Preview European Cup for clubs 2015 Paris

The games for the other group of the European Cup for clubs, will be played in Paris. As far as I can remember, it is the first time since 1987, that the European Cup is played at PUC.

Brest Zubrs

The current champion of Belarus has taken the place of Russian champion North Stars Moscow. For them it is the very first time that they will participate at the A level of European baseball. It is hard to tell at which level this team is standing, but at least one talent was good enough to sign with an MLB organization. In 2010, then 16-year old Aleksey Lukashevich signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Zubrs means bisons. Unfortunately the website of the club is not very complete. It shows a roster but no stats are available. In a four team competition the Bisons are in last place so far this year.
Projected finish: sixth place.

L&D Amsterdam Pirates

The runner up of last year’s championship are doing better so far than expected. Solid pitching has kept the club contending for a spot in the play offs in the first half of the season. The team ERA of Pirates is 1.43 so far, which is not strange when three of their pitchers are ranked 1, 2 and 3 in the ERA standings. Rob Cordemans is in first place with an ERA of 0.88. Tom de Blok is ranked second. The reliever is sporting an ERA of 1.00. Kevin Heijstek is ranked third with a 1.05 ERA.
At bat the team is ranking fifth with a team batting average of .251. Only one hitter of the club is in the hitters’ top twenty. Remco Draijer is ranking eighth with an average of .358.
On the defensive side, the club is sharing first place with Corendon Kinheim from Haarlem. Both clubs have a fielding percentage of .971. So I don’t think it is a bold statement that the pitching and the defense is carrying the club this season.
With two two teams from the IBL, I think that L&D Amsterdam will finish third, which I hope not, but it is up to them to prove me wrong.

PUC

PUC stands for Paris Université Club. The team was the runner up in the 2014 French championship, where they were swept in three games by les Templiers de Senart in the championship series.
In the current standings of the eight team French Division one, PUC is in sixth place with a 5-9 record. In Douglas Rodriguez and Jules Habib, the club has two hitters that hit above .300 in the French competition. Of their starting pitchers, Enrique Juma-Trinidad has an ERA of 2.45. With that he is the only starting pitcher with an ERA below 5.00.
Especially because their spot in the standings of the French Division 1, I don’t expect PUC to finish higher than the fifth spot.

Solingen Alligators

The current German champion is leading the North Division of the First German Bundes Liga (the highest baseball league in Germany) by 0.5 games over the Bonn Capitals.
Despite their lead in the Bundesligo North, the Alligators are ranked second in team batting average (.315) behind the Bonn Capitals (.364). The defense of the Alligators is slightly better than the Capitals (.978 over .975). The Alligators rank second with a team ERA of 2.14. Not bad, but if the ERA of the Capitals is a lot better with only 1.31. The Alligators have two hitters with a batting average way above .400: Tanner Leighton (.510) and Daniel Sanchez (.418). Next to his high batting average, Sanchez is a speedy guy. He has stolen six bases out of eight attempts, so for sure he is a guy to watch.
In Chris Mezger, Andre Hughes and Enorbel Marquez-Ramirez, the team has three good starting pitchers in their ranks, at least for the Bundesliga level. Mezger sports an ERA of 1.40, Huges 3.75 and Marquez-Ramirez 2.18.
Projected finish: 4th

T&A San Marino

T&A San Marino is the odd one in this tournament, like they are every year. The club plays in the IBL, but officially San Marino is a sovereign state and so the club is allowed to participate in the European Cup. Last year Fortitudo Bologna and Rimini Pirates played in the championship series and those two are representing Italy.
Right now in the IBL, San Marino is trailing UnipolSai Bologna by four games.  As a team San Marino is ranked third with a batting average of .238. Pitching may be the team’s Achilles heel as they have a team ERA of 4.33 ranking last in the IBL. Their defense is good with a fielding percentage of .976 (3rd behind Bologna and Rimini).
The club has two players with a batting average that tops .300; Wuillians Vasquez (.351) and Joseph Mazzuca (.316).
Even though I think that they will finish in second place, their pitching may cost them a spot in the final game.

UnipolSai Bologna

Fortitudo Bologna (UnipolSai is the name of the team’s sponsor) is the current champion of Italy. At the moment the club is in first place in the IBL with a two game lead over Rimini.
Since the club has more than the allowed three foreigners, they will take Marquis Fleming, Raul Rivero and  Guillermo Rodriguez with them to Paris. Flemming played seven years in the minor leagues, splitting most of his time between AA and AAA. Rivero played at several levels of affiliated ball, but never got any higher than AA. One season he played in the Mexican League (AAA) in which he pitched in eight games with an ERA of 4.50. Guillermo Rodriguez had a long minor league career with many years at AAA. But in the IBL he is not hitting very well with an average of .212.
Projected finish: 1st