Ivo Kučera

Ivo Kučera

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 220 lb.

• Born December 13, 1968

Biographical Information

Ivo Kučera played in the Extraliga (leading in all three Triple Crown stats at some point as well as in steals) and for the Czech national team.

His 14 homers for Black Hill Blansko in 1993 led the Extraliga; it is the first season for which stats are available (as of 10/23/2020) and no other stats are available. He fell to 4 HR in 1994. He hit .406/.537/.750 for Blansko in '95, tying Tomáš Ovesný and Pavel Chadim for 9th in hits (26), tying for 2nd in triples (2, one behind Pavel Budský), tied Tomáš Přibyl for 8th in total bases (48), tied Michal Břeň for 5th in walks (16), was 8th in average, ranked 4th in OBP, was 8th in slugging, placed 7th in OPS (between Aleš Navrátil and Petr Goleš) and was 5th in Offensive Wins Above Replacement (1.4, between Goleš and Ota Kaňok).

He was even better in 1996, hitting .516/.549/.832 with 44 RBI in 102 plate appearances. He won the batting title by .031 ahead of Budský and led in hits (49, 2 more than Budský and Chadim). He also made the leaderboard for homers (6, tied for 6th), RBI (2nd, 6 behind Jiří Víšek), OBP (2nd, .041 behind Budský), slugging (4th), OPS (3rd, after Budský and Víšek), OPS (3rd, after the same duo), steals (15, 2nd, one behind Chadim), doubles (10, tied for 3rd), extra-base hits (17, tied for 4th with Chadim), total bases (79, 3rd behind Víšek and Budský) and Offensive Wins Above Replacement (2.1, 3rd behind Budský and Víšek).

In 1997, he began a three-year run with Draci Brno, winning titles with them each year. His first season, he hit .405/.427/.685. He tied for 6th with 6 homers, tied František Kučera for 3rd in hits (45), tied Roger Deago for 3rd in extra-base hits (17), was 5th in total bases (76, between Deago and Kaňok), placed 9th in slugging, was 10th in average and was 9th in Offensive Wins Above Replacement (1.3).

During 1998, he produced at a .439/.462/.748 clip with 52 RBI. He led in RBI (8 ahead of Deago and Budský) and was also tied for 7th in homers (6), 2nd in hits (54, one behind Deago), 10th in runs (35), 5th in doubles (12), 2nd in triples (4, 3 behind Chadim), 3rd in extra-base hits (22, behind Budský and Deago), 3rd in total bases (92, behind Budský and Deago), 5th in average (between Břeň and Víšek), 9th in slugging, 10th in OPS and 5th in Offensive Wins Above Replacement (1.8, between Břeň and Víšek).

Kučera's 1999 batting line was .453/.506/.800. He tied for 2nd with five homers (two behind Budský), was 6th in RBI (29), placed 4th in hits (34), scored 26 runs (8th-most), was 2nd with 11 doubles (one shy of Budský), tied Břeň for 2nd with 16 extra-base hits (5 shy of Budský), was 3rd with 60 total bases (behind Budský and Břeň), was 3rd in average (.021 behind Přibyl and Břeň), placed 7th in OBP, was 3rd in slugging (behind Budský and Břeň), ranked 4th in OPS and was 4th with 1.2 Offensive Wins Above Replacement.

He hit .333/.308/.417 for the Czechs in the round-robin phase of the 1999 European Championship then went 1 for 5 with a double in the remaining rounds. He was their main DH in the event. Returning to Black Hill Blansko for 2000, the 31-year-old managed to steal 18 bases without being caught. Hr hit .471/.548/.702. He tied for 9th in home runs (5), was 7th with 49 hits (between Chadim and Navrátil), led in steals (two ahead of Goleš), was 10th in total bases (72), was 6th in hit-by-pitch (7), was 6th in average, ranked 5th in OBP, was 9th in OPS (between Navrátil and Lubomír Janda) and was 5th in Offensive Wins Above Replacement (2.3, between Martin Střítecký and Navrátil).

2001 marked his eighth straight season of either five or six home runs (6) and he hit .363/.400/.598. He stole 10 bases to tie for 7th, the only leaderboard he made. The next year, he hit .373/.458/.539 and was among the leaders in hits (38, tied for 7th), runs (27, tied for 10th), total bases (55, 9th), extra-base hits (13, 7th), doubles (10, tied for 6th with Budský and Ovesný), average (7th), OBP (6th), slugging (10th, between Marek Rejman and Víšek), OPS (7th) and Offensive Wins Above Replacement (1.6, 7th, between Střítecký and Jiří Aubrecht).

Kučera kept on rolling in '03; the veteran had a batting line of .402/.485/.625, stole 12 bases in 14 tries and scored 27 runs in 29 games, driving in 26 runs. He tied Petr Baroch for 3rd in RBI, tied Lukáš Macek for 2nd in hits (45, one behind Ovesný), tied for 8th in runs, tied Pavel Procházka for 7th in steals, was 2nd in doubles (12, 5 behind Dmytro Nelipo), led in triples (5), tied Nelipo for the most extra-base hits (18), was 2nd in total bases (70, 7 behind Přibyl), was 2nd in average (.045 behind Ovesný), eked out the OBP title (.001 over Přibyl), was second in slugging (.130 behind Přibyl) and was 2nd in Offensive Wins Above Replacement (2.2, .4 behind Přibyl). He was 0 for 1 with a walk for the Czechs in the 2003 European Championship.

He slipped to .281/.366/.395 in 2004. He made his final leaderboards: in doubles (10, tied Navrátil for 5th), extra-base hits (11, tied for 8th) and hit-by-pitch (6, tied for 10th). He was at .311/.351/.378 in 2005. In '06, the 37-year-old was 1 for 14 with two walks. He hit .324/.368/.529 as a solid bench performer in 2008.

He later became the coach for Blansko and made occasional appearances in the field. At age 48 in 2017, he was 4 for 19 with 4 walks and a double. In '18, he went 4 for 18 with a double. The 50-year-old went an amazing 5 for 9 with a walk and two doubles in 2019! In 2020, he was 1 for 4 with a walk and a run.

Through 2020, he was among the career Extraliga leaders (1995-2020, excluding home runs for which data covers 1993-2020) in home runs (61, 7th), RBI (301, 12th, between Michal Kočí and Milan Vystrčil), hits (463, 11th, between Martin Schneider and Jakub Voják), steals (102, 12th, between Martin Veselý and Lukáš Borecký), doubles (100, 10th, between Tomáš Polanský and Petr Matalík), triples (19, tied for 8th with Víšek and Budský), extra-base hits (162, 8th), total bases (730, 9th, between Vystrčil and Břeň), average (.389, 11th, between Rob Castaneda and Matthew Lawman, 5th among Czech natives), slugging (.659, 15th, between Matěj Hejma and Martin Mužík), OPS (14th, between Petr Pacas and Hejma) and Offensive Wins Above Replacement (17.3, 12th, between Břeň and Michal Ondráček).

Primary Source: Baseball-stat.cz