Netherlands
The Dutch team with manager Jim Stoeckel is the number one favorite to win the 2010 European Championship. They not only have won 20 titles overall, including the last five in a row, but they also looked unbeatable at the recent Haarlemse Honkbalweek stunning Cuba 10-0 in seven innings. With Diegomar Markwell, Leon Boyd, Rob Cordemans, David Bergman and Kevin Heijstek they have five starting pitchers, which are the staff aces on most of the other eleven teams in the tournament. The offense is led by former big leaguer Eugene Kingsale, Honkbalweek MVP Danny Rombley, veterans Dirk van’t Klooster and Raily Legito, as well as Dwayne Kemp and Vince Rooi.
Germany
Host Germany is coming off two fourth-place finishes at the past two European Championships and now wants to pick up a medal. Head coach Greg Frady will send out Telemarket Rimini’s Enorbel Marquez-Ramirez, Andre Hughes, Tim Henkenjohann and Martin Dewald to the mound as starting pitchers. Team captain Simon Guehring, Ludwig Glaser, Dominik Wulf and Sascha Lutz are supposed to shoulder most of the run production. Infielder Jendrick Speer will become Germany’s all-time leader with appearances at European and World Championship with the opener against the Ukraine.
France
France will play four of the five preliminary round games in Neuenburg and hopes to have a home crowd atmosphere near the French border. Manager Sylvain Virey is most likely using former best-pitcher award winners Samuel Meurant and Nicolas Dubaut, Pierrick Lemestre and Anthony Piquet as starting pitchers. Former LA Dodger Joris Bert, Boris Marche, Kenji Hagiwara and David Gauthier are the main guys at the plate. Additionally the college guys Omar Williams, Felix Brown and Robin Allemand are supposed to strengthen the team.
Czech Republic
Head coach Arnost Nesnal and former Seattle Mariner Greg McCarthy used the Italian Baseball Week to determine their starting lineup. Pavel Budsky, Jakub Vojak and Jakub Malik will form the heart of the batting order. Boris Bokaj, Petr Minarik, Leos Kubat and Martin Schneider will be the starting pitchers. Bokaj is the most likely candidate to begin against Germany after his performances in the Baseball-Bundesliga this season. They have the toughest schedule at the start, going back-to-back against the Netherlands and Germany.
Belgium
Belgium is back in the A-Pool and tries to rejoin the established teams in the final round. Head coach Sven Hendrickx will heavily rely on newly naturalized starting pitcher Terence Antonacci, who will begin in game one against France and will take the mound probably not only for two games, but even more. Kenny Vandenbranden, Robbe De Jong and Tom Lorrentrop hope to support him as good as possible. Benjamin Dille, Randy Giorgiadis and Steven De Lannoy are the new leaders on offense after the retirement of Filip van der Meiren.
Ukraine
The Ukraine is the underdog in this group, but some of the experts consider them as a possible surprise team. Coaches Oleg and Yuri Boyko hope that Dmitri Nelipa, Ruslan Deykun, Denys Agapov and Andrew Kubalskyy will be the key players. 19-year-old Dmytro Limarenko will lead the pitching staff in absence of Alex Trofimenko.