(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Robert Bos)
 Greg Muller new Head Coach of Neptunus
Nederlands
...Greg Muller sported several styles...
...of moustaches in his 6 seasons...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Greg Muller is the new Head Coach of Curaçao Neptunus, the club announced on Saturday (September 24) on its website.
The 31-year old American, who was one of the players of the team since 2017, succeeds Raily Legito, who led the Rotterdam-team for one season.
Last Tuesday (September 20), Neptunus announced that it had separated with Legito after what was a disappointing season for the team.
During the European Champions Cup-tournament in Bonn (Germany) this year, Neptunus not only was eliminated for the Play-Offs, it also has to play in the relegation game.
Against Heidenheim Heideköpfe, Neptunus faced an early 4-0 deficit, but came back and led 6-4 halfway the ninth, but the Germans came alongside and forced extra innings.
With that, one of the two Dutch spots in this tournament came into jeopardy, as a loss would have meant relegation.
Neptunus scored four runs in the tenth on a grand slam-homerun by Stijn van der Meer, Heidenheim scored two more runs and so, the Rotterdam-team won 10-8 to secure the Dutch spot.
In the second half of the regular season (Top-4 Pool), Neptunus finished in second place, four points behind L&D Amsterdam Pirates, which became the regular season-winner to secure participation in next years European Champions Cup-tournament.
In the best-of-five Play-Offs, Neptunus swept Twins Oosterhout to advance to the Holland Series.
In the Championship Final, the team faced HCAW, which had eliminated and dethroned Amsterdam Pirates.
But in the best-of-seven Final, Neptunus was unable to score enough runs, couldn't convince and was shutout three times.
HCAW simply was the best team and swept Neptunus in four games to capture its first title in 24 years.
With that, HCAW became the second team to qualify for the European Champions Cup-tournament.
And so, Neptunus will not participate in an European Cup-tournament next year for the first time since 2013.
Four days after the team had separated with Raily Legito, it was now announced that Greg Muller will head the coaching-staff next season.
Neptunus announced that Muller now has retired as a player, as he has been appointed Head Coach, effective immediately.
The club also announced that Wim Martinus, Quincy Ascencion and Diegomar Markwell will return to the coaching-staff next year.
However, Martinus and Ascencion will switch positions.
Martinus will be the team's 3B Coach and Ascension will be coaching at first base.
Markwell will be the Pitching Coach again.
Longtime Bench Coach Jan Collins announced earlier that he would retire after the season.
There will be no new Bench Coach in next year's staff.
...Greg Muller was a solid hitter...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In the announcement on its website, the club's Chairman Jorian van Acker states:
,,We are very pleased with the appointment of Greg Muller as the new manager.
His baseball philosophy fits in well with that of the board.
In addition, he has very good communication skills, is a natural leader and can handle this selection well.
From the conversations we had this week, Muller unanimously emerged as a very suitable candidate, who has broad support within the club.
We think it is valuable that the new manager is someone who is familiar with this team and with the club Neptunus.
That is why we are very happy that the other coaches will stay on, so that we can continue the course and set up Curaçao Neptunus for new successes in the future.''
After having moved from the USA to the Netherlands in late 2016, Greg Muller joined Neptunus and made his debut in the 2017 season.
He then played in 27 games for the team, hitting .292 with 21 runs batted in and one homerun.
In 2018, Muller was regular player for the Rotterdam-team, appeared in all 42 games and mostly played in the outfield.
In this second Dutch season, Muller batted .280 with 24 runs batted in and two homeruns, which were both career-highs.
He also had a career-high by collecting 42 basehits.
In 2019, Muller batted only .149 with 13 basehits, but eight of them were extra-basehits (seven doubles, one homerun).
The baseball-season was shortened to only 21 games in 2020 due to a late start and measures against the coronavirus-pandemic (COVID-19).
Muller played in 18 games and led the team with a .417 batting average.
He also scored the second-most run with 20.
From 2021 on, Muller started to become a back-up player.
In that season, he played in 35 games and scored a career-high 28 runs, while batting .281.
He mostly played in leftfield, but also was used as a rightfielder and designated hitter.
In the current season, Muller played in 26 games and frequently was inserted late in the game to take over as first baseman or rightfielder.
But he also saw action as designated hitter and pinch-hitter.
He batted .209, scored 14 runs, batted in 12 and collected 14 basehits.
In the Holland Series against HCAW, Muller played in only one game as pinch-hitter, then one inning as first baseman.
Since joining Neptunus in 2017, Greg Muller played in 179 regular season-games for the team.
In 2017 and 2018, he won the Dutch Championship-title with Neptunus.
|
|
|
|
|
...Wim Martinus (left) moves from 1B to 3B and Quincy Ascencion (second from left) moves from 3B to 1B...
...Diegomar Markwell (second from right) returns as Pitching Coach and Bench Coach Jan Collins (right) has retired...
(© Photos: Robert Bos (Martinus, Ascension, Markwell) & Henk Seppen (Collins)) |
(September 24)
|
