Germany at the Baseball World Cup

Over the next few days we are reviewing the performance of the European teams at the Baseball World Cup in Taipei. The first team is Germany.

What did they right? The expectations for the team were not too high, playing in just the third Baseball World Cup ever and the first since 1973. They accomplished their goal in winning against Thailand to earn their premier victory at the championships. Several players showed, that they are capable of competing at the international level. Enorbel MARQUEZ-RAMIREZ was the reason for two nice played games against Venezuela and Australia. Tim HENKENJOHANN received praises for his effort versus the Cuban squad.

What went wrong? The offense struggled badly in the tournament. A reason could have been the lack of test games right before the event and the long break since the end of the regular season in Germany. They had more strikeouts (45) than hits (35) in 210 at-bats and scored just 13 runs in seven games. Besides the shutout against Thailand (combined by Michael OTTO and Dirk FRIES) and the two appearances by MARQUEZ-RAMIREZ, the pitching staff was overmatched. No other hurler had an ERA lower than 6.00. For example, Andre HUGHES, one of the premium pitchers in the German Bundesliga, was hit hard in a loss to the Dutch team (8H, 8 ER in 1.2 IP). Rodney GESSMANN (ERA 16.88 in 2.2 IP), who is pitching in the Minnesota Twins organization, did not find his rhythm at the international level.

An outlook for the future: As you see, there is still a lot of work to do for German baseball. But it was a first step into the right direction. They definitely learned from the experience to play against the best international teams. With their fourth place finish at the European championships last September, they are already qualified for the next World Cup in 2009. Until then, they should continue to develop their young talented prospects. Three more German players in the American minor leagues will join GESSMANN next season. They are all at the beginning of their career and it will be interesting if they can succeed.

Stats:
Pitching:
Team ERA: 7.21
Enorbel MARQUEZ-RAMIREZ (0-2), ERA 3.21, 14 innings pitched, 12 strikeouts
Tim HENKENJOHANN (0-2), ERA 6.82, 15.2 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts
Michael OTTO (0-0), ERA 0.00, 6.1 innings pitched, 6 strikeouts
Martin ALMSTETTER (0-1), ERA 9.53, 5.2 innings pitched, 3 strikeouts
Mirko HEID (0-0), ERA 6.00, 3 innings pitched, 1 strikeout

Batting:
Team Batting Average: .167
Kai GRONAUER, .167, 2 doubles, 1 homerun, 4 RBI
Jens HEYMER, .167, 2 doubles, 1 homerun, 2 runs scored
Simon GUEHRING, .192, 5 hits, 2 runs scored, 3 RBI
Jendrick SPEER and Sascha LUTZ scored two runs each

Complete Statistics at IBAF.tv

Results:
vs. Venezuela 0-8 box score
vs. Cuba 3-7 box score
vs. Netherlands 5-15 box score
vs. Canada 0-10 box score
vs. Thailand 2-0 box score
vs. Australia 2-4 box score
vs. Korea 1-8 box score

Finished in seventh place in pool B. Complete standings.

Photo: © International Baseball Federation (IBAF.tv)