Baseball from a Dutch point of view since 2014
Throughout the worldwide web, several messages about an upcoming cooperation between the Rakuten Golden Eagles and the Rakuten Monkeys are swirling around. A cooperation between the two clubs would not be strange as both are owned by the e-commerce company Rakuten. The Rakuten Golden Eagles are playing in the NPB (Japan), while the Rakuten Monkeys …
Continue reading "Rakuten Golden Eagles and Rakuten Monkeys are discussing an exchange program"
The Rakuten Golden Eagles made an official announcement about the return of pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. The 32-year old pitcher returns from New York where he spend seven years with the New York Yankees. The 32-year old RHP has opted to return to Japan after the Yankees did not quite hurry to re-sign him. In fact …
Continue reading "It’s Official: Masahiro Tanaka Returns to Rakuten Golden Eagles."
For the third year in a row, Andruw Jones was on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. And once again he got more votes than in the previous year. On a day on which Derek Jeter got one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous HOF inductee and Larry Walker was voted in on his …
For the second year in a row, Curaçao native Andruw Jones managed to stay on the HOF ballot as he got more than five percent of the votes again. This year his numbers were even better than in 2018. The Curaçao kid got 7.3% of the votes in 2018 (31 of all votes). This year …
In a Tweet, Detroit Tigers minor league writer Emily Waldon, showed a clip with Tom de Blok throwing pitches in a bullpen next to Jordan Zimmerman. I hear you think "Wow". But Zimmerman was scheduled to pitch an exhibition game with the A-Advanced team of the Tigers. https://twitter.com/EmilyCWaldon/status/975415394923053057 After a stellar performance with team Kingdom of …
Continue reading "Tom de Blok practices at A Full Season level"
With Jim Thome, Vladimir Guerrero, Trevor Hoffman and Chipper Jones voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the Walhalla of baseball adds four great players. But most important, from a Curaçao/ Dutch point of view is the fact that Andruw Jones stayed on the ballot. The outfielder who broke into the Majors with …
Continue reading "The HOF voting from a different point of view: Andruw Jones stays on ballot"
Today, the Baseball Hall of Fame announced the newbies on the 2018 ballot. Next to players like his namesake Chipper Jones, Trevor Hoffman, first-timers Omar Vizquel and Jim Thome, Curaçao native Andruw Jones is also on the ballot. Andruw Jones broke into the majors at the age of 19. He was the youngest player to …
With the Pacific League's Climax Series (the NPB semi-finals) tied at two, thanks to an extra win awarded to the Softbank Hawks as the winner of the regular competition, the Softbank Hawks took on the Rakuten Golden Eagles in game four and beat their opponent 4-3 after blowing a 2-0 lead. In game four, Dutchie Rick …
Continue reading "No-decision Van den Hurk in Softbank Hawks win"
Today the Softbank Hawks clinched the Pacific League title by beating the Seibu Lions 7-3. By winning the Pacific League, the Hawks will have a bye in the first round of the playoffs. As the Softbank Hawks beat the Seibu Lions, the latter team was eliminated from clinching the Pacific League. The Hawks started the …
Continue reading "Softbank Hawks clinch Pacific League title"
Today L&D Amsterdam Pirates announced on their Facebook page that Tom de Blok will leave the club. De Blok has signed a deal with the Detroit Tigers after his good performance during the World Baseball Classic for team Kingdom of the Netherlands. Tom de Blok had a couple of solid outings during the World Baseball …
Continue reading "Tom de Blok signs deal with the Detroit Tigers"
Relief pitcher Tom de Blok will not head to Japan for the time being. The Rakuten Golden Eagles showed interest in the 20-year old closer and invited him for a two-day tryout. According to a source within the club of L&D Amsterdam Pirates, De Blok has decided not to try his luck in Japan. A …
Continue reading "Tom de Blok stays with L&D Amsterdam Pirates"
The Yakult Swallows and Wladimir Balentien have agreed on a new one-year contract worth $3,000,000 + incentives. After you could read here that the Yakult Swallows had made an offer to Wladimir Balentien, one of my sources in Japan informed me about an article at sponchi.co.jp about the Swallows and Balentien signing a new deal. Masayuki …
Continue reading "News on Wladimir Balentien and Tom de Blok"
The Adelaide Bite announced its roster for the new Australian Baseball League season, that will start tomorrow. One of the familiar faces is Loek van Mil. The Dutch right handed pitcher joined the Bite in the course of the 2015/2016 season. Van Mil has quite some experience under his belt. Before he returned to the …
Yesterday, Tom de Blok threw some pitches in a test session for the Rakuten Golden Eagles. The 20-year old, hard throwing Dutch reliever has drawn the attention of the 2014 NPB champion from Sendai a while ago. After the success of Rick van den Hurk with the Softbank Hawks, Japanese teams start to roam the …
Continue reading "Tom de Blok pitching in tryout with Rakuten Golden Eagles"
Yesterday you could read here that the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles had shown interest in L&D Amsterdam Pirates pitcher Tom de Blok. The 20-year old can easily throw a 93 mph fastball and that is always something interesting for a baseball club, especially in times in which the focus is on speed. After posting …
Continue reading "More on Japanese interest for Tom de Blok"
According to the Japanese sports website nikkansports.com, Tom de Blok appears to attract a lot of attention of a Japanese team. With the success of Rick van den Hurk in Japan, it seems that the NPB is looking further than the USA and Central and South America. Now teams seem to check out the European …
The newest team in the Dutch Hoofdklasse, De Glaskoning Twins, has struck a deal with former Rakuten Golden Eagles and Hanshin Tigers pitcher Keiji Uezono in a very surprising move. The 32-year old relief pitcher pitched for the Hanshin Tigers from 2007 through 2011. In 2007 he won the Central League's rookie of the year …
Continue reading "De Glaskoning Twins hire Japanese pitcher"
The games between the Softbank Haws and the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Friday and Saturday were cancelled due to the earthquakes that struck the area south of Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan. After the area was hit by a powerful earthquake on Thursday, another one …
Continue reading "Instead of playing, Hawks and Eagles raised funds"
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