(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen & Robert Bos)
 Amsterdam Pirates adds fifteen new players
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
The roster of Amsterdam Pirates in 2023 will feature fifteen new players, which is the largest total for the team in years.
The new additions were announced and confirmed on Tuesday (November 15), the final day of the transfer-period.
In the past few weeks, Curaçao Neptunus, HCAW, DSS/Kinheim and Twins Oosterhout regularly announced their new additions, but the other teams confirmed their transfers on Tuesday.
This season, L&D Amsterdam Pirates was eliminated in the Play-Offs by HCAW, which went on to capture the Dutch Championship-title via a 4-game sweep against Neptunus in the Holland Series.
With that, Pirates was dethroned as reigning champion.
In 2019, Pirates won the title after having lost the first three games to Neptunus, then become the first team in history to win the next four games to turn the Holland Series around and grab the title.
In 2021, Pirates again defeated Neptunus in the Holland Series.
In between, Pirates won the first two games against Neptunus in the 2020 Series, but that was then abruptly halted due to new measures against the coronavirus.
2022 marked the last season that the baseball-team was sponsored by L&D Support, which had done so for fifteen years.
In 2020, the sponsorship was extended for two final years, so it didn't come as a surprise that it would end after this season.
In the fifteen years that L&D Support supported Amsterdam Pirates, the team won the Championship-title four times (2008, 2011, 2019, 2021) to bring the club-total to six.
After completion of the 2022 season, Head Coach Ronald Jaarsma stepped down and Mervin Gario was named as his successor.
Pitching Coach Rob Cordemans also retired after the season, completing a very long career in the highest league.
What the players are concerned some changes followed after the season.
Outfielder Kalian Sams, infielder/catcher Rachid Engelhardt, infielder/catcher Rashid Gerard and pitcher Martin Kram retired.
Powerhitter Sams wants to give more attention to his family and also was bothered in the second half of the season by a shoulder-injury.
With that, he was unable to perform as he would like to.
Engelhardt also wants to be more with his family.
He has decided to play softball next season at Olympia Haarlem.
Last month, it was announced that pitchers Tom de Blok, Mike Groen and Shairon Martis all will play for Neptunus next season.
De Blok had not pitched the entire season, due to an ongoing injury.
Infielder Delano Selassa returned to HCAW and pitcher Donny Breek transfered to DSS/Kinheim.
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...Jason Jakobus (left) and Alex Madera...
(© Both Photos: Robert Bos) |
The other (experienced) players, as well as younger players who were added in the past few seasons, all stayed with the team.
For coming season, fifteen new players were added to the roster, including eight pitchers.
Nine of the new players are coming from Hoofddorp Pioniers, where new Head Coach Mervin Gario was in charge in the past five seasons.
Coming from Pioniers are RHP Michael Bennett, LHP Dylan Farley, RHP Koen van 't Klooster, RHP Yassir Lachkar, RHP Daniël Vos, catcher Pim Vijfvinkel and infielders Duco Nuijten, Jorrit Penseel and Oliver van der Wijst Severino.
Also joining Amsterdam Pirates are RHP Johnaikel Acosta, RHP Maickel Rietel, RHP Sven van de Sanden, catcher Jules Cremer, infielder Alex Madera and outfielder Jason Jakobus.
They respectively played for Quick Amersfoort, Thamen, RCH Memorie Sieraden, HCAW, Quick Amersfoort and DSS/Kinheim.
From this group, there are six players who have played five or more seasons in the highest league.
Righthanded pitcher Maickel Rietel returns to Pirates, where he also played in 2018 and 2019.
He then decided to step down from big league-baseball and opted to play in the First Division for RCH-Pinguïns for whom he played in 2020 and 2021.
When RCH-Pinguïns promoted to the highest league in 2021, Rietel went on to play for Thamen this year.
But now, he will make his comeback again in the big league.
Rietel made his debut in 2014 when he was one of the starting pitchers of HCAW, where he also played in 2015.
In these two seasons, the righthander started 26 of the 29 games he pitched in and was 6-16 overall, striking out 71 batters and walking 59 in 137 1/3 inning.
In 2014, Rietel led the HCAW-staff with his 3.72 ERA.
In 2016 and 2017, Rietel was on the mound for Hoofddorp Pioniers and then was used only as a reliever.
In 2016, he made 30 relief-appearances, striking out 34 batters and walking 20 in 47 1/3 inning, finishing with a 5-1 record and a 2.47 ERA.
From 2017 on, Rietel's control as a reliever became better and better, while he was also inserted regularly as closer.
In 17 games in this season, he walked only four batters and struckout 15 in 18 2/3 inning and he also earned four saves.
Rietel also was an effective reliever when he played for Amsterdam Pirates in 2018 and 2019.
In these two seasons combined, he struckout 43 batters and walked only seven in 58 2/3 inning, while being 3-2 with one save.
...Sven van de Sanden...
...with Kinheim in 2018...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Righthanded pitcher Johnaikel Acosta made his big league-debut this year with Quick Amersfoort.
He threw in 14 games (seven starts) and was 2-5 with a 6.60 ERA.
In 46 1/3 inning, Acosta struckout 26 batters and walked 39.
Righthanded pitcher Sven van de Sanden comes from RCH Memorie Sieraden.
His brother Tommy van de Sanden already played for Pirates this year.
This year, Van de Sanden was one of the regular pitchers of RCH-Pinguïns for whom he pitched in ten games (five starts).
He was 0-3 with one save and struckout seventeen batters in 31 2/3 inning.
Van de Sanden earlier played in the big league in 2014-2017, two seasons each for Kinheim and DSS.
Back then, Van de Sanden was an outfielder, who played in almost all regular season-games, hitting .275 in 2014 and .255 in 2015.
In the 2017 season, he batted in fifteen runs and scored eleven for DSS, but then retired after the season.
Later, he started playing again for RCH-Pinguïns.
Catcher/infielder Jules Cremer comes from HCAW for whom he played two seasons.
This year, he led the team in the first half of the regular season with a .441 battting average and batting in 17 runs.
Overall, he batted .317 for the Bussum-team, scoring twelve runs and batting in twenty.
Cremer primarily has been a catcher, but this season, he also was used in the outfield and designated hitter.
In the Holland Series won by HCAW against Neptunus, Cremer played in only two games as leftfielder.
He was inserted as pinch-runner in a third game.
In 2018-2020, Cremer played for Quick Amersfoort, where he was a regular in his first two seasons.
This year, Cremer made his debut in the Netherlands National Baseball Team during the Baseball Week Haarlem.
Infielder Alex Madera made his big league-debut this year in the team of Quick Amersfoort.
In the first half of the season, Madera was the second best hitter of the team with a .330 batting average and led the team with 32 basehits.
Overall, Madera batted .299 with eight doubles, three triples and one homerun, scoring 27 runs and batting in 14.
The Curaçao-born second baseman/short stop played college-baseball in the USA in 2017-2021.
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...Oliver van der Wijst (left) and Jules Cremer...
(© Photos: Robert Bos (vd Wijst) & Henk Seppen (Cremer)) |
Outfielder Jason Jakobus played in the First Division for Wassenaar in the 2020 season, but then made his comeback in the big league in 2021.
In that season, he was the second-best hittter of DSS/Kinheim, hitting .322 (38-for-118) with four doubles, two triples and one homerun.
In that season, the best hitter of the team was Tommy van de Sanden, who coming season again will be a teammate of Jakobus.
Van de Sanden transfered to Pirates after the 2021 season.
In his first season, Jakobus led the Haarlem-team with 38 basehits and was second-best with 20 runs scored.
The outfielder batted in fourteen runs.
In the Bottom-4 Pool, Jakobus batted .317 (13-for-41).
This year, Jakobus batted .342 (40-for-117) with three doubles and two triples.
He scored 31 runs, batted in 20, walked 19 times and led the team with 14 stolen bases.
Jason Jakobus first played in the highest league in 2013.
In that season, the outfielder played in 14 games for ADO Lakers, hitting .184 (9-for-49).
In 2014, Jakobus was the second-best hitter of ADO Lakers with a .267 batting average (28-for-105) with four doubles.
He scored 14 runs and batted in six.
In the 2014 season, Jakobus was a teammate of Christian Diaz (Neptunus), Irving Redan, Ibrahin Redan (both Quick Amersfoort), Dennis Burgersdijk, Julian Goins (both HCAW) and Kelvin Knape (Silicon Storks), who all also played in the highest league this year.
Another teammate that year was Joshua Zara, who next year will make his coaching-debut as the Head Coach of RCH Memorie Sieraden.
Besides Maickel Rietel, Oliver van der Wijst Severino also returns to Amsterdam Pirates.
During the 2014 season, the infielder made his debut as a pinch-hitter and hit a single in his first big league at bat.
That was to be his lone game and at bat for the Amsterdam-team that season, as he played in the second team.
He then transfered to Kinheim, where he initially played in the second team, but then played in 27 games for the main-squad during the 2016 season.
Thereafter, Van der Wijst switched teams again and this time went to Hoofddorp Pioniers.
In the meantime, the infielder signed a professional contract with Houston Astros and so, he played in 35 games in the Rookie League-team based in the Dominican Republic in 2017.
There, he also started the 2018 season, but was released in June of that year.
Van der Wijst returned home and appeared in nine games for Pioniers during the 2018 season.
Some more changes in his career followed in the next years.
In 2019, he played the entire season for HCAW and was the team's third best hitter with a .284 batting average and led the team in basehits (46), runs scored (29), runs batted in (26) and stolen bases (23).
His stolen bases also were the most in the entire league.
After the 2019 season, Van der Wijst went back to Amsterdam Pirates, but instead he played in 2020 in the Italian Baseball League for Nettuno.
In 2021, he started the season on the roster of HCAW, played for Templiers Sénart in France, then transfered halfway the season to Hoofddorp Pioniers for whom he then played in six games.
This year, Van der Wijst was a leading player in the team of Hoofddorp Pioniers.
There, he was the team's best hitter in the first half of the season with a .388 batting average and he also led in runs scored, basehits, homeruns and runs batted in.
Overall, including all games played in both the regular season and postseason, Van der Wijst led Pioniers in hitting (.371), runs scored (39), basehits (53), doubles (16), homeruns (8), runs batted in (43), slugging average (.664) and on-base percentage (.478).
Infielders Duco Nuijten and Jorrit Penseel were regular players for Hoofddorp Pioniers in the past five seasons.
Duco Nuijten made his debut in 2017, appearing in 22 games.
The short stop/second baseman then was a regular in 2018 and 2019, hitting .272 and .294 respectively.
In the 2021 season, Nuijten was the team's second-best hitter with a .292 batting average.
This year, Nuijten missed several games due to an injury.
He batted .196 (9-for-46), scored six runs and batted in one.
Jorrit Penseel made his debut in 2018 when he played in eight games for Pioniers.
He then became a regular in 2019.
In the 2021 season, Penseel scored 18 runs and batted in 11 for Pioniers.
This year, the first baseman/third baseman batted 23-for-104 (.221), scored thirteen runs and batted in sixteen.
Pim Vijfvinkel played for Hoofddorp Pioniers in the past two seasons.
He played his first games in the highest league during the 2019 and 2020 seasons when he played for Silicon Storks.
He then respectively played in three and four games for the team from The Hague.
Last year, the catcher played in 13 games for Pioniers.
This season, after returning from college in the USA, Vijfvinkel was 1-for-7 (.143) in the first half of the season.
He then batted .391 (9-for-23) in the second half.
Overall, in the regular season and postseason combined, Vijfvinkel played in 22 games and batted .352, scored 13 runs and batted in nine.
...Johnaikel Acosta...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
Of the five new pitchers, Daniël Vos made his debut in 2018 when he appeared in 21 games for Pioniers as reliever, striking out 18 batters in 23 2/3 inning.
He also was one of the prime relievers during the 2019 season.
But in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the righthander primarily played in the second team of the club.
This year, Vos pitched in six games as reliever and struckout five batters in 7 2/3 inning.
Yassir Lachkar made his big league-debut during the 2019 season.
He then pitched in six games (five starts), was 1-2 and was on the mound in 18 1/3 inning.
In the abbreviated 2020 season, Lachkar was a reliever in five games.
The righthander again was a reliever in 2021, throwing in 15 games and striking out 15 batters in 23 innings.
His 1.17 was the lowest of the team, followed by Scott Prins, who will be a teammate of him again next season at Pirates.
This year, Lachkar became a starter again.
He started eight of the ten games he pitched, was 2-3 and struckout 25 batters in 52 2/3 inning.
Dylan Farley played his first games for Pioniers in 2019 and 2020, but then as an outfielder.
He batted .333 (5-for-15) in seven games in 2019 and threw 1/3 inning.
In the 2020 season, he played in two games.
Farley, who also played college-baseball in the past few seasons, was used as a pitcher in 2021.
He then threw in six games (two starts) and was 0-1, striking out eleven batters and walking sixteen in 14 2/3 inning.
This year, Farley also pitched six games (one start).
This time, he struckout 19 batters in 15 innings and walked ten, finishing with a 2-1 record.
Koen van 't Klooster made his big league-debut last year when he appeared in 13 games as reliever for Pioniers.
He then struckout 15 batters in 15 innings and earned two saves.
This season, Van 't Klooster threw in 19 games.
In the first half, he was used as reliever in 15 games.
In the second half, he started four games and was the winning pitcher in all of them.
Overall, he was 4-1 with two saves in the regular season, striking out 43 batters in 43 2/3 inning, while walking 21.
Michael Bennett made his debut in the highest league this season.
He pitched in four games and was 1-0 with seven strikeouts in 11 2/3 inning, walking no batters.
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...Yassir Lachkar, Koen van 't Klooster, Pim Vijfvinkel & Daniël Vos...
(© Photos: Robert Bos (Lachkar, Van 't Klooster, Vijfvinkel) & Henk Seppen (Vos)) |
(November 15)
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