Michael Stephan

From BR Bullpen

Michael Stephan receiving an award for most RBI at the 2008 European Under-18 Championship

Michael Stephan (Mitch)

Michael Stephan is a first baseman in the German Bundesliga and a member of the German national team.

Stephan gave his debut in Bundesliga in 2006 for the Gauting Indians. He hit .220/.319/.220 in 15 games, but without any extra-base hits. In 2007, Mitch started every game at first base and hit (including the playdowns) .252/.279/.330. In the same year he debuted for the German national team on the European Junior Championship, hitting .467 and being among the top 10 hitters. Also he was invited to the Major League Baseball European Baseball Academy Camp, where he hit .300+.

In a weak 2008 season, Stephan just hit .192 in the regular season, but showed more power by hitting 2 home runs. Also he played his second big tournament for the German national team in the U21 European Championship and earned the award for most runs batted in (10 RBI). Moreover, he was invited to join the men's national team in their series against the French national team. 2009 was his first big season with his new Bundesliga team, Haar Disciples. In 24 games he batted .310 with 5 doubles, 1 homerun and a .408 OBP. He led the southern Bundesliga-1 with 191 putouts, 32 more than runner-up Jens Heymer. He was among the leaders for players 21 or under in average (2nd), RBI (13, 2nd to Maximilian Boldt), hits (27, 1st), runs (13, 3rd), slugging (.402, 3rd), OBP (2nd) and OPS (1st).

Stephan was on Germany's preliminary 40-man roster for the 2009 Baseball World Cup but didn't make the final cut.

Stephan played baseball at Georgia Perimeter College in the US at the same time as a fellow European, Slobodan Gales of Croatia.

Sources[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=Michael_Stephan&oldid=598773"