba got its revenge by beating the Netherlands in the Honkball tournament.

Japan has always been able to beat Taiwan. In the Asian Series the best Taiwan teams have never been able to beat the best Japanese team. Even in the Asian Games Japan is dominant. Now both teams will have their best battle it out. Japan should be able to win, though their offense has been pretty quiet. They need their pitching to be effective in order to win.

When the games count, the Japanese pitching has always been able to quiet the Cuban bats. No reason to suspect this won’t be any different.

The order of finish - 1) Japan, 2) Netherlands, 3) Cuba and 4) Taiwan

The loss and either Japanese and the United States doing well in the WBC could see Cuba finally get knocked from the top spot in the baseball rankings.

Posted in Cuba, Netherlands, Japan, Taiwan, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »

Schoop Leads Netherlands Advance

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

Jonathan Schoop slugged a 2-run homer to lead the Netherlands to a 4-1 win over Australia. Based on the tie breaker rule this allows them to advance to the second round regardless of the result of the Taiwan/Korea matchup. The Netherlands handed it to their veteran Rob Cordemans who threw five two hit shutout innings to get the win. Seven footer Loek Van Mil tossed the last inning to get the save, though he did make it interesting by giving up two hits.

The Netherlands scored early, getting a run in the first on an Andrelton Simmons double and a Roger Bernadina single. Jonathan Schoop contributed a sacrifice bunt in the inning to move Simmons to third.

They erupted in the second frame with three runs, the Schoop 2-run homer the big blow. Australian starter Dushan Ruzic gave up all the runs in his two innings of work. Chris Oxspring came on to pitch the third and pitched five shutout innings. Other than getting out of a bases loaded jam in the third he shut down the Netherlands bats through the other four innings.

Australia had trouble generating any kind of offense in the three games they played. Stefan Welch was their big bat. He doubled in the seventh to be driven in by a Brad Harman single to score the only Aussie run. Stefan Welch scored the only two runs Australia scored in the tournament, driving in the other run with a solo shot. They hit .198 as a team, with only China hitting worse than the Aussies. China though scored seven runs to Australia’s two.

This is the second time The Netherlands has advanced to the second round. As a team they only hit .216 so their bats are a little short despite their addition of some major league stars. Schoop only had one hit in the tournament but it was a big one.

Posted in Australia, Netherlands, World Baseball Classic | No Comments »