The Stuttgart Reds announced that Greg Lemon is taking over as head coach for the 2019 season in the German Baseball-Bundesliga. The 34-year-old former Minor Leaguer already coached the second division and U18 teams of the club. He is succeeding Ulli Wermuth, who resigned at the end of the 2018 season.
The club further announced that they are adding Croatian national team players Antonio Horvatic (Ulm) and Andrija Tomic (Saarlouis), as well as starting pitcher Dustin Ward (Hamburg) and talented infielder Yannis Weber (Paderborn). Riley Moore is staying with the club for a second season as well.
WHAT has become of this club? Not too many years ago, they were competitive in the Bundesliga — a playoff team, no less. Now, they are slag.
And it sure is not because German baseball has become more strong!
Fred, are you able to ask questions in a normal way? Just like, “Hey, the Reds used to be good, so is someone perhaps so kind to tell me what might be the reasons for this decline?” And then, someone nice and kind would answer something like “The Reds have one of the best youth academies in Germany. They win german championships regularly. Just in 2018, they won U12 and U15. The club decided to give the young kids out of their own farm a chance in the first team, with all consequencies attached.”
But since I am not nice and kind, I am saying “Hey, you self-titled genius who pukes over mister-baseball.com because nobody in America cares about you and your opinions, go figure it out by yourself.”
Does that answer your questions?
Kind regards
Mark
German baseball has made great strides in the last 5 years. If you don’t keep up,and, obviously, Stuttgart haven’t kept up,for whatever reasons,then the onfield results will suffer.It is as simple as that. No team has a god given right to success. German baseball has become really competitive as a National league and thus the international team will improve.
Improvements are being made all over the world. Australia are making great strides and Australian baseball now has a franchise (Auckland) in New Zealand. European baseball is improving and hopefully Eastern Europe will not be far behind.
I am only saddened that GB/UK can’t match the progress. It doesn’t seem to be much better than the 1960-70 period when I was playing at Stretford, certainly as far as facilities are concerned. How many properly constructed diamonds are there today? I remember the Alderman Kneeshaw Ground in Hull was the only one in GB. Baseball did not get any money from the Sports Council is that still the case? I know baseball in the North West is basically independent and yet there are several potential GB players,playing there. Baseball in GB needs to have a tighter structure, so that the best players are regularly playing against one another. Only when this happens will the better youngsters have something to aim for and only then will the GB team have a reliable source of players. I thought things were on the up and we had made up the lost time when GB reached the European Final against the Dutch in 2007 but things seen to have gone into decline again. I have no doubt there are many good players today but there does not seem to be any structure.
Straffan
By the way every supporter must be pleased with the progress made by the Czech Republic and keep an eye on Croatia and what they are doing. Spain have been as inconsistent as the Uk but they too have been competitive for a number of years now. European Baseball is on the up, a pity about GB