Bas de Jong

Bas de Jong

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born September 10, 1979

Biographical Information

Bas de Jong is the brother of Jos de Jong and was the MVP of the top Dutch league in 2013 and 2014.

Bas de Jong first had a big season in Hoofdklasse in 2003 with HCAW. He hit .336 to finish 5th in the league. In 2005, he hit .281/.317/.340 for HCAW. During 2006, he batted .291/.326/.367 with 29 RBI in 41 games, fifth in the league in runs batted in. In 2007, he moved to the Amsterdam Pirates and batted .316/.346/.485 with 31 runs and 33 RBI in 40 contests. He was 9th in slugging (between former minor leaguers Harvey Monte and Danny Rombley), 4th in home runs (5), 8th in runs, tied for 5th in RBI, tied for 2nd in triples (3), 3rd in total bases (83, trailing only Fausto Alvarez and Rombley) and 3rd in hits (54, behind Rombley and Dirk van 't Klooster).

In the 2008 Hoofdklasse, de Jong hit .333/.381/.519 and drove home 42 runs in 41 games. He was among the leaders in average (5th), slugging (3rd behind Sidney de Jong and Eugène Kingsale), home runs (4, tied for 6th with Wesley Connor), runs (31, 10th), RBI (1st), doubles (15, 1st), total bases (81, 1st, just ahead of Sidney de Jong) and hits (52, tied with Tjerk Smeets for 2nd behind Mark Duursma). He was nominated for MVP, but Duursma won. He then went 8 for 16 in the playoffs, throwing out two runners from the outfield in five games, to lead Amsterdam to an upset of DOOR Neptunus. In the 2008 Holland Series, Bas hit .167/.214/.250.

Bas hit .250/.333/.250 in the Nettuno phase of the 2009 European Cup. On June 11, de Jong hit for the cycle in a Hoofdklasse game that only lasted 6 1/2 innings due to the mercy rule. In the Final Four phase of the European Cup, he was 1 for 6 with a walk. Bas hit .379/.455/.517 with 6 RBI in 8 games in the 2009 World Port Tournament, one of the top Dutch hitters in the event. In the finale, he went 0 for 4 against Cuba but scored one run. He was 4th in the event in OBP, 5th in average and 5th in slugging (trailing only Cubans in all three). He tied Giorvis Duvergel for sixth in RBI, behind five Cubans. He batted .377/.422/.547 and fielded .985 in right field in the 2009 Hoofdklasse, finishing third in average (behind Kenny Berkenbosch and Rombley), 4th in slugging (between Rombley and Jason Rees) and 7th in RBI (29).

De Jong produced at a .324/.380/.515 clip in 2010, finishing among the league leaders in average (8th, between Bart Gabriëls and Jeffrey Arends), slugging (2nd, 60 points behind Bryan Engelhardt), RBI (5th, between Jason Halman and Rafaël Jozefa), doubles (11, tied for third, 3 behind co-leaders Dwayne Kemp and Raily Legito), triples (3, tied for 4th with Ramiro Balentina), home runs (3, tied for 3rd behind Engelhardt and Churandy La Cruz), total bases (70, tied for third with van 't Klooster) and hit-by-pitch (5, tied for 7th). In the 2010 Haarlem Baseball Week, he hit .304/.385/.348 for the Netherlands. He was 4 for 19 with four walks and two runs in the 2010 Holland Series, in which Amsterdam fell to Neptunus. Playing DH and 1B for the Netherlands in the 2010 European Championship, he was 8 for 17 with 4 runs and a RBI in the first round, including 3-hgit games against Greece and Ukraine but fell to 2-for-7 with a RBI and 2 HBP in the second round. In the Gold Medal game loss to Italy, he went 0 for 4 and fanned twice. He went 0 for 9 with a walk in the 2010 Intercontinental Cup, backing up Engelhardt at DH and Rombley in RF; he did not play in the Gold Medal game, which the Orange lost to Cuba.

In 2011, Bas hit .354/.397/.470 and was among the league top 10 in average (5th, between Kemp and Engelhardt), slugging (9th, between Halman and Alvarez), hits (58, 3rd, behind van 't Klooster and Kemp), doubles (16, tied for second with Arends, behind Halman), total bases (77, tied for 6th with Nik Gumeson), tied for second in sacrifice flies (5, even with Vince Rooi) and tied for first in double play grounders (7). He was 3 for 13 with a walk, two runs and two RBI in the 2011 World Port Tournament. In the 2011 European Cup, he was 9 for 28 with 7 runs, 4 RBI, 2 doubles and 3 walks as Amsterdam finished fourth. He helped the Pirates beat the Pioniers in the 2011 Holland Series, going 6 for 23 with 3 runs and 4 RBI; he homered off Eddie Aucoin in Game One.

De Jong hit .370/.412/.519 with 28 runs and 29 RBI in 34 games for the Pirates during 2012. He won the batting title by 11 points over Rombley and was a distant second to Engelhardt in slugging (.111 behind) but did not crack the top 10 (13th) due to his low walk total (9). He tied Percy Isenia for 7th in total bases (70), tied for 9th in home runs (3), tied Quintin de Cuba for 7th in doubles (11) and tied Connor and Jozefa for 8th in hits (50). He excelled in the first round of the 2012 European Cup, going 11 for 21 with 3 doubles, a homer, 3 runs, 9 RBI, 2 walks and a hit-by-pitch in five games; he was 5 for 6 against Draci Brno. He was second in the pool in average (behind Claudio Liverziani), 6th in slugging, 2nd in OBP (to Liverziani), tied for third in hits with Connor, tied for third in RBI with Liverziani, tied for first in doubles and fourth in total bases. Liverziani was MVP of the pool. In the final four, he was 3 for 8 with a run, going 2 for 5 in Amsterdam's win over the Rouen Huskies in the Bronze Medal game. He was 5 for 20 with 3 runs, 4 RBI and no extra-base hits in the 2012 Haarlem Baseball Week and did not make the Dutch roster for their next two big events, the 2012 European Championship and 2013 World Baseball Classic.

In the 2013 European Cup, de Jong was 7 for 20 with a double, 3 walks, 8 runs and 3 RBI in 5 games. He led his pool in runs and tied Francesco Fuzzi, Connor and Berkenbosch for 5th in hits. At age 33, the veteran had his best year yet in 2013, hitting .369/.409/.524 with 35 runs, 34 RBI and 12 steals (caught once) in 42 games. He won his second batting title (one point over Isenia), led in slugging (18 points over Rooi) though he did not make the top 15 in OBP, was 9th in runs, led in hits (62, one over Phil Ortez), tied Kevin Dirksen for 4th in RBI, was 6th in doubles (12), ranked second in triples (4, two behind Shaldimar Daantji), led in total bases (88, 7 over Ortez), tied for 4th in steals (with Rombley and René Cremer) and tied for first in double play grounders (8). He won the MVP, beating out fellow finalists Rooi, Balentina and Benjamin Dille.

De Jong became the league's second player to win three straight batting titles, following Hamilton Richardson - he hit .377/.444/.590 in 2014 with 16 doubles, 42 RBI and 9 steals (in 10 tries) in 37 games, while fielding .988. He won the batting title by 12 points over Rooi, led in slugging by .024 over Gianison Boekhoudt), was 6th in OBP (between Legito and Joris van Ballegooy), tied for second in hits (50, three behind van 't Klooster), tied Rooi and Boekhoudt for the RBI lead, led in doubles (two in Rooi), tied Mark-Jan Moorman for second with 6 sacrifice flies, was second in total bases (79, 3 behind Christian Diaz) and probably led all outfielders in fielding percentage. He was only 4 for 31 with two doubles, a walk, one run and three RBI in the 2014 Holland Series to post the worst average on his club as they fell to Neptunus. He did drive in the Series' first run, grounding in Roelie Henrique in game 1. After the season, he won his second MVP, beating out Boekhoudt, Rooi and Engelhardt.

Sources

• Hoofdklasse stats at the Dutch Baseball Federation site
• Marco Stoovelaar's Dutch baseball site
• CEB
• IBAF
• World Port Tournament
• Haarlem Baseball Week