Not Many Transactions for Oosterhout Twins

With the transaction period nearing its end, Oosterhout Twins informed the Dutch Baseball Hangout about the roster for the 2022 hoofdklasse season. Not many new players were added and not many left.

Of course, the biggest blow was the fact that catcher Dave Janssen moved to Curaçao Neptunus. The talented catcher was only limited to one game per week as he served as the backup catcher for Jason Halman. For the time being, his role with Neptunus will not change but the club from Rotterdam intends to make him the regular catcher in the (near) future. With the departure of Dave Janssen, the role of backup catcher is filled by Jarreau Martina.

For the rest, the biggest part of the roster remains the same with the exception of some surprising additions.

Infield:
After one season with L&D Amsterdam Pirates, Mick Vos is returning to Oosterhout. With his return, the problem at shortstop will be solved as he proved himself very reliable at that position with Twins in the 2020 season.

Outfield:
Also coming “home” is Arthur Bonevacia who is coming back after two seasons with HCAW. In Bonevacia, Twins gets back a reliable outfielder and a good hitter. Bonevacia batted .321 with a .438 OBP last season with HCAW.

Pitching:
Two new faces are pitchers Ruben van de Koppel, who comes from Eurostars (eerste klasse (second tier league)), and Ryan Huntington, who comes from Hoofddorp Pioniers. Unfortunately, no stats are kept in the eerste klasse, so there isn’t much to tell about Ruben van de Koppel. Of course, the scouts know who they have acquired as the farm team of Twins faced Eurostars a few times last season in the eerste klasse.
Ryan Huntington appeared in fifteen starts and earned a 5-5 record with a 4.13 ERA and seventy-one strikeouts.

The roster of Twins is quite extensive, especially at the fielding positions. There are three players that will start the season in the USA as they will play (junior) college over there, so there is a need for the replacement of these players: Max Kops, Ruendrick Piternella, and Tyriq Kemp.

Coaching:
Surprising news about the coaching. Manager Jeffrey Arends will step down and will be replaced by Adonis Kemp. Arends will stay involved with the team in some way or another. In Kemp, Twins will have a manager with a shipload of experience as a player and as a coach but Kemp also managed in the hoofdklasse and for the farm team of Neptunus, the Tridents.

Twins looked at the players of the Dutch hoofdklasse first. In the coming months, they will look for eventual reinforcements abroad. One can think of the traditional Japanese players but also players from other countries like the USA or Australia. Likely the two Japanese pitchers of the Ibaraki Astro Planets who played with Twins last season, Taisei Nakamura and Shunta Oba will not return.

The preliminary roster for the 2022 season looks as follows:

Pitchers:
Koen Postelmans
Raf Cocu
Simon Gross
Enrique Chavez Martinez
Finn Kops
Ruben van de Koppel
Ryan Huntington
Jeffrey Levenstone