Bryan Engelhardt

Bryan Engelhardt

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 229 lb.

• Born January 10, 1982 in Curaçao Netherlands

Biographical Information

Bryan Engelhardt has been an outfielder in the Hoofdklasse. He was the first two-time winner of the Jacques Reuvers Award. He has led the Hoofdklasse in home runs four times. He has played in both the Olympics and World Baseball Classic. He is the older brother of Rachid Engelhardt and son of Stanley Engelhardt.

Engelhardt was in talks with the Baltimore Orioles when younger, but did not impress in the Venezuelan Summer League and went to Holland instead. Bryan debuted in Hoofdklasse in 2002 with PSV. He started off on a strong note, homering against Ruan Klink in his first at-bat. He wound up tying for sixth in the league with two triples. He starred in 2002 Haarlem Baseball Week, hitting .389 and winning his first Jacques Reuever Award, beating out the likes of Carlos Quentin, Dustin Pedroia and Huston Street. He also hit .429/.600/.571 for the Dutch national team in the 2002 Intercontinental Cup.

In 2003, the 21-year-old finished 9th in Hoofdklasse with 12 stolen bases (in 14 tries). That year, he played with the Dutch national team in the European Championship, World Port Tournament, 2004 Olympics qualification tournament and the World Cup. In the 2003 European Championship, Engelhardt hit .308/~.308/.500 with 10 RBI in 7 games. He led the competition in RBI and made the All-Star outfield. In the 2003 Baseball World Cup, Engelhardt hit .238/.346/.476 with 6 RBI in six games. In the 2003 World Port Tournament, he hit .280/~.333/.320 for the Netherlands.

He moved to B.S.C. Almere'90 in 2004 and tied Greg Halman for the league lead with four homers. He was 2 for 13 in the 2004 Haarlem Baseball Week. In 2005, Bryan batted .323/.417/.516 but was limited to nine games. On May 5, he tore a muscle in his shoulder and missed the remainder of the year.

Engelhardt hit .297/.343/.506 in 2006. He tied for 10th in Hoofdklasse with 9 doubles, tied for 4th with 3 triples and led with six home runs. During 2006 Haarlem Baseball Week, he batted .444/.565/1.000 with a tourney-leading three homers and won the Jacques Reuvers Award for a record second time. In the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, he split left field for the Netherlands with Danny Rombley but hit just .211/.211/.263 in 5 games for the silver medalists.

Engelhardt batted .250/.368/.382 only in Hoofdklasse in 2007. In the 2007 World Port Tournament, he was 3 for 19 with 2 doubles and 4 walks. He was left off of the Dutch squad for the 2007 European Championship but was added for the 2007 Baseball World Cup and hit .258/.378/.484. He missed a cycle by a triple against the Venezuelan national team and homered for the lone Dutch run against Team Canada.

In 2008, Engelhardt was decked with a 10-game suspension for his role in a large brawl between Kinheim and Neptunus on May 18. Bryan hit .222/.300/.389 for Kinheim as they won the 2008 European Cup in Grosseto. He had the lowest average of the team's starters but hit their only home run.

Engelhardt was the top Dutch hitter in the 2008 Olympics, hitting .278/.381/.667 as their starting left fielder. His OPS was 392 points better than the team's #2 performer, Dirk van 't Klooster. Bryan hit two homers, solo shots off of Guogiang Sun and Yadier Pedroso. He tied Alfredo Despaigne for 5th in the preliminary rounds in slugging and tied Despaigne, Mike Saunders, Chih-Sheng Lin and Nick Weglarz for second in homers, one behind Dae-ho Lee.

Engelhardt hit .294/.392/.504 with 30 RBI in 34 games in the 2008 Hoofdklasse while moving to first base primarily. He tied Martijn Meeuwis for 6th in the league in slugging, tied for third in home runs (5, tying Eugène Kingsale and Fausto Alvarez, one behind the co-leaders), tied Mark Duursma for 7th in RBI (30) and tied for 8th in doubles (10, even with Mark Duursma, René Cremer and Sidney de Jong). He was 4 for 13 in the playoffs. In the 2008 Holland Series, he went 0 for 2 with a walk and a run; on the scoring play Amsterdam catcher Sidney de Jong was hurt, leaving him out of the Series. Bryan missed the rest of the Series due to a suspension given out during the playoffs.

In the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Bryan was the second-best Dutch hitter after de Jong and better than the three major leaguers on the Netherlands squad. He hit .294/.294/.529 as the main left fielder. He hit the only Dutch home run in six games in the tournament, a solo shot off Matt Lindstrom in a loss to the US.

He went 3 for 12 with two walks and four runs in the Matino phase of the 2009 European Cup. In the Cup's Final Four, Bryan was 2 for 7 with a double and a run. In the 2009 World Port Tournament, Engelhardt hit .313/.343/.344. He went 0 for 2 in the finale against Cuba before Jeffrey Arends pinch-hit for him.

In the 2009 Hoofdklasse season, he hit .331/.415/.629 with 30 RBI in 34 games for Kinheim. He was among the league leaders in homers (8, first, one ahead of Jason Rees), RBI (tied for 5th with Ryan Murphy), doubles (tied for 5th with 11), total bases (78, 5th between Eugene Kingsale and Wesley Connor) and slugging (second, .007 behind leader Kenny Berkenbosch).

Engelhardt was even better in 2010, putting up a .373/.443/.575 batting line with 37 runs and 36 RBI in 40 games for Kinheim, with 16 steals in 19 tries. He led the league in home runs (6), RBI (one ahead of Raily Legito), hits (57), total bases (88, 14 ahead of Legito), slugging (.060 ahead of runner-up Bas de Jong) and steals (3 ahead of Norbert Lokhorst). He was also among the leaders in average (3rd behind Dirk van 't Klooster and Willie Vasquez), OBP (7th), runs (3rd behind Benjamin Dille and Dwayne Kemp) and doubles (tied for third). For his dominant season, he won the league's MVP award.

He also appeared for the Netherlands in the 2010 Intercontinental Cup and 2010 European Championship. In the 2010 Euros, he hit .269/.367/.385 with 8 RBI in 11 games. He was 1 for 3 with a walk, run and a RBI in the Gold Medal game, in which the Netherlands lost to Italy, failing to take the Gold for the first time in 13 years.

Sources: Honkbalsite.com, Dutch baseball stats, Marco Stoovelaar's Dutch baseball site, Haarlem Honkbalweek site, IBAF site, Harry Wedemeijer's international competitions statistics site, 2008 European Cup in Grosseto, 2008 Olympics, World Baseball Classic, 2009 European Cup in Matino, 2010 European Championship