Chris Pieters moves up one level
Another player from the Dutch kingdom has earned a promotion. Last season, Chris Pieters played with the South Bend Cubs in the Midwest League. Today the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (A-Advanced Carolina League) announced its Opening Day Roster on which Chris is mentioned.
Chris is also moving fast through the Cubs’ minor league system. The 23-year old Curaçaoan started his career as an outfielder in 2015 when he split the season between the Dominican Summer League and the Arizona League. In fact, Chris broke into professional baseball in 2012 as a pitcher. In the first three years of his career, he played in the DSL and (the now defunct) VSL but his pitching results were not quite a success.
In 2017, with the South Bend Cubs, Pieters had a .254/.340/.384 slash line in 86 games.
In total he committed five errors; one at first base (three games) and four in right field (sixty-nine games). Nine games before the end of the season, his batting average stood at .264 but it fell hard in the remaining eight games.
During this year’s Spring Training he played three games with the Cubs’ MLB squad and he did surprisingly well with two hits, of which one was a double, in three at-bats.
Chris and the Pelicans will open the 2018 Carolina League season coming Thursday with a four-game homestand vs the Frederick Keys.