© Louie Sienders
Three young Dutch pitchers have signed contracts with 3 major league clubs and are now ready to fly to the USA. The one who certainly caught the most attention was 18-year-old left-handed Brandon Herbold of Curacao Neptunus, if only because his father is the President of the Dutch Baseball and Softball Federation. KNBSB Chief Mark Herbold was present with his wife Linda as Brandon signed the Kansas City Royals contract. The other two pitchers are Stijn van der Schaaf (18) of HCAW Bussum and Connor Prins (19) of the Amsterdam Pirates, who drafted respectively the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners.
Herbold and Van der Schaaf contributed to Holland’s first place in the Under 18 European Championship held in Macerata in July 2021 and fifth place in the Under 18 World Championship held in the USA (in Bradenton, September 2022). At the World Cup, Herbold had 10 strike-outs on 8.2 catches pitched. Van der Schaaf won two games and put out 5 players at the plate on 5.1 innings tossed. Fifth place in the World Championship was the best result ever.
Connor Prins was only 3 years old when he was already starting to approach baseball with SC Badhoevedorp, near Amsterdam. At age 8 Prins was in the Pirates’ jersey and at fourteen he was a student at the Diamonds Amsterdam Baseball Academy. At 16 he returned to the L & D Amsterdam Pirates and in the 2022 season he made his debut in the Hoofdklasse.
Stijn van der Schaaf began playing baseball at age 6 with Quick Amersfoort and after three years with HCAW Bussum. For 4 years he was at the Academy with the RTC Scimitars. Van der Schaaf was part of the Bussum squad that won the Dutch league title in 2022 by beating Neptunus 4-0 in the Holland Series. For Brandon Herbold the first company was that of the Hawks in Dordrecht, but at the age of 10 he left with Neptunus Rotterdam. From 2017 until 2020 he trained at the Rotterdam Unicorns Academy.
Prins, in March, will leave for the Arizona Summer League of the Mariners, Van der Schaaf for the Red Sox in Fort Myers for the Rookie League and Herbold also in Arizona for the Rookie League of the Royals.
All three young throwers are produced by the Talent Team NL Center, developed by the KNBSB in Amsterdam. Their daily trainers are Robin van Doornspeek and Martijn Nijhoff, who hosted Baseball.it after the press conference with Dutch manager Hensley Meulens, in preparation for the World Baseball Classic.
Meulens communicated to Dutch journalists that many MLB stars have already confirmed their presence on the Dutch Kingdom Team. These are Xander Bogaerts, Kenley Jansen, Jurickson Profar, Mariekson “Didi” Gregorius and Andrelton Simmons.
