(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen & Robert Bos)
 Three former Major Leaguers on Premier12-roster Netherlands Team
Nederlands
 NIEUWEGEIN (Neth.) -
Evert-Jan 't Hoen, Manager of the Netherlands Baseball Team, has named his roster for the third edition of the WBSC Premier12.
Amongst the 28 players on the Orange-roster, who were announced on Monday (October 21), are three former Major League-players.
Fourteen players solely played abroad this year, fourteen others played in the Dutch big league.
Four of the latter fourteen players appeared in both the Dutch league, as well as in a foreign competition.
Five of the selected players will make their National Team-debut.
The Netherlands Team will prepare for the global event on Aruba, where it will participate in the Kingdom Series.
In this tournament, the Orange-squad will play against the National Teams of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire on November 1-4.
During this event, selected players Tom de Blok, Kevin Kelly and Hendrik Clementina will not be with team.
They will join the team in Mexico.
For the Kingdom Series, righthander pitcher Koen Postelmans has been added to the roster.
The Premier12 opens on November 9 in Mexico, where Pool A will be staged.
Four days later, Pool B will go underway in Nagoya (Japan) and Taipei (Taiwan).
The Super Round, as well as the Finals, will be played in Tokyo (Japan) on November 21-24.
The Netherlands Team will play in the preliminary round in Pool A in Mexico, together with Panama, Puerto Rico, USA, Venezuela and host Mexico.
The games in Pool A will be played in Zapopan and Tepic.
The Netherlands Team will play the opening game of the tournament against Panama on Saturday, November 9 in Zapopan in Estadio Panamericano, the home-site of Charros de Jalisco.
Playing in Pool B are Australia, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan and South Korea.
The first game in this Pool will be played on Wednesday, November 13 in Nagoya (Japan).
All other games in this Pool will be played in Taipei (Taiwan).
Three Dutch big league-teams are represented in the Netherlands Team.
Curaçao Neptunus, which captured its 20th Dutch Championship-title on October 12, is represented by six players, HCAW, which was swept in the Holland Series, has four players in the National squad.
Amsterdam Pirates, the Champion of last year, has three players on the Orange-roster.
Three players on the roster have played in the Major League.
Infielder Didi Gregorius played in eleven Major League-seasons for Cincinnati Reds (2012), Arizona Diamondbacks (2013-2014), New York Yankees (2015-2019) and Philadelphia Phillies (2020-2022).
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...Jonathan Schoop (left) and Didi Gregorius...
(© Both Photos: Henk Seppen) |
Jonathan Schoop also played in eleven seasons.
The infielder played for Baltimore Orioles (2013-2018), Milwaukee Brewers (2018), Minnesota Twins (2019) and Detroit Tigers (2020-2023).
The third former Major Leaguer is pitcher Shairon Martis, who played for Washington Nationals (2008-2009) and Minnesota Twins (2013).
18 players on the roster played in foreign leagues.
Four of them also played in the Dutch big league this year, being pitchers Dylan Farley and Scott Prins, outfielder Denzel Richardson (all Amsterdam Pirates) and outfielder Delano Selassa (HCAW).
Farley briefly played for Amsterdam Pirates, but mostly pitched for the team of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi (USA).
Prins opened the season with Pirates, then pitched for Ottawa Titans (Canada) in the professonal Frontier League (independent league), which is based in Canada and the USA.
After completion of the Frontier League-season, Prins re-joined Pirates and was with the team during the Play-Offs.
Selassa began with HCAW, then also went on to play in the Frontier League for Capitales de Québec, but he was released less than a month later and returned to Bussum.
Richardson mainly played for Pirates this season, then joined UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna after completion of the Baseball Week Haarlem and finished the season in Italy.
Four of the fourteen players who solely played in foreign leagues played in the Italian Serie A.
Three players played in American Minor League-teams, two others played in Mexico.
The other five played (or play) in Canada, Curaçao, Japan, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
All six infielders on the roster played abroad this year.
Ten of the 15 position-players played in foreign leagues.
Two players on the roster are currently Free Agent.
Catcher Donovan Antonia played for three Minor League-teams in the New York Mets-organization this year.
He played for FCL Mets (Rookie League), St. Lucie Mets (Single-A) and Brooklyn Cyclones (Single-A+).
Antonia was released on August 5.
Infielder Juremi Profar played for Hotsand Macerata Angels in Italy this year, but is currently without a club.
...Pim Vijfvinkel...
(© Photo: Robert Bos) |
Five players on the roster will make their debut, being pitchers Dylan Farley and Pim Vijfvinkel, catcher Donovan Antonia, infielder Dayson Croes and outfielder Rushenten Tomsjansen.
In February last year, lefthander Farley was a member of the Netherlands Team during a training-camp in Arizona (USA) preceeding the World Baseball Classic.
The Orange-squad played four games during the training-camp in Scottsdale, but Farley didn't came into action.
Earlier this year, Farley, Vijfvinkel, Antonia and Tomsjansen participated with the Netherlands in the WBSC Under-23 World Cup in China.
The first edition of the Premier12 was held in 2015, the second in 2019.
In 2015, all games in the preliminary round were played on four locations in Taiwan, except for the opening game, which was played in Sapporo (Japan).
The Netherlands was 3-2 and advanced to the Quarter Finals, but then was eliminated for the Final Round, which was held in Tokyo (Japan).
In 2019, the Netherlands played its games in the preliminary round also in Zapopan (Mexico).
Other preliminary rounds took place in Taiwan and South Korea.
Back then, the Orange-team was 0-3 and failed to qualify for the Super Round in Japan.
Four of the selected players also participated in the first two editions, being Dwayne Kemp, Shairon Martis, Sharlon Schoop and Juan Carlos Sulbaran.
Hendrik Clementina, Ray-Patrick Didder, Lars Huijer, Kevin Kelly and Franklin Van Gurp also participated in 2019.
Diegomar Markwell also will participate for the third time.
In 2015 and 2019, he was one of the pitchers.
This time, he is the Pitching Coach.
The Orange-roster looks as follows:
Pitchers (13):
Tom de Blok, Ryan Huntington, Shairon Martis, Juan Carlos Sulbaran (all Curaçao Neptunus), Jaydenn Estanista (Philadelphia Phillies-org., USA), Dylan Farley, Scott Prins, Pim Vijfvinkel (all Amsterdam Pirates), Lars Huijer, Kaj Timmermans (both HCAW), Kevin Kelly (Indios del Boér, Nicaragua), Eric Mendez Matos (San Marino, San Marino) and Franklin Van Gurp (Kufu Hayate Ventures, Japan).
Catchers (3):
Donovan Antonia (Free Agent), Jair van Borkulo (HCAW) and Hendrik Clementina (Cardinales de Lara, Venezuela).
Infielders (6):
Dayson Croes (Winnipeg Goldeyes, Canada), Didi Gregorius (Algodoneros de Unión Laguna, Mexico), Eugene Helder (UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna, Italy), Juremi Profar (Free Agent), Jonathan Schoop (Algodoneros de Unión Laguna, Mexico) and Sharlon Schoop (Santa Maria Pirates, Curaçao).
Outfielders (4):
Ray-Patrick Didder (San Diego Padres-org., USA), Denzel Richardson (UnipolSai Fortitudo Bologna, Italy), Delano Selassa (HCAW) and Rushenten Tomsjansen (Grosseto Gryphons, Italy).
Utility Players (2):
Dwayne Kemp and Stijn van der Meer (both Curaçao Neptunus).
Coaching Staff:
Evert-Jan 't Hoen (Manager), Sidney de Jong (Bench Coach), Randolph Oduber (1B Coach), Ben Thijssen (3B Coach), Bart Hanegraaff (Hitting Coach), Diegomar Markwell (Pitching Coach), Nick Stuifbergen (Bullpen Coach), Michael Duursma (Assistant Coach).
Supporting Staff:
Martijn Verhoeven (Quality Control Coach), Quintijn van der Roest (Physical Therapist), Seb Visser (Media Officer), Niels van Weert (Technical Manager KNBSB), Peter Kwakernaak (Head of Delegation).
(October 21)
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