From September 9 to 18 the 2016 European Championship is taking place in Hoofddorp and Nieuw-Vennep, Netherlands. 12 nations will compete for the European title. The Netherlands are the defending champion and record title holder.
How to follow the European Championship
Live play by play will be available for all games as usual through www.baseballstats.eu. A live stream or TV broadcast is only available in the Netherlands via Ziggo Sports and only for games with the Dutch national team. Two games each including all games of the German national team will be available via radio broadcast at www.meinsportradio.de
The two groups
- Group A: Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Sweden, Great Britain
- Group B: Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Greece, Croatia
The Favorite
The Netherlands are the heavy favorite to win the European Championship 2016. They are fielding a roster, which includes former Major Leaguers Shairon Martis and Roger Bernadina, as well as Europe’s best pitcher Rob Cordemans, sluggers Kalian Sams andYurendell de Caster, Houston Astros minor leaguer Stijn van der Meer and Amsterdam standout infielderNick Urbanus just to name a few. The coaching staff with manager Steve Janssen featuresAndruw Jones as bench coach. In 2014 they reclaimed the European title in undefeated matter and hope to match that feat.
The Contender
Also in 2010 and 2012 the Netherlands were considered the one and only favorite to win the European Championship. But in the end Marco Mazzieri led Italy to European titles number nine and ten with the latter won in Rotterdam. The Squadra Azzurri features a strong group of players with former Major Leaguer Alex Liddi, Cleveland Indians prospect Luis Lugo, Tiago Da Silva and Alessandro Vaglio. At the Italian Baseball Week Italy won just one of four games and finished third behind Spain and the Czech Republic. But still Italy will be the favorite to reach the final besides the Netherlands.
The Hopefuls for Bronze
Behind the big two the air in European Baseball is becoming thinner and thinner. Spain, Czech Republic, France and Germany will be battling for third place in the final standings and with a perfect tournament hope to knock out Italy from the final. Four years ago the Czech team showed that surprises can happen, when they shocked the Netherlands behind a gem of Michal Sobotka. They also beat Spain twice and Italy once at the Italian Baseball Week and moved into 14th place in the Men’s Baseball World Rankings recently. Still, the Czech Republic never has won a medal in European Championships.
Spain on the other hand already has clinched 13 bronze medals including five of the last six. Nonetheless it remains to be seen how they will fare after the transition from Mauro Mazzottito Paco Figueroa has manager. Former MLB prospects Engel Beltre andFernando Martinezare expected to be on the team providing some star potential.
Germany is missing obviously Max Kepler, but also Donald Lutz, Pascal Amon and Luke Sommer. With Martin Helmig they have a new head coach as well and look to forget the miserable WBC Qualifier in Mexicali. They played a solid Yoshida Challenge. Pro pitchersMarkus Solbach and Sven Schüller are in Minor League playoffs and could join the team midway through the tournament or not at all depending on their success across the ocean.
France probably had hoped for a better result at their own event in Senart last week. Nonetheless with Owen Ozanich and Co they have tons of strong pitching and could provide serious trouble for every team in the tournament. Rene Leveret is looking to show his power like in 2014. For Andy Paz’ appearances look above, what was written for Solbach andSchüller.
The Maybes
Then there are teams, which are on the fringe of reaching the top six, but also are in danger of relegation if a couple of games go the other way. Belgium and Great Britain are two of them. Belgium is just one of four teams to have a European Championship in the past and they are certainly trending towards the top six. But they are also in a tough group with Italy, Spain and France looking to lock up the top three. Great Britain on the other hand is already eying the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Brooklyn.
Staying in the A-Pool?
Sweden and Croatia might be looking to avoid relegation by default, as they finished 11th and 12th in the 2014 European Championship and needed to win last year’s European Championships B-Pool in Vienna and Karlovac to secure their spot. They certainly hope to avoid the same scenario. Players to look for on these two teams are plenty, starting with the Johannessen brothers on the Swedish squad or Antonio Horvatic from Croatia, who could use the European Championship to secure a contract in one of the top leagues in European Baseball.
Not much can be said about Greece and Russia. For starters we don’t their roster yet. Both managed to win just one game in 2014, but still avoided relegation due to some lucky tiebreakers. Greece will be managed by Ivan Rodriguez, who took the vacant seat only a few days before the tournament.
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