Erik Remmerswaal

Erik Remmerswaal

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born April 24, 1969 in Wassenaar Netherlands

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Erik Remmerswaal pitched in the Olympics, but was not the most famous pitcher named Remmerswaal from the Netherlands, as Win Remmerswaal was the first European-raised player to make it to the majors.

Erik was in the Dutch minors from 1988-1996. He finally made it to the big show at age 28, going 1-1 with a 3.27 ERA for Neptunus. He was with the Dutch national team for the 1997 World Port Tournament but did not get into a game. In 1998, Remmerswaal had a 3-2, 4.98 record. In the 1998 Holland Series, he was 0-1 with a 6.35 ERA and Neptunus fell to HCAW. During the 1999 campaign, the 30-year-old blossomed at 7-0, 1.88. He won his only playoff game, with seven shutout innings. In the 1999 Holland Series, he was roughed up for 12 hits and 7 runs in 5 innings but still got a win.

Erik went 7-1 with a 2.12 ERA in 2000, finishing third in the Hoofdklasse in ERA behind Tajah Merrill and former big leaguer Rikkert Faneyte. He gave up one run in 1 2/3 IP in the 2000 Haarlem Baseball Week then allowed three runs in five innings in the 2000 Olympics, including homers to Norihiro Nakamura and Nobuhiko Matsunaka.

He was on the Netherlands team that win Gold at the 2001 European Championship but was easily their worst hurler with four hits, three walks and five runs (two earned) in one inning; every other pitcher on the team had an ERA under 1.60. Remmerswaal took the lone Dutch loss; relieving Rob Cordemans with a 3-2 lead in the 9th against Russia, he gave up two runs and three of four baserunners reached in an upset loss. In the 2001 Baseball World Cup, the right-hander was 2-1 with a 1.56 ERA. He got wins against the Philippines (0 R, 2 H in 8) and Dominican Republic (in the 7th/8th place game) while losing to eventual champion Cuba. He tied Yuya Ando, Kyu-soo Cho, Jose Contreras, Miguel Gomez, Ming-Chieh Hsu, Pedro Luis Lazo, Ciro Licea, Cairo Murillo, Hayato Nakamura, Jason Phillips, Jason Stanford and Norge Vera for second in the event in wins, trailing Chih-Chia Chang.

He was 7-1 with two saves in 2002, tying Tim Keuter and Gregory Gustina for 8th in the circuit in wins. He allowed three runs in seven innings in the 2002 Haarlem Baseball Week, but excelled in a Dutch 5-4 loss in the Gold Medal game against Team USA. Relieving in the second, he threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings against a lineup of Eric Patterson, Shane Costa, Michael Aubrey, Carlos Quentin, Conor Jackson, Landon Powell, Aaron Hill, Sam Fuld and Rickie Weeks, all future big leaguers.

Remmerswaal was 6-2 in 2003. He was with Almere by 2005, going 4-7 with a 2.83 ERA and only one homer in 92 1/3 IP. In '06, the veteran was 3-1 with a 2.02 ERA. He was 5th in opponent average (.223) and 7th in ERA (between David Bergman and Duko Jansen). In 2007, Erik had a 3-7, 3.45 record. He wrapped up in 2008 with an awful year for ADO (0-10, 6.16, .335 opponent average). He led the league in losses. He retired at year's end due to arm trouble.

Primary Sources: Dutch baseball statisticians Harry Wedemeijer and Marco Stoovelaar, Defunct IBAF site