The French Division I starts on Sunday into the 2016 season. Owen Ozanich, pitcher of the reigning champion Rouen Huskies and the French National Team, was so kind to answer a couple of questions previewing the new season in French Baseball.
Mister-Baseball.com: The French National Team showed good promises at the WBC Qualifier in Panama. What’s your recap from within the team?
Owen Ozanich: We played as a team, our starting pitchers all threw strikes and kept us in the game, our offense did a great job against pitchers who threw harder than what we usually face in Europe. We won our first ever game in the WBC qualifiers against Spain, a good team who made the classic last time out, and were in the other two against Panama, a very strong opponent. Our overall mindset coming back to France is positive, and we are hungry for more opportunities to play together against good competition.
Mister-Baseball.com: The French Division I is starting this weekend. What are your expectations in general and individual?
Owen Ozanich: The general opinion heading into this season is that the French League will be much stronger top to bottom, with less gaps between the first four and the bottom four clubs. Individually I hope to make all my starts and stay healthy, and the rest should take of itself.
Mister-Baseball.com: Which new import players will make an impact in the league?
Owen Ozanich: We would like to think our foreigners in Rouen will have a big impact. Our three main bats in the lineup arrive the second and third weeks in the season, so until then I would expect Senart’s foreigner duo to be strong as usual. Toulouse has a former MLB pitcher, a first in the French League, so certainly he arrives with high expectations.
Mister-Baseball.com: Which young players could celebrate a breakout year in France this summer?
Owen Ozanich: I’m not so sure if you could call it a breakout year since last year he went 7-0 and just started against Panama, but at 20 years old, Yoann Vaugelade appears to be the best answer to that question. He and I will be starting the majority of the games this season and so he will have a great chance to put up a huge season. Offensively Fred Walter (Montpellier) should benifit from his WBC experience and build off of his rookie season last year.
Mister-Baseball.com: Which teams are favored and will reach the playoffs in the French Division I?
Owen Ozanich: Along with Rouen, Senart and Montpellier seem like the usual suspects to reach the playoffs. Chartres has a much improved roster and they could upset a lot of teams.
Mister-Baseball.com: What team is going to win the championship?
Owen Ozanich: Rouen 🙂
Mister-Baseball.com thanks Owen for the interview.