Florian Arnold

Florian Arnold

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born March 17, 1984 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate Germany

Biographical Information

Florian Arnold played in the Bundesliga and for the German national team.

Arnold was named the Best Pitcher in Germany's junior league in 2001; he made his Bundesliga-1 debut, going 1-0 with a save and only one run (unearned) in 12 innings for his hometown Mainz Athletics. He was 3 for 22 with a double and 6 walks. In the 2001 European Junior Championship, he was 1-0 with no runs in four innings and went 1 for 12 at the plate. In 2002, he again the Best Pitcher in the junior league in Germany. In the Bundesliga-1, he was 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in six games pitched. Starting at third for Mainz, the teenager hit .241/.317/.352 and fielded .915.

He spent one season with the Bonn Capitals, 2003. He batted .296/.458/.426 and scored 17 runs in 21 games. Starting at SS, he struggled on defense (.824) and on the mound (1-1, 9 R, 8 ER, 8 BB in 8 IP). He tied for 4th in the Bundesliga-1 south with 14 walks drawn but also tied for the most errors (13). With Germany in the 2003 European Championship, he was 2 for 17 with a walk, run and RBI while fielding .895. Returning to Mainz for the 2004 campaign, he returned to 3B and fielded .945. He allowed 4 runs and 6 walks in 3 innings but continued to hit well (.287/.394/.402). In 7 postseason games, he was even better (.375/.444/.708, 7 R, 9 RBI). He fielded .767 for the '05 Athletics but batted .325/.406/.386 with 18 RBI in 25 games and was 1-1 with a 1.89 ERA. He was 13th in the league in average but second in errors (17, 6 behind Philipp Howard). In the 2005 European Championship, he hit .211/.348/.211 while backing up Jendrick Speer at 2B for Germany (.800 FLD%). He went 3-for-3 in steals to lead Germany, tied for 5th in the Euros as a whole.

Arnold saw limited time the rest of his career. In 2006, he was 5 for 16 while backing up Raef Hobbs-Brown at 3B. The next year, he went 3 for 8 with a run and 3 RBI and was 1-0 with 8 shutout innings. Mainz won its first title that year. During 2008, he allowed 6 runs (4 earned) in 4 innings and walked his only time up. In '09, he was 2 for 13 with a double, run and two RBI and allowed 7 runs (6 earned) in 2 innings, primarily backing up Jan-Niclas Stöcklin at 2B.

Overall, he had hit .282/.392/.371 with 73 runs and 57 RBI in 132 regular-season games in the Bundesliga and gone 6-3 with a save and a 3.29 ERA. He had fielded .839.

Sources

• German Baseball and Softball Federation
• Wayback Archive of the 2005 European Championship site