KNBSB kicks off new season by presenting 2015 national baseball team

Yesterday, the Dutch baseball and sofball federation (KNBSB) kicked off the new baseball season with a presentation of the Dutch national team.

A few new faces could be recognized next to the similar ones.

The plans for the future were also presented. The training program of the Dutch national team will be expanded from two training sessions per week to three. Goal is to enter the top three of the WBSC baseball rankings.
A great opportunity will be the Premier 12 tournament which will be played in Japan and Taiwan later this year. MLB players like Kenley Jansen, Jonathan Schoop and Andrelton Simmons have declared already that they are willing to play for the Dutch team.

Furthermore the KNBSB announced that the ties with the overseas territories Curacao and Aruba. According to general manager Gijs Seldenrijk, the ties within the Kingdom will be more tight, On Curacao and Aruba new baseball academies have been founded, the one in Aruba by former Dutch international Eugene Kingsale, who is leading training sessions for talented young players, for a couple of days per week.

Two familiar faces will return to the Dutch team and there will be two new ones. The familiar faces are pitcher Loek van Mil (returning from the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles) and Nick Urbanus (returning from a couple of years in the Texas Rangers farm system). One new player will be added to the preliminary roster: Dudley Leonora. Leonora will debut in the Hoofdklasse (Dutch Major League) with Corendon Kinheim from Haarlem. The 23-year old infielder has played four years in the farm system of the Baltimore Orioles with the Delmarva Shorebirds (A Full Season) as highest level that he reached.

Another new face will not be a player but a pitching coach. The KNBSB has added Mike Hartley to the staff as the new  pitching coach. Hartley played a total of six seasons for the Dodgers, the Phillies, the Twins, the Red Sox and the Orioles. After his MLB career he pitched in Japan (Chiba Lotte Marines), Italy (Nettuno BC) and several independent leagues. He also served as manager of the Heidenheim Heideköpfe of the 1st German Bundesliga (German Major League) which he led to the German championship in 2009.