The organizers announced the rosters for the All-Star Game in the German Baseball-Bundesliga on Friday. The game will be played at 2.30pm on July 8 at the Ahorn Sportpark in Paderborn, Germany. Prior to the contest at noon ten players will take part in a homerun derby.
28 of the 42 selected players are foreign-born, chosen by managers Stefan Fechtig (Untouchables Paderborn) and Ulli Wermuth (Mainz Athletics). All 15 clubs had to be represented, with a maximum of three players from one club (exception Mainz Athletics this year due to absence of eighth team in south).
Aside from Garrett Rogers, who is no longer playing in Germany, all award winners from last year were automatically added to the teams. Daniel Lamb-Hunt (Bonn Capitals, Best Batter North) leads the north. Matt Kemp (Mannheim Tornados, Best Pitcher North) is on the southern squad. However Evan LeBlanc (Best Batter, MVP South), Mike Bolsenbroek (Best Pitcher South) and also selected Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg teammate Matt Vance excused themselves from the team due to personal reasons. With that the reigning German champion isn’t going to be represented in Paderborn, as manager Martin Helmig also already had withdrawn due to professional reasons. In the north there is only one known dropout so far with Dominik Wulf (personal reasons), who will be replaced by Solingen Alligators teammate Dustin Hughes.
The homerun derby sees the return of Michael Franke to Paderborn. He will be joined by Heidenheim Heidekoepfe teammate Andrew Smith, Josh Petersen (Haar Disciples), Mike Larson (Mainz Athletics) and Josh Little (Stuttgart Reds) from the south. The northern sluggers will be led by Trevor Howell (Dortmund Wanderers), accompanied by Jeff Rustico (Dohren Wild Farmers), BJ Roper-Hubbert (Bonn Capitals), Maurice Wilhelm (Cologne Cardinals) and Daniel Hinz (Untouchables Paderborn).
It is going to be the first all-star game in the German Baseball-Bundesliga since 2002. Obviously it is going to hurt the reputation a little that Regensburg players aren’t going to be playing in the game. Nonetheless rosters are stacked with great players on both teams and the attending fans should see a great show. Still it is going to be interesting how many fans will show up, as they didn’t have any say in the selection of the teams. And a fan voting is usually the better way to create some sort attention and anticipation leading up to an event like this. The Italian Federation had major success last year, when 6,000 people paid a visit to Steno Borghese Stadium in Nettuno to see the All-Stars playing the Italian National Team.
All-Star Team North
| # | Name | Club | |
| Fechtig, Stefan | Untouchables Paderborn | Headcoach | |
| Eberhardt, Norman | Solingen Alligators | Coach | |
| Herlitzius, Rene | Dortmund Wanderers | Coach | |
| 1 | Lamb-Hunt, Daniel | Bonn Capitals | |
| 2 | Olsen, Charley | Bonn Capitals | |
| 3 | Roper-Hubbert, Bradley | Bonn Capitals | |
| 4 | Kleiner, Benjamin | Berlin Sluggers | |
| 5 | Tamba, Joshua | Cologne Cardinals | |
| 6 | Wilhelm, Maurice | Cologne Cardinals | |
| 7 | Keplinger, Mat | Dohren Wild Farmers | |
| 8 | Rustico, Jeff | Dohren Wild Farmers | |
| 9 | Biddle, Elliot | Dortmund Wanderers | |
| 10 | Howell, Trevor | Dortmund Wanderers | |
| 11 | Heller, Aljosha | Dortmund Wanderers | |
| 12 | Murphy, Brehan | Hamburg Stealers | |
| 13 | Peraza, Antonio | Hamburg Stealers | |
| 14 | Buffa, Brent | Hamburg Stealers | |
| 15 | Wulf, Dominik | Solingen Alligators | *replaced by Hughes, Dustin (Solingen Alligators) |
| 16 | Götze, Florian | Solingen Alligators | |
| 17 | Hughes, Andre | Solingen Alligators | |
| 18 | Hinz, Daniel | Untouchables Paderborn | |
| 19 | Speer, Jendrick | Untouchables Paderborn | |
| 20 | Fields, Brian | Untouchables Paderborn |
All-Star Team South
| # | Name | Club | |
| Wermuth, Ulli | Mainz Athletics | Headcoach | |
| William, Troy | Heidenheim Heideköpfe | Coach | |
| Fries, Dirk | Haar Disciples | Coach | |
| 1 | Bolsenbroek, Mike | Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg | *replaced by Decher, Christian (Mainz Athletics) |
| 2 | LeBlanc, Evan | Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg | *no participation |
| 3 | Vance, Matt | Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg | *no participation |
| 4 | Emery, Matt | Bad Homburg Hornets | |
| 5 | Jung, Johannes | Haar Disciples | |
| 6 | Ziegler, Christoph | Haar Disciples | |
| 7 | Petersen, Josh | Haar Disciples | |
| 8 | Wilson, Justin | Heidenheim Heideköpfe | |
| 9 | Smith, Andrew | Heidenheim Heideköpfe | |
| 10 | Franke, Michael | Heidenheim Heideköpfe | |
| 11 | Haugen, Pat | Mainz Athletics | |
| 12 | Boldt, Max | Mainz Athletics | |
| 13 | Larson, Mike | Mainz Athletics | |
| 14 | Kemp, Matt | Mannheim Tornados | |
| 15 | Dyer, Jordan | Mannheim Tornados | |
| 16 | Beachum, Jeff | Mannheim Tornados | |
| 17 | Little, Josh | Stuttgart Reds | |
| 18 | Olson, Richard | Stuttgart Reds | |
| 19 | Ng, Gavin | Stuttgart Reds | |
| 20 | Lastinger, Andreas | Mainz Athletics |