Dominik Talir

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born September 24, 1992

Biographical Information

Dominik Talir has played in the Austrian Baseball League and for the Austrian national team.

He made his ABL debut at age 17, going 5 for 31 with 5 walks, 14 whiffs, four runs and a RBI for the Stockerau Cubs. In 2011, he hit .164/.246/.218, followed by .136/.248/.136 in 2012, though he was 10-for-11 in steals. He was 2 for 8 with three RBI in the 2012 U-21 European Championship.

Turning 20, Talir improved significantly, to .308/.379/.372 with 20 steals in 24 attempts. He had a save and a 7.36 ERA in three mound appearances. He led the league in swipes, by seven. In the 2013 B-Level European Championship, he backed up Tobias Schermer in center. He had no at-bats or starts entering the last game of the round-robin. Needing to beat Lithuania to stay alive, he got the start in center and leading off. He was 1 for 3 with a double, walk, steal and two of their three runs, including the winner. In the finale, he again led off and played center. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts against Andrei Lobanov of Russia and had 3 putouts, one assist and an error; down 3-2 with two outs in the 9th with the tying run on third, Austria pinch-hit for him with Moritz Hackl but fell through.

For the 2014 Cubs, he hit .211/.337/.239 and had a 1-0, 5.54 record. He rebounded to .286/.388/.429 in 2015 and was 0-1 with a 9.39 ERA. In the 2015 B-Level European Championship, he had 3 runs against Poland and 3 hits versus Sweden. For the round-robin, he hit .417/.481/.458 with two steals in two tries and six runs in five games, but fielded .818. He tied Simon Rosenbaum for 8th in average and only Magnus Pilegård had more hits. In the finale, also versus Sweden, he hit leadoff and played center. He did well in a 8-5 loss, going 2 for 6 with a double, two runs and a RBI, though he made an error.

He was better yet in 2016, at .373/.469/.418 and placing himself on the leaderboard in average (9th), OBP (8th) and hits (25, 7th). In 2017, he batted .289/.396/.456 with 24 runs in 24 games and was 0-1 with a save and a 12.15 ERA. He led the league with five triples, one ahead of Sammy Hackl. He was superb for Austria in the 2017 B-Level European Championship, hitting .500/.563/.643 with five runs, nine RBI and four steals in four games in the round-robin. He had four RBI against Bulgaria in the opener. Against Israel, his 9th-inning single off Alon Leichman scored Ferdinand Obed with the winner. He also drove in three against Serbia. For the round-robin phase, he tied Teodor Dimitrov for third in average, was 10th in slugging, was 4th in OBP (between Thierry Burkhardt and Dominik Loffler), tied for 5th in hits (7), was 2nd in RBI (2 behind Takanobu Oshima) and tied for 2nd in steals (one behind Harry Wischnewski). In the finale, he hit 9th and played center, going 3 for 4 with two doubles, two runs and a RBI in a 12-2 win over Israel.

Talir moved to the Vienna Wanderers in 2018 and hit .278/.343/.378 with 22 runs in 20 games. Austria met Lithuania in the best-of-three 2018 European Championship Playoff for a spot in the 2019 European Championship; he was 4 for 8 with a double, homer, steal, two runs and six RBI as Austria swept it. He tied for 3rd in average, tied Edvardas Matusevičius for 4th in OBP, tied for 5th in slugging, tied for the most hits (with Joachim Frick and Sammy Hackl), was 2nd in RBI (3 behind Richard Alzinger) and was 3rd in total bases (one behind Frick and Alzinger).

At age 26, he hit .327/.351/.416 for Vienna with 10 steals in 11 tries. He tied for 7th in the league in hits (33). He was named the All-Star center fielder. In the 2019 European Championship, he was back in center for Austria. In their 5-1 loss to Belgium, he went 2 for 4 with a RBI but was retired with the bases loaded in the 9th by Thomas De Wolf. He hit a grand slam off Croatia's Fran Stančić-Vidrač. Entering the 9th/10th place game, he had batted .350/.435/.550 with 7 RBI in 7 games and handled 19 chances error-free. He led Austria in RBI (one ahead of Moritz Hackl) but also tied for the most times caught stealing for the event (2 in 3 tries) with Nateshon Thomas and Jordan Serena. In the 9th/10th place game, he hit 9th and manned center, going 2 for 4 with a double and two RBI in a 11-9 loss to Great Britain.

In 2020, he fell to .256/.330/.423. He tied for 8th with three home runs but tied for the most whiffs (29).