Maurice Wilhelm

From BR Bullpen

Maurice Jose Wilhelm

  • Bats Right, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.

Biographical Information[edit]

Maurice Wilhelm has won ERA and home run titles in Germany.

Wilhelm was born in Germany but raised in San Diego. He was 0-1 with two saves and a 5.04 ERA at Point Loma Nazarene as a junior. As a senior in 2011, he went 2-1 with 7 saves and a 3.93 ERA. He signed with Germany's Cologne Cardinals for 2012 and starred as a 1B/P/C. He hit .346/.416/.682 drove in 46 runs in 28 games and went deep 9 times. He was second in the northern Bundesliga-1 in home runs, led in RBI (6 over Travis Bass), was 7th in slugging (between Elliot Biddle and Jeff Rustico) and ranked 4th in ERA (2-4, Sv, 1.91).

He moved to the Bonn Capitals for 2013 and was a 1B/C; he hit .284/.415/.392 with no home runs but stayed steady on the hill (5-3, 1.85). He was 4th in ERA again, 6th with 85 whiffs, tied Moritz Sckaer for 8th in wins and was 5th in WHIP (1.12, between Alex Rivers and Andre Hughes). In 2014, he hit .397/.490/.564 with 25 RBI in 21 games and was 4-2 with a 2.22 ERA for Bonn. He was 5th in the league in average (between Michael Franke and Tucker White), 3rd in RBI, tied Björn Schonlau and Dallas Burke for 7th in hits (31), was 7th in OBP (between Moritz Buttgereit and Schonlau), placed 5th in slugging (between Franke and Burke), was 4th in ERA for the third straight year (between Harry Glynne and Hughes this time), ranked 10th with 43 K, had the lowest walk rate (6 in 48 2/3 IP) and was 3rd in WHIP (1.13, behind Chris Mezger and Trevor Caughey).

Wilhelm, who holds a German passport, made his debut for the German national team in the 2014 European Championship. He started one game on the mound, going four innings against Sweden (5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 K) before Enorbel Marquez relieved with a 7-2 lead; as he did not go five innings, Marquez got the win. He also split 1B with Maik Ehmcke, going 3 for 9 and hitting a two-run homer off Arshwin Asjes. In 2015, he was mainly a first baseman for Bonn, producing at a .284/.440/.432 clip while going 2-0 with two saves and 1.32 ERA on the mound (mostly used in relief). He tied for second in the loop with 9 doubles, tied for 7th in RBI (20), tied Nils Hartkopf for second with 18 walks, was 9th in OBP, 10th in OPS and tied for third in saves.

Back with Germany for the 2016 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, he relieved Martin Dewald in the bottom of the 9th with one on, one out and a surprising 3-2 lead over Nicaragua. He gave up a hit to Janior Montes and fanned Dwight Britton, then allowed a game-tying hit to Elmer Reyes, who was out trying to stretch it into a double, forcing extra innings. Germany scored in the top of the 10th to make him the potential winner after the blown save, but Marquez relieved and struggled in the bottom of the 10th and Nicaragua rallied to win.

He had a huge 2016 for Bonn, going 5-0 with a save and a 0.49 ERA while batting .322/.370/.489 with 22 runs in 23 games. He tied for 7th in home runs (2), was 4th in RBI (20), tied for 8th in hits (29), was second in doubles (9, 5 behind Daniel Sanchez, ranked fifth in runs (between Daniel Lamb-Hunt and Jendrick Speer), led in ERA (by .46), tied for 6th in wins, led in K/BB ratio (8.2, .6 better than Wayne Ough), led in WHIP (.57, .29 ahead of Sascha Koch), led in opponent average (.129, by .012), had the lowest opponent slugging (.161, by .023) and had the lowest opponent OBP (.163, .060 better than Koch). He was named MVP for his performance.

In the 2016 European Championship, he backed up Max Boldt at first base, going 1 for 8; his lone hit was a home run, though, off Yannick Gontier in a rout of Belgium. He pitched one game, relieving Johannes Krumm in the 5th with a 2-2 deadlock against Great Britain and working 2 2/3 shutout innings (just two hits allowed) for the win as Germany scored once more; Max Schmitz saved it.

Wilhelm kept on starring in 2017, repeating as MVP. He was 4-0 with a 0.30 ERA and hit .297/.391/.459. He tied Edvardas Matusevičius for 5th in home runs (3), was second with 29 RBI (two behind Lamb-Hunt) and tied for 8th in wins. Had he qualified for the ERA leaders, he would have paced the league.

In the 2018 CEB Cup, he hit .375/.389/.813 for Bonn with 2 homers, 5 runs and 5 RBI in 4 games; he was 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA. He pitched five shutout innings against the Borgerhout Squirrels and had a 9-0 led but gave up 4 runs in the 6th and Jan Jakob took over. In the championship game, Bonn again faced Borgerhout; Wilhelm got 2 of their 4 hits against Kenny Vandenbranden in a loss. In the 2018 Haarlem Baseball Week, he lost to Taiwan but drove in Philip Schulz with the winning run in an upset of Cuba and drove in Boldt with the only German run against Japan. The DH finished the event 0 for 16 with 8 strikeouts despite the two RBI and was 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA. He had the most at-bats for anyone who went hitless in the event. Finally, he played for Germany in the 2018 Super6. He was 2 for 6 with a walk and a RBI while splitting 1B with Boldt. He pitched one game, closing out a 7-6 loss to Belgium. He relieved Clayton Freimuth with one on, two outs and a 7-2 deficit in the bottom of the 7th. He struck out Tim Veraghtert to end the 7th and Yves Poesmans to open the 8th. Leonel Reina Viant grounded out, Benjamin Dille doubled, Thomas De Wolf was intentionally walked and Dennis De Quint grounded out.

He continued his dominance with Bonn in '18. He hit .348/.467/.725 with 6 homers, 24 runs and 23 RBI in 21 games and was 1-0 with 5 saves and a 1.06 ERA, closing things out for the strong pitching trio of Koch, Markus Solbach and Riley Barr. He was among the league leaders in average (tied for 8th), homers (tied Maikel Azcuy for 3rd), RBI (7th, between Wilson Lee and Daniel Hinz), slugging (2nd), OBP (6th), OPS (3rd), fielding at 1B (.990, 3rd) and saves (1st, 2 ahead of Pontus Byström and Olli Thieben). He won his third MVP in a row.

Sources[edit]

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