(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
  Stijn van der Meer drafted by Houston Astros
Nederlands
  BEAUMONT, Texas (USA) / ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Dutch infielder Stijn van der Meer has been drafted by the Houston Astros.
The Major League Baseball Amateur Draft ended on Saturday (June 11).
In total, there were 40 rounds in which 1,216 players were selected by the 30 Major League-clubs.
...Stijn van der Meer was the MVP...
...last year of the best-of-three final...
...of the European Champions Cup...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Van der Meer was drafted in the 34th round and was the 1,027th player overall that was picked by a Major League-club.
Recently, Van der Meer completed his Senior-year at Lamar University in Texas.
After completion of his college-season (his second with Lamar), Van der Meer returned home to the Netherlands where he re-joined his club Curaçao Neptunus at the end of May.
That was just in time for him to travel with the team to Italy for the European Champions Cup-tournament, where Neptunus finished in fourth place.
Last Thursday, the second half of the regular season in the Dutch big league began and Van der Meer then played in his first league-game of the season for Neptunus.
Van der Meer was one of two players of Lamar who were drafted, the other being righthanded pitcher Will Hibbs, who was drafted in the 19th round by the Philadelphia Phillies.
In the last six years, eleven players of the Lamar have been selected.
...Stijn van der Meer playing for the Netherlands...
...Team during the 2015 World Port Tournament...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The 23-year old Van der Meer batted .376 in 54 games in the past college-season for the Cardinals, the baseball-team of Lamar University.
The short stop had a fine season, scored 44 runs, batted in 20 runs and led the team with 80 basehits.
During the season, he struckout only 15 times, received 38 walks and had a 24-game hitting streak.
His .471 on-base average was second best in the Southland Conference.
Van der Meer was selected for the All-Southland Conference first team.
In recent years, Van der Meer played for the Netherlands National Baseball Team, participating in the Haarlem Baseball Week in 2012 and 2014 and the Rotterdam World Port Tournament in 2013 and 2015.
In 2013, he won the award for Rookie of the Year in the World Port Tournament.
Last year, Van der Meer was named Most Valuable Player of the best-of-three Final of the European Champions Cup.
In that series, Neptunus won 2-1 against UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna (Italy) to win the Cup.
Later in the year, Van der Meer won the Dutch Championship-title for the second consecutive year with Neptunus.
Before coming to Neptunus in 2014, Van der Meer played in the Dutch big league for UVV.
His brother Bob made his big league-debut this season, playing for Twins.
(June 11)
|
