The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today unveiled the newly updated WBSC Baseball World Rankings, which weigh a country’s National Team performance, from U-12 to Professional, in official WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period (2015-2018). Those countries that finish with the first twelve teams at the end of this year, automatically qualify for the…
Aruban catcher Shawn Zarraga has signed a contract with the Cincinnati Reds. In the past two seasons he played in the Dodgers organization where he split seasons between AA Tulsa and AAA Oklahoma City after the Milwaukee Brewers traded him in the 2014/2015 off season. Zarraga was bothered by a nagging in jury in 2016…
Carlton Daal, the 22-year old shortstop from Curacao has been invited to the 2016 Spring Training in the Cactus League, by the Cincinnati Reds The shortstop of team Kingdom of the Netherlands earned an award for being the best shortstop at the recent Premier 12 tournament. So far Daal wasn’t known for his defense but merely…
Today team Kingdom of the Netherlands took on the USA in the quarter-finals. After dealing with quite some bad luck (family matters for Andruw Jones, injuries of several players), the team was hit by bad luck again. Proposed starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens had to return home due to family matters. He was replaced by Tom…
In the fourth round of the Premier 12 tournament, there was perhaps one surprise. The game between Cuba and Taiwan had an unexpected outcome. Group A Italy 0 – 4 Canada Unbeaten Canada took on Italy that was still without a win. Jared Mortesen (seven innings) and Jared Kyle (two innings) shut out Italy…
Puerto Rico 7 – 11 Kingdom o.t. Netherlands In the fourth round of the Premier 12, the Kingdom of the Netherlands took on Puerto Rico. The Dutch started with Shawn Zarraga in the lineup. The catcher, playing in the Dodgers’ organization was hit on the hand in the previous game and was pulled….
On day five of the Premier 12 there were no surprises. Group A: Canada 9 – 8 Chinese Taipei In a close game between Canada and Chinese Taipei, the Canucks stayed at the right side of the score, though it was barely. For a home crowd of only 10,245 Taiwan took a 2-0 lead…
In today’s game between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Italy, the Southern Europeans were no match for the Northern Europeans. Where Rob Cordemans got the nod of Hensley Meulens, I had my doubts because he was hit rather hard in his last two Hoofdklasse starts. And in the bottom of the first inning the…
On day four, the first full day with a complete program, we could experience a few surprises again. Group A Puerto Rico 0 – 2 Canada Both teams had won their first game on the previous day. Canada vs Cuba and Puerto Rico vs Italy. In this game both would be each other’s match…
The Cuban national team beat the Kingdom of the Netherlands by a narrow margin: 6 – 5 After taking an early 1-0 lead, Cuban pitcher Frank Montieth could not hold the Dutch bats at bay. In the bottom of the third inning, the Dutch scored two runs as Kalian Sams and Sharlon Schoop were the…
