(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
  Tom de Blok assigned to new team
Nederlands
 NORWICH, Connecticut (USA) -
Dutch righthander professional pitcher Tom de Blok has been assigned to a new team.
In April, De Blok made his professional debut in the team of West Michigan Whitecaps in Single-A (full season).
Just over a week ago, the pitcher was assigned to Extended Spring Training for daily practice sessions without playing for a team.
On Monday (June 19), he was assigned to Connecticut Tigers, which plays in Single-A Short Season, which is a lower level.
...Tom de Blok pitching for...
...Amsterdam Pirates during...
...the 2016 season...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Connecticut Tigers was to open its season in the New York-Penn League on Monday (June 19) against Tri-City ValleyCats (Houston Astros), but that game rained out.
The team, which plays its home game in Norwich (Connecticut), now opens its season on Tuesday-evening (June 20), also against Tri-City.
Manager of the Connecticut-team is former Major Leaguer Gerald Laird.
The former catcher played (parts of) 13 seasons (2003-2015) in the big league for Texas Rangers, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Laird played in 799 Major League-games and collected 597 basehits.
De Blok signed a contract with the Detroit Tigers towards the end of March, then reported early April at the Spring Training-facility pf the club in Florida.
On April 14, he also was assigned to Connecticut Tigers, while remaining in Spring Training, as this team opens its season this month.
Two weeks later, De Blok was assigned to West Michigan Whitecaps, which plays in Single-A (full season).
De Blok made his debut on May 2 and then pitched in three innings for the Whitecaps, striking out one batter and giving up one basehit.
In the following weeks, De Blok appeared in ten more games.
So far, De Blok has done well, except for an appearance on May 17 when he gave up six hits and two earned runs in 1 2/3 inning.
In the other ten games combined, he gave up only one run and five basehits.
In eleven games (all in relief) pitching for the Whitecaps, De Blok struckout 10 batters in 16 2/3 inning, while walking only four.
The righthander gave up 11 basehits and three (earned) runs, which gave him an 1.62 ERA.
De Blok was 0-0 and earned one save.
After pitching one inning on June 9, De Blok was assigned to Extended Spring Training the next day.
With that, De Blok returned to Florida for daily practice sessions and was to be assigned to a new team.
That new assignment came Monday (June 19), as he was then got his original assignment in the team of Connecticut Tigers.
Last season, De Blok pitched in 26 games (all in relief) for L&D Amsterdam Pirates, with whom he won the European Champions Cup and reached the Holland Series.
He was 5-0 with five saves and an 0.88 ERA.
In 41 innings, De Blok struckout 43 batters, walked only eleven and gave up 21 basehits and only five runs.
His 0.88 ERA was the second lowest in the Dutch big league last season.
Earlier, De Blok already was noticed by other professional organisations from the USA and Japan.
Last year, he got a try-out with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan.
In August 2013, he signed a contract with the Seattle Mariners.
He then reported for Spring Training in April 2014, but returned home after only a week and rejoined the team of Amsterdam Pirates.
(June 20)
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