Daniel De Sutter

Daniel De Sutter

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born September 26, 1982

Biographical Information

Daniel De Sutter played in the Belgian First Division and for the Belgian national team.

De Sutter was 7 for 48 with 19 walks and a double for the 1988 Borgerhout Squirrels. It is unclear if this was his first season in Belgium's top league as the league does not have stats available online prior to 1988 (as of 11/10/2020) - it would seem likely as he was only 16. In '89, he improved to .239 with a .307 slugging and .327 OBP; he was 1-2. In 1990, he was at .275/.367/.304. With the 1991 Squirrels, he was 6 for 27 with two doubles and three walks. He did not play in 1992. In 1993, he became a productive player, hitting .319/.430/.445 though the infielder fielded .881.

Daniel slumped to .229/.379/.238 in '94; his 24 walks tied Roger De Saedeleer for 7th in the loop. In 1995, he hit .311/.462/.388 and tied for 3rd with 27 walks; only Leslie Segers and Rudi Brouwers had more. He played second for Belgium in the 1995 European Championship when Brouwers was used elsewhere; he was 1 for 13 with two walks, a run and a RBI and fielded .909. Belgium won the Bronze.

De Sutter was at .339/.480/.492 in 1996 and .371/.514/.514 in 1997, fielding .971. He was 3rd in 1997 with 31 walks and tied for 7th with 43 runs. He moved to the Royal Antwerp Eagles in 1998 and hit .430/.537/.678; he scored 70 runs and stole 15 bases in 17 tries while drawing 37 walks and fielding .950. He led the league in runs, tied for 9th in swipes, tied Segers for 2nd in walks and tied for 5th with 6 times plunked.

In 1999, he returned to the Squirrels and batted .462/.535/.859 with 31 runs and 31 RBI. He was 3rd in average and 5th in slugging (between Kim Wybo and Nikoloz Bezhuashvili). The next year, he was with the Antwerp Royal Greys and the Squirrels, batting .524/.594/.915. Only Frank Van Droogenbroeck had a better average. In '01, he was at .386/.569/.494 for Borgerhout, leading the league in walks (4 ahead of Filip van der Meiren) and presumably among the OBP leaders.

The 28-year-old hit .211/.348/.263 for Belgium in the 2001 European Championship and handled 22 chances error-free, as he started at third base. He led the team with six runs, double any other player. In the 2002 season, he fell to .244/.396/.378 for the Squirrels, just missing the top 10 with 20 walks. He did not appear in 2003-2004. He was 9 for 44 with 9 walks in 2005 and 7 for 14 with six walks, a double, two triples and a homer in 2006. In '07, he went 4 for 15 with 3 doubles and four walks and was 0 for 3 in 2008. In 2009, he went 4 for 20 with two walks.

Sources: International baseball statistician Harry Wedemeijer, Belgian Baseball Federation