Elvis Hammarstedt

From BR Bullpen

Elvis Bubblan Hammarstedt

  • Bats Right, Throws Right

Biographical Information[edit]

Elvis Hammarstedt has played in the Elitserien and for the Swedish national team.

He attended the MLB European Academy in 2012. [1] In 2013, he hit .315/.370/.391 for Akademin in the Elitserien. [2] He hit .200/.286/.300 for Sweden in the 2013 European Junior Championship, playing at short, but fielded only .813 with six errors to tie for the tourney lead. [3] He was only 3 for 18 with a double in 2014. [4]

In 2015, he dazzled at .410/.549/.538, second in the league in average (.044 behind Matt Merrifield), 3rd in slugging (after Merrifield and Johan Klarberg) and 2nd in OBP (.034 behind Merrifield). He was 1-1 with a 3.32 ERA. [5] In the 2015 B-Level European Championship, he singled and scored in his lone time at the plate. On the mound, he got the start in the finale against Austria with a spot in the 2016 European Championship at stake. He allowed 5 hits, 5 walks and 3 runs in 4 innings before Merrifield relieved with a 3-1 deficit, but Sweden would rally to win. [6]

Hammarstedt moved to the Rättvik Butchers in 2016; his offensive production fell to .288/.410/.338 and he fielded .929 at SS. On the hill, he established himself as one of the top pitchers in Sweden - 5-2, 2.29, .208 opponent average, 52 K in 51 IP. He was 3rd in ERA (behind Jason Ochart and Per Sjörs), 4th in opponent average (between Albin Sivard and Emil Sahlin), tied Sivard for 3rd in wins and tied Arvid Carlstedt for 3rd in whiffs. [7] He played in Collegiate Baseball League Europe with a 1-1, 3.78 record for the Vienna Emporers. [8]

The right-hander was 1-2 with a 2.80 ERA in 2017; his offense continued to fall, though (.161/.270/.258). [9] In '18, he rebounded at the plate (.353/.437/.536) though he fell to 4-3, 3.48 on the mound. He fielded only .789 in 12 games at short but played error-free ball in 7 games at 3B. He was 8th in average (between Simon Emanuelsson and Kestas Vilimas), tied for 2nd with 10 doubles, was 7th in slugging, tied Sjörs for 10th in RBI, tied for 4th in wins and was 3rd with 68 strikeouts. [10]

In 2019, he hit .247/.407/.342 and fielded much better, .971 at shortstop. He easily led the league's shortstops in fielding, 49 points ahead of runner-up Dave Brandt, a former indy leaguer. He was 3-4 with a 3.56 ERA, 10th in the league in ERA. [11] In the 2019 European Championship, he backed up Par Axelsson at 1B, going 2 for 5 with a run; both of his hits came off former big leaguer Michael Roth off Great Britain. He also got two starts, doing a fine job against an Israeli national team with two former major leaguers and plenty of minor league experience (5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 7 BB, 3 K before Niklas Melin relieved with the game even at two). He started their second game against Britain and took the loss (2 IP, 3 H, 4 BB, 4 R, 4 ER before Jakob Claesson took over). His 7.71 ERA was much better than the team total of 11.52 as Sweden went winless. [12]

Sources[edit]