Besides looking back at 2008 in the Italian Baseball League, we’re also reviewing the year in the Dutch Hoofdklasse. A few weeks ago, we already did the same with the French Elite League and the German Baseball-Bundesliga.
Mr. Cocker HCAW
HCAW won the championship in the Dutch Hoofdklasse in 1996 and 1998. In 2007 the team missed the playoffs by a four-game margin in fifth place. This year the team dropped to sixth with a 14-game deficit towards fourth place. With a 14-28 record they were never in danger to fall into danger for regulation, but they also never had chance to get into the hunt for the first four place in the standings.
What the stats say
MR COCKER was out-scored 135-268 during the regular season and batted just .228 as a team, good for seventh in the league. The pitching staff combined for an ERA of 5.28, one of three teams in the league with an ERA over the 5.00 mark.
They had high hopes for Adam Sewell, the 2007 Swedish Elitserien MVP, but he couldn’t fulfill the high expectations and left after two starts and an ERA of 7.56. His replacement Oscar Montero had the best year of all HCAW hurlers with an ERA of 2.83 in 15 games (five starts), striking out 59 (23 walks) in 47 2/3 innings. Kevin Roovers led the staff with a 7-7 record and an ERA of 3.90 in 16 games. He struck out 68 (37 walks) in 90 innings. Forstin Coenraad (5-8, ERA 5.78, 62.1 IP, 26 SO, 37 BB) was the number two in the rotation. Another major acquisition last winter was reliever Fernando Gutierrez, who finished with an ERA of 4.29 and 23 strikeouts (ten walks) in 21 innings.
Bart Gabriels and Randy Daal were the team MVPs on the offensive side of the game. Utility man Gabriels, who mainly played shortstop, batted a team-best .306 (SLG .371) with eleven runs scored and 13 RBIs. First baseman Daal (BA .289/SLG .403) led the club with 19 runs scored and 25 RBIs. He also hit three of the seven homeruns by MR COCKER. Second baseman Shurty Tremus (.218/.256) also scored 19 times. Jermaine Esprit (.257/.292) had 18 runs and 13 RBIs on his belt.
Like most of their opponents in the Netherlands, HCAW also changed their coaching staff in the offseason, promoting Jurjan Koenen to head coach. They also acquired the 2007 Israel Baseball League homerun and RBI leader Jason Rees to improve the offense and the German National Team pitcher Andre Hughes to strengthen the pitching staff. Montero (Venezuela), Gutierrez (Italy) and Esprit are among eight players who already have left the club. Their start into the winter was promising and is going interesting to see, if MR COCKER is able to get back towards the top upper half of the standings.
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