Overview
Nobody was hurt by the Great War as badly as Holland. Nobody. The Baseball Brigade? Hah. We wish we were treated as well as the Baseball Brigade. At least they didn't have their homes and families bombed out by both the Central Powers and the Allies before they all got gassed. We're sorry if we're being impolite, but facts are facts. Frankly, the Admirals have been lucky to play as well as they have. For two glorious months in the midst of summer, Admirals fans were momentarily able to forget their worries and cares and at least pretend that their national team was, on average, as good as anybody else's. Then September hit and all those hopes were dashed away.
There really wasn't a lot to get from this that was positive. Yes, they did manage to finish ahead of Athens and Moscow, but they weren't that far ahead. The pitching was poor and the hitting just as bad. The defense? Let's not talk about the defense. We just ate lunch.
Retirements
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1B Emil Luyks - Luyks didn't play at all in 1920, and a guy who can't get playing time for Amsterdam is not a guy worth talking about.
3B Franz Tijl - Tijl may never walk again after suffering a severe injury in July. Thanks, baseball!
Code:
69-93, .426 PCT 8th, 30.0 GB
Home 38-43, .469 PCT
Road 31-50, .383 PCT
X-inning games 2-5, .286 PCT
One-run games 19-18, .514 PCT
Versus LHP 18-13, .581 PCT
Versus RHP 51-80, .389 PCT
April 13-8, .619 PCT
May 9-19, .321 PCT
June 10-19, .345 PCT
July 15-14, .517 PCT
August 16-12, .571 PCT
September 6-21, .222 PCT
Batting Average .269 - 8th in EURO
On-Base Percentage .313 - 9th in EURO
Slugging Percentage .341 - 10th in EURO
Runs Scored 652 - 10th in EURO
Hits 1523 - 8th in EURO
Extra-Base Hits 298 - 10th in EURO
Home Runs 30 - 9th in EURO
Bases-On-Balls 350 - 9th in EURO
Strikeouts 569 - 8th in EURO
Stolen Bases 202 - 3rd in EURO
Earned Run Average 3.95 - 8th in EURO
Runs allowed 799 - 9th in EURO
Hits allowed 1607 - 8th in EURO
Opponents AVG .280 - 8th in EURO
Home Runs allowed 49 - 8th in EURO
Bases-On-Balls 433 - 6th in EURO
Strikeouts 461 - 7th in EURO
Pitching
Lots and lots of guys used last year. There's a couple reasons for that. One, the team wasn't very good and that's what you do with bad teams: you try out lots of different players and you see what fits. Two, we traded several of our best countrymen off to France and Belgium because that way we could vicariously experience their success from afar. Melvin Hopstaken and your World Series ring, we salute you! And hope that you'll come back someday as well! As for the rest of the staff, one could charitably call them Vasil Bouwman and a bunch of Hollandaise sauce. Oh, to think of the great Dutch pitchers who will never be because of the Great War!
We don't want to talk about the rotation after Bouwman but the editor says that we must. Robert Bax was recalled at the end of June and had a good enough second half that he's pretty much guaranteed a slot in the rotation. After that, Dobbe Arden and Yannick Rikxoort did little to distance themselves from the rabble aside from their awesome Dutch names. Ernest Robin came over from the Paris Revolution in the Melvin Hopstaken trade and... well, let's just say that the way he pitched, he fit in very well on this team. I cannot even type out Joe Nelis's name without crying. Sniff.
Projected Rotation
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Vasil Bouwman
Robert Bax
Dobbe Arden*
Yannick Rikxoort*
Ernest Robin**
Joe Nelis***
Andre Lemonnier (CL)
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA
Vasil Bouwman 26 19 14 0.576 37 37 0 302 313 100 7 83 117 2.98
Dobbe Aarden 27 5 12 0.294 27 17 1 157.1 177 63 0 43 39 3.60
Yannick Rikxoort 22 7 13 0.350 29 18 1 139.1 154 75 11 37 35 4.84
Hendri Arents 26 10 7 0.588 18 18 0 138.2 135 49 0 38 49 3.18
Joe Nelis 27 1 15 0.063 26 17 0 121.2 174 88 7 49 36 6.51
Melvin Hopstaken 30 7 3 0.700 11 11 0 89.1 83 28 1 14 38 2.82
Ernest Robin 26 2 9 0.182 14 12 0 81 110 56 1 35 16 6.22
Robert Bax 21 6 4 0.600 12 12 0 80 79 25 2 17 33 2.81
Daniel Stuut 35 5 4 0.556 10 10 0 75.1 82 24 2 18 25 2.87
Bob Schillemans 23 0 4 0.000 14 4 0 69.1 102 47 8 24 19 6.10
Kennet Snelleman 23 2 4 0.333 16 6 0 62.2 90 33 5 22 20 4.74
André Lemonnier 25 3 3 0.500 27 0 3 48.1 45 15 1 24 15 2.79
Evan Guis 24 1 1 0.500 14 0 1 31.1 34 13 3 16 10 3.73
Wiel Pot 21 1 0 1.000 8 0 0 23.1 21 9 1 8 7 3.47
Jean-Pierre Jullien 18 0 0 0.000 3 0 0 6.2 7 2 0 4 1 2.70
Sib Libbinga 21 0 0 0.000 2 0 0 1.2 1 0 0 1 1 0.00
Team Totals 24.7 69 93 0.426 268 162 6 1428 1607 627 49 433 461 3.95
Batting
The Admirals did do one thing well last year, and that was run. Run the basepaths, run to first base on a routine ground ball, run away from their problems... all things that had to do with running on a literal or figurative basis, Amsterdam excelled at in 1920. 2B/SS Haico Westerhout led the league in steals with 90, and because of that we are inclined to overlook the fact that he did nothing else well except maybe field (and the jury is still out on that). Outside of him, Claude Goncalves turned out to be the gem of the Hopstaken deal, 1B Sibrand Petiet looked like an emerging young star, and Tom Alkemade wasn't horrible in 447 at-bats. We ask you to please look away from the top of the center field position; it is said that to even look at such depths will cause the viewer to drop into deep melancholy.
Projected Lineup
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C - Claude Goncalves, Sjaak Schultz*, Dolf de Deugd
1B - Sibrand Petit
2B - Huibert Matena*, Ferrie Wullink**, Ian Bezemer**, Pascal Lienard**
3B - Boudewin Djikstra, Ian Bezemer**
SS - Haico Westerhout
LF - Tom Alkemade
CF - Wassim Richard, Erjan Warmerdam**, Petro Schreurs***
RF - Soren Roseboom, Eibe Klomp**
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
C Claude Gonçalves 29 104 103 424 58 130 21 3 5 54 3 0 23 12 0.307 0.344 0.406
C Sjaak Schultz 25 38 38 152 13 33 6 1 0 11 1 1 8 10 0.217 0.259 0.270
C Dolf de Deugd 30 32 21 86 5 25 2 1 0 9 0 0 2 13 0.291 0.303 0.337
1B *Sibrand Petiet 21 160 160 615 68 189 30 5 6 80 2 1 29 60 0.307 0.335 0.402
1B Kiril Lucas 26 68 2 69 4 25 4 0 0 20 0 0 1 5 0.362 0.371 0.420
2B Haico Westerhout 23 157 142 560 90 140 16 5 0 34 90 23 34 78 0.250 0.296 0.296
2B Ferrie Wuilink 23 134 34 220 44 51 6 3 0 18 42 5 15 22 0.232 0.287 0.286
2B Pascal Lienard 28 97 19 153 21 40 7 2 1 20 5 1 12 13 0.261 0.317 0.353
2B Huibert Matena 21 49 25 94 11 26 3 1 0 8 3 3 2 14 0.277 0.296 0.330
3B *Frank Tijl 31 79 76 295 38 86 16 0 4 34 2 2 24 48 0.292 0.348 0.386
3B Boudewijn Dijkstra 21 91 74 289 25 107 10 5 2 29 0 4 6 24 0.370 0.378 0.460
3B Ferrie Noussen 31 47 15 57 1 11 3 0 0 3 0 0 6 7 0.193 0.270 0.246
SS Ian Bezemer 36 106 101 322 27 86 10 0 1 21 0 0 27 40 0.267 0.326 0.307
SS #Bartho Ouwerkerk 29 3 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0.500 0.667 0.500
LF Tom Alkemade 30 139 114 447 50 129 25 2 1 48 2 2 48 34 0.289 0.357 0.360
CF Petro Schreurs 28 125 112 387 33 82 17 3 2 41 2 5 18 26 0.212 0.246 0.287
CF *Wassim Richard 29 85 85 357 55 109 11 9 3 47 36 16 21 26 0.305 0.344 0.412
CF Erjan Warmerdam 28 49 35 136 11 32 4 0 1 11 0 2 7 13 0.235 0.278 0.287
CF Jean-Michel Deschamps 21 7 4 17 3 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 0.176 0.222
CF Alje Murray 18 3 2 7 0 1 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 1 0.143 0.125 0.143
RF *Eibe Klomp 20 111 80 284 32 66 4 3 2 26 0 1 37 34 0.232 0.323 0.289
RF *Soren Roseboom 34 65 53 191 30 56 6 2 0 24 10 1 16 15 0.293 0.352 0.346
RF René Imbert 23 25 0 11 3 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0.182 0.182 0.273
Team Totals 25.6 2042 1458 5653 652 1523 220 48 30 598 202 68 350 569 0.269 0.313 0.341
Legend
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no stars - Starter for sure
* - On the bubble
** - Longshot to be on Opening Day roster
*** - Yeah, good luck with that.