James Sanders (Bundesliga)

James Chris Sanders

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 170 lb.

• Born May 29, 1980 in San Diego, CA USA

Biographical Information

James Sanders has played in Switzerland and Germany.

Sanders debuted in the Ligue Nationale A in 2008, hitting .367/.375/.667 and going 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA in 14 innings. In 2009, he was 5-1 with a 2.29 ERA and hit .430/.496/.562. He won the Best Pitcher Award. He had a 4-0, 1.41 record in '10, going 2 for 20 on offense. He repeated as Best Pitcher. During 2011, he only pitched 1 1/3 IP and was 4 for 11. In 2013, he was 1-0 with a save and a 1.12 ERA and hit .474/.545/.526 in a successful return. He did not pitch and hit .258/.342/.274 in 2014.

James was 3-0 with a 1.06 ERA in '15, hitting .216/.311/.216 and taking his third Best Pitcher award. He improved to .294/.400/.329 in '16 and was 1-3 with a save and a 3.40 ERA but still got his 4th Pitcher of the Year. After not playing in 2017, he hit .421/.508/.495 and was 0-2 with a 2.87 ERA in 2018. In 2019, he produced at a .307/.353/.376 clip and were 4-1 with 3 saves and a 2.96 ERA. He won the MVP. In the 2019 CEB Cup, he hit .231/.286/.308 for the Zurich Challengers and had a 2.19 ERA. He was 9th in ERA (between Jose Diaz and Yulman Ribeiro), 5th in opponent average, 1st in IP (12 1/3, 2/3 ahead of Jonathan Mottay) and tied for 3rd in K (10, behind Diaz and Ondřej Furko).

In the 2019 B-Level European Championship, he hit .250/.294/.375 with six runs in five games, stealing five bases in six tries, handled 11 chances error-free and allowed one run in six innings. He tied for second in swipes. He hit .328/.444/.358 in Switzerland in 2020 and was 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA. In 2021, he was 2-2 with a save and a 4.07 ERA and hit .378/.431/.533 the year he turned 41. He was 0-1 with a 12.27 ERA for Switzerland in the 2021 European Championship Qualifiers and was 1 for 1 with a run. Pitching for Germany's Ulm Falcons that year, he was 0-3 with a 14.49 ERA. He was not the only member of the Swiss team on Ulm's staff; Yannick Brot was also on the team.

The Californian was 2-1 with a save and a 6.06 ERA in the 2022 Ligue Nationel A and hit .303/.437/.348. In the 2022 European Championship Qualifiers, he played 1B, 2B, RF, DH and P. He beat Ville-Herman Saarman and Finland, allowing one unearned run in four innings. He hit .125/.263/.188 with three runs and three RBI in four games and stole four bases in four tries. He tied for third in steals.