With a team of independent minor leaguers, pitchers from the Dutch hoofdklasse and several players that hadn’t played a game in a year, the Dutch took on Venezuela in the second game of the Final Olympic Qualifier. It didn’t pan out well as the Dutch fell to the Venezuelans 9-3. Since players from the Caribbean,…
The WBSC (World Baseball and Softball Confederation) announced today that China has withdrawn from the final Olympic Qualifier. As a result, the tournament will be a five team event for which Chinese Taipei, Australia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands have qualified already. The WBSC said that in light of all available information, the final…
According to Taiwan Center of Disease Control, the participants of the upcoming Olympic Qualifier, set to take place from June 17 through June 22, foreign teams will need a 7-day quarantine upon arriving in Taiwan. The Kingdom of the Netherlands will be the European representative in the final qualifier. Next to the Dutch, Taiwan, China,…
Just two months after the previous World Ranking, the WBSC unveiled the newest one. In this new ranking the Dutch drop two spots from the seventh place to the ninth. Only after two months, the WBSC comes with a new ranking for baseball and softball. Of course, it is rather odd that after just two…
The final Olympic Qualifier, which will take place from April 1 – 5 in Taichung, Taiwan, may be bothered by health issues because of the coronavirus epidemic. It may lead to a ban of the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan has denied access to people from China and to people who visited China recently. Since…
In September last year, you could read a blog post about the farce that the Olympic Qualification actually is. Today, I discovered another disturbing fact that supports the previous blog post. In the previous blog post, you could read about the strange rule the WBSC is using. For Europe, there are/were only two options to…
The Kingdom of the Netherlands took on the Dominican Republic. Both teams started a pitcher with MLB experience. Ervin Santana for the Dominicans, Jair Jurrjens for the Dutch. What appeared to become a great game for the Dutch ended as a major disappointment as they were beaten 14-4 in seven innings. Jair Jurrjens didn’t pitch…
Today, the Kingdom of the Netherlands will take on the Dominican Republic. The Dominicans debut at the Premier 12. For both teams it is a must-win situation as both lost yesterday. The Dominicans fell to Mexico 6-1 in a rain-shortened game. Thinking of today’s matchup, the 2009 WBC comes to mind where the Dutch team…
The Kingdom of the Netherlands took on team USA today. On the defensive side the Dutch played a solid game, but at bat, the team didn’t stand a chance against Cody Ponce and the US relievers. Good old Rob Cordemans could not stop the American offense as he gave up three runs in each of the…
Today, the opening match of the Guadalajara Group of the 2019 Premier 12 will be between the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the United States of America. The other day, both teams played each other in an exhibition match that was clearly won by the USA 12-2. The Kingdom of the Netherlands will sport a…
