(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Starting Pitchers Opening Series
Nederlands
 AMSTERDAM (Neth.) -
It's time for a new season, Opening Night is in sight and Opening Weekend is around the corner.
Time for the announcement of the (probable) Opening Series Starting Pitchers.
As always, Grand Slam * Stats & News will publish the starting pitchers for a new 3-games series on Wednesday.
Two teams will have another name.
Twins Oosterhout reversed its name and now will be known as Oosterhout Twins.
The club-name of Hoofddorp Pioniers, but the team recently signed an agreement with a new main-sponsor.
With that, the team will play as Worldwide Pharma Logistics Hoofddorp Pioniers.
In the previous weeks since March 9, the nine big league-teams played exhibition-games, participated in (international) tournaments or traveled abroad.
Some teams had more games scheduled than others, because of their wishes when to start their preparations or field availability.
However, due to unfavorable weather conditions, several games were cancelled, as happens every pre-season.
In the exhibition-season, reigning champion Amsterdam Pirates played the most games with thirteen and won nine of them (one ended in a tie) to finish in first place.
Last year, Pirates also played the most exhibition-games and also ended in first place.
Oosterhout Twins also had a fine exhibition-season, won seven of its eleven games and finished in second place.
RCH-Pinguïns ended up in third place, winning six of their ten games (one tie).
Worldwide Pharma Logistics Hoofddorp Pioniers, DSS/Kinheim and HCAW all won five games.
Pioniers played seven games, the other two played eight.
Curaçao Neptunus also played seven games, but won only three.
Neptunus lost its final three games and finished in seventh place.
UVV played the third-most games (10), but won only once and lost its final eight games.
Like last year, Quick Amersfoort the fewest games (six) and remained winless.
Remarkably enough, Quick didn't play a game last weekend in what was the final moment to prepare.
In the upcoming Opening Series, Quick has no games scheduled.
Due to the odd number of teams (nine), one will be off in each round.
Last weekend, Amsterdam Pirates won the In Memoriam Charles Urbanus Sr. Tournament, while DSS/Kinheim won the Haarlem Series.
A week earlier, RCH-Pinguïns was the winner of the J.C.J Mastenbroek Tournament and Oosterhout Twins won the Johan Veraghtert Tournament in Belgium.
The Ringvaart Tournament, Frans van Elst Tournament, Brabant Cup and Frank Maduro Tournament could not be played in its entirety and had no winners.
In the Opening Series of the 103rd season in the highest Dutch baseball-league, reigning champion Amsterdam Pirates meets HCAW, the champion of the 2022 season.
Last year, the two teams also faced each other in the Opening Series.
Last season, Pirates dethroned HCAW in the Play-Offs, then won the best-of-seven Holland Series against Curaçao Neptunus 4-3 to capture the Championship-title.
In 2019 and 2021, Pirates also defeated Neptunus in the Championship Series.
In 2020, Pirates led 2-0 against Neptunus in the Holland Series, which then was abrupty halted due to new measures during the coronavirus-pandemic (COVID-19).
In 2022, HCAW swept Neptunus in the Holland Series.
Neptunus last won the title in 2018.
As in each season, there are several new faces and names amongst the players and coaches of the nine big league-teams.
Last year, seven of the nine teams began the season with a new Head Coach.
This season, only two teams have a new Head Coach with one of them making his debut.
This Dutch big league-rookie coach is Scott Radinsky, who will be the Head Coach of UVV.
The American brings a lot of baseball-knowledge.
As a pitcher, Radinsky played in 11 Major League-seasons (1990-2001) for Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Indians.
He pitched in 557 games as a reliever and was 42-25 with 52 saves.
The other team with a new Head Coach is HCAW, which will be led this season by Ronald Jaarsma, who earlier had been the Head Coach of Neptunus and Amsterdam Pirates.
Radinsky's predecessor Frank Koene recently was named 3B Coach of HCAW.
Some Opening Day-facts.
There are 246 players listed on the nine Opening Day-rosters.
Amsterdam Pirates has the largest roster with 40 players, but 30 of them are on the active roster, as the other ten are currently in the USA (college).
Pirates also has the most pitchers on its roster with 21, but eight of them belong to the ten college-players.
HCAW has the smallest roster with 22.
Amongst the 243 players are 57 with a rookie-status.
Quick Amersfoort, which lost most of its players after last season, has the most rookies with 16.
Quick also has the second-largest roster with 29.
At the moment, 28 of the listed players will play college-baseball in the USA, before joining their team somewhere in May.
Some of them might stay in the USA to play in a Summer League there.
With the Opening Series approaching, it's time for the coaches to set their rotations.
For the first four series, seven of the eight teams have announced their probable starters.
Except HCAW, which had to do with the injury of righthander Dennis Burgersdijk, one of the starters, who hasn't thrown so far in the exhibition-season.
Because of this, Head Coach Ronald Jaarsma had not yet determined what the order would be of his starters in the Opening Series against reigning champion Amsterdam Pirates.
His other two starters are righthanders Lars Huijer and Kaj Timmermans.
In case Burgersdijk is not available, the probable third starter will be righthander Sedley Karel, who has been used as a starter in the exhibition-season.
In the opener on Thursday-evening, Karel indeed was used as starter for the Bussum-team.
After the game, the two starters for coming weekend (listed below) were announced.
Beneath are the announced starting pitchers for the first 3-game series of the new 2024 season that opens on Thursday-evening, April 11 (there is a prediction of 40 percent of expected rain).
As always, these pitching assignments can change on game-days.
(April 10-11)
Exhibition Scores, Regular Season Schedule and Standings
Rosters
Live play-by-play & live-streams
| Roster | AMSTERDAM PIRATES (0-0) | vs. |
HCAW (0-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Pirates | G | # | Starting Pitchers HCAW |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 32 | RHP Scott Prins (0-0) | 1 | 51 | RHP Sedley Karel (0-0) | Th. April 11, 7:30 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| 54 | LHP Nelmerson Angela (0-0) | 2 | 39 | RHP Lars Huijer (0-0) | Sa. April 13, 2:00 PM, Bussum (2) |
| 3 | RHP Martijn Schoonderwoerd (0-0) | 3 | 16 | RHP Kaj Timmermans (0-0) | Su. April 14, 2:00 PM, Amsterdam (1) |
| (1) - Loek Loevendie Ballpark, Sportpark 'Ookmeer', Amsterdam; (2) - Rob Hoffmann Vallei, Sportpark 'De Sportvallei', Bussum |
| Roster | OOSTERHOUT TWINS (0-0) | vs. |
CURAÇAO NEPTUNUS (0-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers Twins | G | # | Starting Pitchers Neptunus |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 6 | RHP Simon Gross (0-0) | 1 | 37 | RHP Tom de Blok (0-0) | Th. April 11, 7:30 PM, Oosterhout (3) |
| 19 | RHP Misja Harcksen (0-0) | 2 | 39 | RHP Shairon Martis (0-0) | Sa. April 13, 2:00 PM, Rotterdam (4) |
| 15 | RHP Jack Wagner (0-0) | 3 | 00 | RHP Juan Carlos Sulbaran (0-0) | Su. April 14, 2:30 PM, Oosterhout (3) |
| (3) - Sportpark 'De Slotbosse Toren', Oosterhout; (4) - Neptunus Familiestadion, Sportpark Abraham van Stolkweg, Rotterdam |
| Roster | UVV (0-0) | vs. |
RCH-PINGUÏNS (0-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers UVV | G | # | Starting Pitchers RCH-Pinguïns |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 35 | RHP Mike van den Berg (0-0) | 1 | 44 | LHP Rik Jalvingh (0-0) | Th. April 11, 7:30 PM, Vleuten (5) |
| 18 | RHP Allard Helms (0-0) | 2 | 40 | RHP Orlando Yntema (0-0) | Sa. April 13, 2:00 PM, Heemstede (6) |
| 13 | RHP Jurjen van Zijl (0-0) | 3 | 29 | RHP T'sean Martina (0-0) | Su. April 14, 2:00 PM, Vleuten (5) |
| (5) - Sportpark 'De Paperclip', Vleuten; (6) - Heemsteedse Sportparken,Heemstede |
| Roster | DSS/KINHEIM (0-0) | vs. |
WORLDWIDE PHARMA LOGISTICS HOOFDDORP PIONIERS (0-0) | Roster | Game-info |
| # | Starting Pitchers DSS/Kinheim | G | # | Starting Pitchers Pioniers |
| Date, Time & Site |
| 39 | RHP Rick Rizvić (0-0) | 1 | 98 | RHP Arjen Nijkamp (0-0) | Th. April 11, 7:30 PM, Haarlem (7) |
| 18 | RHP Donny Breek (0-0) | 2 | 22 | RHP Just van den Ouweelen (0-0) | Sa. April 13, 2:00 PM, Hoofddorp (8) |
| 58 | LHP Jasper Elfrink (0-0) | 3 | 33 | LHP Sem Nijman (0-0) | Su. April 14, 2:00 PM, Haarlem (7) |
| (7) - Pim Mulier Stadium, Pim Mulier Sportpark, Haarlem; (8) - ETO Ballpark, Sportpark Hoofddorp Pioniers, Park21, Hoofddorp |
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