Ferdinand Obed

• Bats Left, Throws Left

• Born May 6, 1994

Biographical Information

Ferdinand Obed has been a regular for the Austrian national team.

Obed hit .235/.409/.353 with six runs in five games in the 2010 European Junior Championship Qualifiers. In the 2012 European U21 Championship, he hit .450/.500/.833 with six RBI and six runs in five games. He was 7th in average, 3rd in slugging (after Matěj Menšík and Maxime Lefevre), 10th in OBP, tied for 4th in hits (9), tied for 7th in RBI, tied for 5th in runs, 1st in triples (3) and second in total bases (18, 2 behind Menšík). He debuted for the senior national team in the 2013 B-Level European Championship and was retired by Šimon Procháczka his first at-bat. He finished at .250/.333/.563 including a homer off Denis Leonov. He tied Martin Bosý and Michael-Anthony Ferrato for the most home runs. In the 2014 European U21 Championship, he produced at a .455/.677/.455 clip and scored (once again) six runs in five games. He was 10th in average, 5th in OBP and tied for 1st in walks (8).

He debuted for the senior national team in the 2015 B-Level European Championship, striking out against Marek Deska his first at-bat and getting his first hit off Niklas Melin. He finished 2-for-7 with a hit-by-pitch, run and RBI. In the 2017 European U23 Championship, he hit .235/.350/.353. He excelled in the 2017 B-Level European Championship as Austria won, going 6 for 12 with 3 walks, 5 runs and 4 RBI. In the finale, he was 3 for 5 with 2 runs, 3 RBI and a dinger off Shlomo Lipetz as Austria topped Israel. That earned Austria a spot in the 2018 European Championship Playoff against Lithuania. Obed was 3 for 7 with a double, two walks, 4 runs and 3 RBI as Austria routed Lithuania in both games. Austria won a spot in the 2019 European Championship, their second European Championship trip.

Playing for the Wiener Neustadt Diving Ducks of the Austrian Baseball League, he had quite a season in 2018 - .465/.574/.832, 18 2B, 46 R, 30 RBI, 15 SB (1 CS) in 26 G. He was 0-1 with a save and a 3.18 ERA in 3 games pitched. He was 3rd in the league in average, 2nd in slugging, 3rd in OBP, 1st in runs (5 ahead of Moritz Scheicher), 1st in hits (47, 1 ahead of Scheicher), 4th in RBI, 1st in doubles (2 ahead of Drake Zarate), tied for 5th in homers with Richard Alzinger (5), 1st in total bases (84), tied Joachim Frick for 5th in walks (22) and 3rd in steals. He fell to .293/.377/.380 for the '19 Diving Ducks but still had 21 runs and 21 RBI in 22 games, stealing 11 bases in 11 tries and also pitching more (3-3, 4.63, 61 K, 49 BB in 46 2/3 IP). He tied for 10th in RBI, was 3rd in walks issued but was also 8th in batters fanned.

In the 2019 European Championship, Obed started in right for Austria and produced at a .350/.458/.450 clip with ten runs and two RBI in six games, handling 9 putouts and stealing two bases in two tries. He had a 3-run game against Great Britain and a 3-hit game versus Croatia. He tied Lefevre and Ademar Rifaela for the most runs in the Euros and tied for 4th in steals. He and Scheicher (who led in OBP) were the first Austrians to pace a European Championship in a major offensive department.