Martin Čuta

• Bats Left, Throws Right

• Born January 18, 1979

Biographical Information

Martin Čuta played in the Extraliga and for the Czech national team.

Debuting in 1996 at age 17, he was 6 for 33 with a walk and two times plunked for Technika Brno; he would spend his entire career with the team. In 1997, he was 6 for 15 with 3 walks and a double. By 1998, he was a starter, hitting .321/.420/.411. His 18 walks tied the great Pavel Budský for 6th. He went 11-for-11 in steals in 1999, scored 25 runs in 23 games and batted .385/.467/.429. He made the league leaderboards for walks (13, tied for 4th), hits (35, 4th, one behind co-leaders Budský, Michal Břeň and Aleš Navrátil) and steals (tied for 8th). He was 2-for-11 with two walks and two doubles in the playoffs.

Čuta was even better in 2000 at .433/.489/.567 with 42 runs in 33 games though he slipped to .262/.295/.262 with 3 runs in 9 postseason games. He tied Martin Střítecký for 4th in hits (55) and tied for 9th in runs. In '01, he had his career year, producing at a .454/.497/.660 clip with 55 runs and 21 doubles in 31 contests, but again slipped in the postseason (.236/.354/.309, 17 R in 13 G). He led with 64 hits (4 ahead of Budský), tied Budský for the run lead, tied for 7th in steals (10), led in doubles (two ahead of Budský), was 4th in total bases (93), was 3rd in extra-base hits (24, behind Budský and Jiří Víšek) and was 6th in average. In the 2001 European Championship, he hit .167/.333/.250 and was 2-for-2 in steals.

With Technika Brno in 2002, he fell to .339/.424/.394 then to .292/.429/.330 in '03 though he scored 27 times in 27 games and stole 11 bases in 11 tries. He tied Ivo Kučera, Michal Kočí and Martin Veselý for 8th in runs, led with 25 walks (two more than Karel Hrušovský) and tied Tomáš Přibyl for 9th in steals. He hit .231/.259/.269 in the playoffs with 8 runs in 6 contests. He eked out a .216/.281/.250 line in 2004 though he was 5-for-15 in the postseason, with 3 walks. He tied for 6th with 9 swipes. In 2005, he rebounded to .248/.390/.287 with 25 runs in 32 games and was 1-for-4 in the postseason. He was 6th in walks, sandwiched between two other Martins, Veselý and Martin Střítecký.

In 2006, he had his best season in five years, hitting .353/.451/.382 and then .316/.409/.316 with 5 runs in 4 playoff games. He was 9th in hits (36), 7th in average (between Budský and Jakub Doskočil) and 7th in OBP (between Budský and Střítecký). He batted .313/.375/.357 in 2007, tying for 10th in runs (19) and tying Veselý for 3rd with 36 hits. He faded to .257/.336/.267 in 2008 (2-for-19, 2 BB, 2B in the postseason) and .247/.304/.259 in '09.

He had hit .323/.407/.388 with 315 runs in 308 career games in the regular season, with 89 steals in 102 tries and 117 walks. Through 2024, he was 22nd in runs (between Jakub Voják and Jiří Víšek), tied Lukáš Macek for 21st in steals, 26th in walks and 66th in OBP.

Sources: Baseball-stat.cz, International scorekeeper Harry Wedemeijer