Hensley Meulens to manage Dutch during Premier 12 tournament

The website of the KNBSB announced that Hensley Meulens will be the manager of the Dutch
national team during the inaugural Premier 12 tournament.

Meulens was the manager of the Dutch during the 2013 World Baseball Classic, not without succes as the Dutch reached the semi finals in which they fell to the Dominican Republic by 4-1.

The Premier 12 is the name of the new World Championship of the WBSC, the global baseball and softball federation that saw life after a merger between the IBAF and the ISF. The last World Cup that was organized by the IBAF was won by the Dutch. After that tournament, the IBAF and MLB agreed that the WBC would become the official World Championship.

The Dutch team was invited for the Premier 12 tournament based on the fifth place in the world ranking. The Dutch will face Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Canada, Italy and Puerto Rico. It goes too far to say that this group is a piece of cake, but the opponents could have been a lot stonger if you look to the other group where the USA, Japan, the Dominican Republic, South Korea, Venezuela and Mexico are playing in.

Hensley Meulens will be at the helm of the Dutch team but he will do this in cooperation with current manager Steve Janssen.

The coaching tandem will have to create a team without MLB players like Andrelton Simmons, Kenley Jansen, Didi Gregorius, Xander Bogaerts and Jonathan Schoop as MLB announced recently that it will not allow MLB players and 40-man roster players to participate. But players like Rick van den Hurk, Shawn Zarraga, Sharlon Schoop and other Dutch Minor Leaguers will be available.