Janusz Radicke

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born February 13, 1979 in Hamburg Germany

Biographical Information

Janusz Radicke played in the Bundesliga and for the German national team.

Radicke was 1-for-8 with five walks for Germany in the 1995 B-Level European Junior Championship, handling 25 chances error-free. He hit .214/.500/.286 with six walks in five games in the 1996 European Junior Championship, leading the team in walks (one ahead of Jendrick Speer). He debuted in the Bundesliga-1 that summer, batting .143/.280/.238 for the Mainz Athletics. In the 1997 European Junior Championship, he batted .231/.286/.269 for Germany, fielding .943. He produced at a .462/.551/.692 rate for the 1997 Athletics, finishing 7th in the Bundesliga-1 South in average, 6th in OBP, 10th in OPS, 6th in putouts (147, between Mathias Winterrath and Jens Heymer) and 4th in fielding (.988). He made the league All-Star team.

In '98, he was at .418/.475/.560 with 49 runs and 39 RBI in 40 games, going 17-for-19 in steal attempts. He was 4th in hits (59), tied for 9th in runs, second in putouts and fifth in fielding. The next season, he hit .453/.524/.663 with 27 RBI in 26 contests. He tied for 7th in hits (39), was one shy of the co-leaders with 15 doubles, tied for the lead in HBP (7) and led in putouts (194). He again was an All-Star. He made Germany's squad for the 1999 European Championship, going 4-for-14 with two runs, two RBI and a hit-by-pitch. He started at catcher ahead of Volker Kuhlmann.

The Hamburg native hit .370/.500/.444 in limited action in 2000. Switching to wood bats from aluminum in 2001, he batted .280/.445/.390 with 22 walks and 31 RBI in 27 games, finishing 4th in RBI (between Klaus Hopfensperger and Christian Großmann), tied for 9th in doubles (9), tied Tarek Shaer for 3rd in walks and was a perfect 7-for-7 in steal attempts. In the 2001 European Championship, he hit .190/.261/.238 as a regular for Germany.

In 2002, he hit .250/.379/.345 for Mainz. He was 3rd in fielding (.991) and second in putouts (195, one shy). The next year, he rebounded to .338/.495/.527 with 13 steals in 15 tries and 27 runs in 28 games. He tied Gerd Müller for 7th in runs, finished 9th in RBI (21), tied Daniel Schober for 4th in walks (20), was 7th in OBP, tied Nick Weisheipl for 6th in stolen bases and 3rd in steal percentage), was 2nd in putouts (173, 2 shy) and was 4th in percentage of runners caught stealing (28.6, between Javier Pérez and Martin Dewald).

Janusz slipped to .224/.343/.412 in 2004 but drove in 20 in 27 games, tying for 3rd in doubles (8) and 2nd with 229 putouts. In '05, he hit .274/.391/.389 with 21 runs in 28 games. He tied for 9th in walks (13) and was 4th with 186 putouts but led in passed balls (9) and had the lowest CS% of any qualifier (12). He threw out 31.6% in 2006 and batted .224/.352/.294, finishing 4th in percentage thrown out. His last season was a big one as he produced at a .313/.418/.482 clip and .333/.414/.373 in the playoffs to help Mainz win their first title. He tied for 8th in the league with 8 doubles, tied for 6th with 5 HBP and was 7th in putouts (146).

Sources

• German Baseball and Softball Federation
• Mainz Athletics