The German Baseball-Bundesliga is starting into the 2012 season on Friday evening. The Mainz Athletics hosting defending champion Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg for a night game. The other games will be played on Saturday with a thrilling opening day doubleheader between the Bonn Capitals and Solingen Alligators highlighting the schedule in the north.
There will be a few changes. The Stuttgart Reds and the Cologne Cardinals got the promotion to the first division in German baseball. They took the spots of the Gauting Indians and Pulheim Gophers. The format remains the same with the top four teams in each pool reaching the playoffs. There is a slight change regarding the playdowns, which will be played in elimination style in the north.
The biggest changes however has nothing to do with the play on the field, but much more with public relations of the league. Live play by play will be introduced for all games of regular seasons, playoffs and playdowns. The German federation partners with Gamechanger to do the live scoring. It will be available through the brand-new www.baseball-bundesliga.de website.
In the north favorite status hasn’t changed through the offseason. The Solingen Alligators, Untouchables Paderborn and the Bonn Capitals will play out the top three with the Caps and U’s seemingly be in pole position. Paderborn exchanged Michael with Rene Franke, but otherwise will have the same team. Solingen got a new coach (Norman Eberhardt) and new import players (Branden Roper-Hubbert, Shelby Robertson, Travis Bass). Bonn lost two pitchers to semi-retirement (Tim Henkenjohann) and Georgia State University (Max Schmitz), but gained the best batter of the last two seasons (Daniel Lamb-Hunt), a minor leaguer (Markus Solbach) and a new foreign pitcher with Charley Olson.
The rest of the northern division plays catch-up. The Dortmund Wanderers seem to be able to return to the playoffs, having the core of last year on the team with Trevor Howell, Elliot Biddle, Daniel Groer and Aljosha Heller. However they will be without Matt Kemp (replacement: Joey Parigi), who got replaced as head coach by Rene Herlitzius. The Dohren Wild Farmers also were able to maintain last year’s roster with the exceptions of Oliver Bock (new head coach) and Mat Keplinger (new pitcher).
The HSV Stealers weren’t as active this offseason as in the years before. They probably have to settle for fifth or sixth place in the standings. Brent Buffa is their new import starter. Justin Staatz, Justin Prinstein, Sam Boone and Jakub Vojak have left. The Joe-Slater-led Cologne Cardinals with Josh Tamba as foreign starting pitcher will have a tough stand, even though they cruised through 2011 second-division play with a 26-1 record. The Berlin Sluggers with head coach Benji Kleiner added the shortstop/pitcher Adam Chavez from North Carolina and Californian exchange student and catcher Patrick Lane (until June). A couple of Berlin Challengers players came over as well. They still will be in the bottom half of the standings, trying to avoid relegation.
In the south defending champion Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg chose consistency. They added Dominik Hartinger to replace Boris Bokaj (perhaps Grosseto), but otherwise bring back Matt Vance, Ludwig Glaser, Evan LeBlanc, Petr Cech, Mike Bolsenbroek and Co. They again are favorite number one. After them the Mainz Athletics, Mannheim Tornados, Haar Disciples, Heidenheim Heidekoepfe and perhaps even the Stuttgart Reds will battle for the playoff spots. Even the Bad Homburg Hornets could celebrate a few upsets.
Mainz added Dennis Kelly, Peter Johannessens brother Bjoern, but had to say farewell to promising prospect Jan-Niclas Stoecklin (to Mannheim). They will rely on Manuel Moeller and Pat Haugen as starting pitchers, but still should make a step forward, as all their young players had one more year of development. The same argument is true for Haar and Mannheim. The Disciples have a new head coach with Dirk Fries, new imports with Josh Petersen and Nick Renault, and they bring back Ty Eriksen.
The Tornados also have a new head coach (Matt Kemp) and for the first time since Eddie Aucoin a good foreign starter (Kemp as well). They replaced Rene Franke with Stoecklin and brought in Jeff Beachum, Jordan Dyer and Luke Matthews to bolster the offense. The Heidekoepfe lost a couple of players to the nearby Reds (Markus Winkler, Hagen Raetz), but still should be one of the favorites with new guys Michael Franke, Sean Begley, Patrick Lawson and Justin Wilson. Andrew Smith returned in outstanding shape to lead the offense, which also still has Robert Gruber, Simon Guehring and Alex Lauterbach.
Local rivals Stuttgart delivered the first blow by acquiring Winkler and Raetz, which could become a trend with the bigger city seemingly having more appeal. Additionally head coach Bret Helenius has Kiwi starter Richard Olson and outfielders Gavin Ng and Josh Little. They have an experienced team, which could hold its ground in the Baseball-Bundesliga. The seventh team in the division is the Bad Homburg Hornets. They got a new coaching staff with Roland Spitzegger upfront. Former minor leaguer Jennell Hudson, catcher Matti Emery, Matt Leonard and Darren Marquez headline the arrivals. It is going to be interesting, if they can turn around these close losses into wins in their sophomore season.