(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Professional adventure Stijn van der Meer ends abruptly
Nederlands
 BUIES CREEK, Harnett County, North Carolina (USA) -
The professional career of Dutch infielder Stijn van der Meer has ended abruptly, as he was released on Sunday (April 16) by the Houston Astros.
The short stop had just started his second professional season, having played in six games for Buies Creek Astros, the Single-A Advanced team in the Astros-organization.
Van der Meer confirmed his release on Monday and thanked the Organization of the Houston Astros for giving him the opportunity to play professional baseball in the United States.
...Stijn van der Meer playing for the Netherlands...
...during the World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Van der Meer will return home to the Netherlands and almost surely will re-join Curaçao Neptunus in the Dutch big league.
On April 4, the 23-year old Van der Meer was assigned to the Buies Creek Astros, which is a new team in the Carolina League.
On April 6, the season opened and the infielder played in his first game and was 0-for-2, but scored a run after he had walked.
The Astros won the Opening Day-game against Winston-Salem Dash (Chicago White Sox) with a 5-3 score.
Three days later, Van der Meer played in his next game and was 0-for-3, but he then registered his first basehit the next day against Myrtle Beach Pelicans (Chicago Cubs).
Van der Meer also got a basehit in his next two games, but he was 0-for-3 last Thursday, which was to be his sixth and final game.
In the six games he played, Van der Meer batted .158 (3-for-19), scored twice and had no runs batted in.
He walked once and struckout four times.
Last year, Van der Meer ended his collegiate career at Lamar University and was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 34th Round and signed a contract.
Before starting his professional career, he first played in 16 games in the Dutch big league for Curaçao Neptunus, for whom he played since 2014 after coming from UVV.
Van der Meer then made his professional debut playing for the GCL Astros in Rookie League in early August.
There, he played in two games, batted 4-for-6 with a triple, scored once and batted in two runs.
Hereafter, he was promoted to Greenville Astros, another Rookie League-team, where he played in the remainder of the season.
Van der Meer played in 19 games for Greenville and made a good impression, as he batted .301 (22-for-73) with three doubles and a triple.
He scored 12 runs and batted in eight.
In September last year, Van der Meer played for the Netherlands Team and won the title at the European Championship in Hoofddorp (Netherlands).
Afterwards, he was named the Most Valuable Player of the event.
In February, Van der Meer was on the preliminary roster of the Netherlands Kingdom Team and participated in the training camp in Arizona, where the squad prepared for the World Baseball Classic.
After completion, Van der Meer made the 28-man roster for the Classic and reached the Semi-Final with the Orange squad.
After the Netherlands was eliminated on March 20, Van der Meer returned to the Spring Training-complex of the Astros.
There were several transactions involving the Buies Creek Astros in recent days.
Last Thursday, it added pitcher Ryan Deemes, who came from Corpus Christi Hooks (Double-A).
On Sunday, pitcher Elieser Hernandez was assigned to the team from Tri-City ValleyCats (Single-A Short Season).
And on Monday, the Buies Creek Astros added short stop Anibal Sierra to its roster.
He came to the team from Quad Cities River Bandits (Single-A).
(April 17)
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