Christoph Ziegler

Christoph Ziegler

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 182 lb.

• Born February 8, 1992 in Fuessen Germany

Biographical Information

Christoph Ziegler has played in the Bundesliga-1 and for the German national team.

He debuted in 2008 with the Gauting Indians as a 16-year-old, hitting .205/.275/.205 with 21 K in 73 at-bats. He was their most-used right fielder and also saw action at three infield spots, fielding .756 altogether. He moved to the Haar Disciples in 2009 and batted .260/.389/.260 as a utility man, splitting 3B with Tony Younis and also playing RF, 2B, LF and SS; he fielded .905. He was with Germany for the 2009 European Junior Championship, producing at a .154/.450/.154 clip with 7 walks and 4 runs in 5 games, fielding .818. He tied for the event lead in walks.

In 2010, he improved his batting line to .312/.425/.323 with 16 walks in 24 games. He fielded .895 as Haar's most-used third baseman. He had his first extra-base hit, with one double. In 2011, he hit .282/.424/.474 with 16 walks and 21 RBI in 22 games, fielding .901. He tied Alexander Lauterbach for third in the southern Bundesliga-1 with 23 strikeouts. In 2012, he continued to progress, hitting .344/.482/.478 with 20 RBI in 24 games. Playing SS, 3B, 2B and LF, he fielded .899. He was 7th in the league in walks (21), tied for 7th in strikeouts (24), 9th in OBP (between Michael Franke and Jeff Beachum) and tied Lukas Steinlein for the most errors (11).

Ziegler was moved to catcher in 2013 (except for one game at SS) as Haar added American import Josh Petersen, who had experience in AAA. He hit .265/.367/.431, fielded .973, threw out 19.7% of opposing base-stealers and had a league-high 18 passed balls in 28 games. In 2014, he batted .357/.417/.504 with 27 runs in 28 games. Mostly a 2B/SS again, he fielded .917. He also pitched briefly (1 UER in 1 1/3 IP). He tied Jamie McOwen for 4th in hits (41) and missed the top ten in runs by one. He made his senior national team debut in the 2014 European Championship, starting at short in the opening loss to France but going 0 for 3 with an error. His first hit came off Mike Renery. While Lukas Jahn was their starter at short in the event, Ziegler wound up doing a fine job as a backup, going 5 for 9 after that 0-for-3 start, drawing one walk, scoring three runs and driving in one while fielding .900. He outhit Jahn, who was only 2 for 18.

With the 2015 Disciples, he hit .327/.410/.514 and scored 30 runs in 28 games. Playing primarily SS, he fielded .914. He was with Germany for the 2016 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers but was one of two position players they did not use; the other was Kevin Kotowski. He batted .286/.348/.490 with 26 RBI in 25 games in 2016, fielding .926 at short. He pitched 2/3 of an inning (3 H, 2 R). He tied Mike Larson for 7th in the league in RBI and led with four triples.