(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 Rombley, Lampe, Clarijs to play for Amsterdam Pirates; Nooij, Henrique leave
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
L&D Amsterdam Pirates has its roster finalized for the 2016 season.
While the transfer-period officially ends on November 1 and some of the names already were rumored, the club today (Thursday, October 29) officially confirmed its transfers.
With this, Amsterdam becomes the first of the eight big league baseball-teams to officially confirm its transfers for the upcoming season.
The pitching-staff of the Amsterdam-squad remained intact.
This means that the staff will be headed again by righthanded veteran Rob Cordemans as one of its starters.
Righthander Kevin Heijstek and lefthander Kyle Ward were the other two regular starters of the staff.
The team has added three new players to its roster, being veteran outfielder Danny Rombley, outfielder Gilmer Lampe and catcher Max Clarijs.
Leaving the team are catcher Bas Nooij and outfielder Roelie Henrique.
Nooij already had decided to play in Australia, but while being in the Netherlands, he decided to play for Quick Amersfoort, which plays in the second highest division ('Overgangsklasse'), while Henrique will play for HCAW in the new season, as he wants to move to second base.
Also playing at Quick Amersfoort are former Pirates-players Jos de Jong and Bas de Jong.
After completion of the 2014 season, the two brothers went to the Amersfoort-team, where they had started their career.
Recently, the club annonced that main sponsor L&D Support has extended its cooperation with the club for five more years.
Danny Rombley probably is the most surprising transfer.
In the past three seasons, the outfielder played for Vaessen Pioniers.
When he puts on the shirt of Amsterdam Pirates in 2016, it will be for his seventh different team at the big league-level.
...Danny Rombley transfers to Pirates...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In 1997, Rombley made his debut in the Dutch big league, playing for Mr. Cocker HCAW, where he then appeared in two games, hitting a basehit in the lone at bat he got.
In 1998, Rombley played his first full season in the Dutch big league when he was with Twins.
In his rookie-season, he scored 41 runs, had 20 RBI's and went 67-for-171 for a .392 batting average to lead his team.
Rombley then signed a professional contract with the organisation of the Montreal Expos.
The outfielder went on to play in six professional seasons in the organisation of the Canadian club, which later moved to become the Washington Nationals.
In 1999, Rombley made his professional debut playing in the Rookie League-team of the Expos.
In the following years, he played on three different Single-A levels (Short Season, Full Season and Advanced), before being promoted to Double-A during the 2004 season, playing in 41 games for the Harrisburg Senators.
In six professional seasons, Rombley played in 558 games, scoring 281 runs and hitting 474 basehits (four homeruns) to finish with a .238 batting average.
After the 2004 season, Rombley was released and returned to the Netherlands, where he went on to play for Corendon Kinheim.
In his first season back in the Dutch big league (2005), Rombley scored 35 runs, had 15 RBI's and batted .278 (44-for-158) to become the second-best hitter of Kinheim.
In the 2007, 2008 and 2009 seasons, Rombley led the Haarlem-based team in hitting.
In 2007, he led with a .392 average, then did the same in 2008 (.333) and 2009 (.396).
His batting average in 2007 earns him the title of Batting Champion of the Dutch big league.
Rombley then played for DOOR Neptunus in the 2010 season, where he batted .309, scored 32 runs and hit 46 basehits (7 doubles, 4 triples, 1 homerun), but set a career-high with 34 RBI's.
...Danny Rombley at the Haarlem Baseball Week 2014...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
After his lone season with Neptunus, Rombley returned to UVV, the club where he had started his career in youth-teams.
UVV had just promoted to the big league and Rombley played for the squad in 2011 and 2012.
While at UVV, he was the team's second best hitter in 2011 with a .304 average and led the team with 30 runs, 48 hits and 11 doubles.
In his second season there, Rombley was UVV's best hitter with .359 and shared the lead with 32 runs batted in.
The past three seasons, the veteran outfielder played for Vaessen Pioniers.
In his first and second season in Hoofddorp, Rombley batted .350, then dropped to .287 this season.
In 2013, he led the team with 42 runs, then was second last year in runs, hits and RBI's.
This season, he was again amongst the team-leaders, scoring the third most runs and was fourth in basehits.
In 1998, during the Haarlem Baseball Week, Rombley made his debut in the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
Later that year, he was a member of the Dutch squad that participated in the World Championship in Italy.
In those years, the rules were that when a player turned professional, he wasn't eligible anymore to play for his national team, but that changed in about the same period.
However, due to his professional seasons, Rombley was unable to compete in most events in that span.
He was able to be with the Orange squad in the 2001 World Championship and 2003 European Championship.
After his professional career ended, Rombley became a regular in the Dutch Team and from 2005 went on to participate in (almost) all events, the Orange squad participated in.
In his extensive international career, Rombley participated in (amongst other events) the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (China), two World Baseball Classics, five World Championships, two Intercontinental Cups, six European Championships, six Haarlem Baseball Weeks and five World Port Tournaments.
Since 2005, he only missed the 2007 World Championship in Taiwan and the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
Outfielder Gilmer Lampe played the last two seasons for UVV in the Dutch big league.
In both seasons, he was the leading hitter of the team.
In 2014, he led the team with a .355 batting average and also led in runs scored (29), basehits (50) and stolen bases (11).
This season, Lampe led with a .273 average, 23 runs scored, 44 basehits and 20 stolen bases.
With his 20 stolen bases, Lampe also led the league.
Catcher Max Clarijs played for HCAW the past three seasons.
This year, he batted .154, scored eight runs, batted in six and collected 14 basehits, including one double.
In the 2014 season, Clarijs batted .136 with six runs scored and three runs batted in.
Clarijs made his big league-debut in 2013 and then batted .156 with 15 runs scored and nine RBI's.
Before transfering to HCAW, Clarijs played in the Rookie League-team of Amsterdam Pirates.
Catcher Bas Nooij, who played for the team seven years, this season batted a career-high .310 with nine doubles and a team-leading five homeruns.
Nooij also led the team with 37 runs batted in and was in second place with 32 runs scored.
The bearded catcher, who also played winterball in Australia in recent years, batted .290 in the 2014 season.
In 2011 and 2012, Nooij led the squad with being hit by a pitch, respectively nine and 14 times.
Bas Nooij made his big league-debut in 2009 when he played in five games for Amsterdam Pirates.
In 2011, he was part of the Netherlands Baseball Team that captured the World Championship-title in Panama.
Roelie Henrique, who frequently was used as lead-off hitter, batted .235 this season and again led the squad in stolen bases with 14.
He scored 28 runs and batted in nine.
Henrique played for the team since 2010.
Henrique also led in stolen bases in the previous seasons, stealing respectively 8 (2010), 19 (2011), 15 (2012), 20 (2013) and 22 (2014).
The last two seasons, he also led the league in stolen bases.
In 2011, he batted a career-high .291.
(October 29)
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