(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 HCAW also confirms return of pitcher Kaj Timmermans
Nederlands
 BUSSUM (Neth.) -
Dutch champion HCAW on Wednesday (October 5) also confirmed that righthanded pitcher Kaj Timmermans has returned to the Bussum-club.
In the past three seasons, Timmermans was one of the pitchers of Curaçao Neptunus.
The announcement comes three days after the club announced last Sunday that infielder Delano Selassa also will play again for HCAW in the 2023 season.
...Kaj Timmermans pitching for Neptunus...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
The transfer-period ends on November 15.
In the three seasons that Timmermans played for Neptunus, the Rotterdam-team was left empty-handed each time.
In 2020, Neptunus lost the first two games against L&D Amsterdam Pirates in the Holland Series, which then was halted due to measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Last year, Neptunus lost the best-of-seven Championship Final against Pirates and in this years Holland Series, the team was swept in four games by HCAW.
Timmermans was the losing pitcher in Game 2.
This season, Kaj Timmermans was 6-2 with a 3.06 ERA for Neptunus, striking out 45 batters in 79 1/3 inning.
The righthander pitched in 14 games, all as a starter, and had the second-most inning pitched behind Juan Carlos Sulbaran.
Timmermans made his big league-debut pitching for HCAW in the 2012 season when he threw 5 1/3 inning in one start.
From 2013 on, the righthander was one of the regular starters for in the pitching-staff of HCAW.
From 2016 on, Timmermans was one of the pitching aces for HCAW, but also one of the team's workhorses.
In 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, he led HCAW's staff in games started.
He also pitched in 80 or more innings in each of these seasons and threw the most of the team in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and the second most in 2016.
After his ERA was 3.50 or higher in 2013 through 2016, he lowered it to 2.30 in 2017 and 2.45 in 2019.
Although Timmermans has always been a very solid and reliable pitcher, he never has been a real strikeout-pitcher.
For some pitchers, the strikeout-totals equals or is higher than the total of innings pitched.
That has never been the case for Timmermans, whose strikeout-totals mostly are the half of his innings pitched.
For instance, he struckout out 51 batters in 95 1/3 inning in 2019, his last season with HCAW.
This also means that when batters make contact off of him, he relies of his defense.
After the 2019 season, Timmermans transfered to Neptunus.
His strikeout-innings-pitched-average got somewhat higher in the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
In the abbreviated 2020 season, he struckout 22 batters in 37 innings.
Last year, Timmermans struckout 44 in 50 2/3 inning.
In both these seasons, he had the second-most wins of the team.
Kaj Timmermans pitched in six international games for the Netherlands Baseball Team with he participated in the 2017 and 2019 World Port Tournament in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and the 2021 European Championship in Italy.
Last year, he won the European title with the Orange Team.
(October 5)
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